Visible Fruits of Accomplishment: Stagiaire, Modern Day Apprentices The Hidden Trade of the Kitchen
The Modern Day Stagiaire
The modern day incarnation of the apprenticeship system in the kitchen is more often than not an internship experience of several months, arranged by the prospect’s culinary school. They are generally required to perform menial tasks of preparatory work such as peeling vegetables, straining fish stock and even mopping the floors after service has ended. What is of note, is the importance of being afforded an opportunity to intern in a real life kitchen – the first-hand experience of working behind a line during service.
el Bulli stagiaires and chefs before service, taken from http://www.elbulli.com/
Marc Cuspinera of three Michelin el Bulli,
holds one of the most important positions of the restaurant; he is the in
charge of the stage program. In a restaurant with over forty-five people working
at a time in the kitchen, a whopping thirty-two of these fine cooks were stagiaires
coming from various corners of the world.[1]
Of course the selection process is a grueling phase for Marc, having to weed
through over 3000 applications, all to select the best candidates for el Bulli.
The intricacies of Marc’s role are not
confined to the selection of the candidates. He has to secure student visas, and
convince landlords to rent out a space for his cooks, who in all likelihood
will make a din from knocking off from work at two in the morning.[2]
Marc will be the first contact of any stage that walks through the door of el
Bulii and if they were to ever screw up, he is also the last.
Although Marc is more inclined to accept stagiaires
who has significant work experience, he is willing to concede several spots to students
from the local culinary schools, so as to maintain good public relations. This
he says, “is as many beginners we can handle.”[3]
However, such an experience is a
requirement for these interning chefs. To them, it is an experience that cannot
be fulfilled from merely memorizing recettes or simply from theory classes in their
culinary schools. In a survey done by DIT School of Culinary Arts and Food
Technology, some of the concerns of the undergraduates before their stage phase
was one filled with uncertainty.
“Well my own concerns would be that when I
get over there I’ll be way over my head as far as what I know and what my
skills are. I just don’t know whether they’re going to accept me in straight
away over there. I’m going to be barraged with abuse and I’m not up to the
standard for the first while. I just don’t know.”[4]
The survey concluded with the researcher, Frank
Cullen, stating that for most of the students, the internship served as a good
experience and a bridge for these aspiring cooks to the working world. Integrating
into the host organisation, developing new friendships as well as being able to
experience increased independence, were all widely welcomed by the students.[5]
Cullen also notes in his findings that the
usage of the term ‘stagiaire’ for the interns in the restaurants set the tone
for culinary practice within the kitchen, in turn giving these students the
opportunity to integrate and gain acceptance from the permanent staff.[6]
Like Nikolas Pena, staging is not undeniably
restricted to students of culinary schools. Established chefs have been known
to undertake staging in different restaurants. Over, at the prized modern Latin
restaurant, Seviche, head chef Anthony Lamas - a James Beard award finalist can
often be found carrying a crate of farm fresh produce. Some will be for the
night’s dinner while the rest will be canned and preserved for months down the
road - a skill which Lamas conveniently
picked up while working with food scientist Isolde Aubuchon. He is now the only
chef who is a certified food canner in the state of Kentucky.[7]
Lamas notes that, “Working with a scientist taught me so much about how the way
food is handled and preserved; it is really important to preserving the harvest
and not wasting food.”[8]
Then there are others such as Griffin
Paulin, who’s currently staging as a bartender.[9]
A chef by day and a bartender by night, Paulin, one of the chefs at Ten Tables,
an exclusive rotating gourmet dinner club in Louisville, hopes to open a bar
himself one day. Paulin feels it is essential he learns the trade first,
commenting “I think I’d be a total hypocrite, not to mention foolish, to open a
place that wasn’t indicative of my skillset. Also, how can you manage a place,
manage personalities, if you don’t understand the product, the job, the work?”[10]
These skills that are learnt from staging which
lies outside the traditional culinary school curriculum, is essential for all
cooks to learn and evolve as a means to keep up with the ever-changing world of
food.
LYCHEExMARJORAM
[1] Lisa
Abend, The
Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season at el Bulli, Free Press, 2011. 6.
[4] Frank Cullen, An Investigation in Culinary Life and Professional
Identity in Practice during Internship, DIT School
of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, 2012. 20.
[5] Frank Cullen, An Investigation in Culinary Life and Professional
Identity in Practice during Internship, DIT School
of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, 2012. 31.
[6] Frank Cullen, An Investigation in Culinary Life and Professional
Identity in Practice during Internship, DIT School
of Culinary Arts and Food Technology, 2012. 31.
[7]
Stevens Ashlie, “Why
Award-Winning Chefs Are Still Looking for Unpaid Internships,” Munchies, June
22, 2015. Accessed on
October 29, 2016. https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/why-award-winning-chefs-are-still-looking-for-unpaid-internships
[8]
Stevens Ashlie, “Why Award-Winning Chefs Are Still Looking for Unpaid
Internships,” Munchies, June 22, 2015. Accessed on October 29, 2016.
https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/why-award-winning-chefs-are-still-looking-for-unpaid-internships
[9]
Stevens Ashlie, “Why Award-Winning Chefs Are Still Looking for Unpaid
Internships,” Munchies, June 22, 2015. Accessed on October 29, 2016.
https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/why-award-winning-chefs-are-still-looking-for-unpaid-internships
[10] Stevens Ashlie, “Why Award-Winning Chefs Are Still Looking for
Unpaid Internships,” Munchies, June 22, 2015. Accessed on October 29, 2016.
https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/why-award-winning-chefs-are-still-looking-for-unpaid-internships
