Back to the future on International Chefs Day

Capsicum Culinary Studio’s Charl Botha hails the creators, artists and protectors of the food industry in light of International Chefs Day which was recently celebrated.

“Please tell the cook that we will have an extra guest for dinner,” the duke said to the butler.

Although we now find this term a downgrade to our profession, it was in fact the title by which all chefs were called.

Over the years though, the title and importance of cooks have changed and these days being a chef is a very honorable profession – inspiring, creating and changing the way we cook and experience food.

Today we know the names of international greats such as Heston Blumenthal, Julia Child, Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsey, Thomas Keller and Paul Bocuse as well as South African superstars such as Luke Dale-Roberts, Reuben Riffle, Michelle Theron, Jackie Cameron, Adriaan Maree, Lucas Ndlovu and Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen.

All these individuals have their own unique stamp that they imprint onto the younger generation. They are making cooking and eating food not only fun but also exciting and creative.

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But what of those that had to pave the way for these modern day culinary artists?

Let us jump into our time-traveling DeLorean and set the date for 1577.

• One of the first pioneers in the culinary world was Bartolomeo Scappi. With over 1000 recipes, his cookbook Opera Dell’arte del cucinare was the first of its kind ever published. With this he empowered many a cook with the knowledge to create a variety of dishes. For the first time there were standardised recipes aspiring chefs could use to please the lords of their houses and make them stand out amongst their peers.

• Marie-Antoine Carême was the inventor of the iconic chef’s hat. He was also responsible for popularising the a-la-Russe dining experience, where dinner is served via different courses and not all at once. Previously all the food would be packed out on the tables and the guests could eat first or last whatever they wanted.

• Alexis Soyer brought about the idea for the first soup kitchen. He was also responsible for commercialising water refrigerators, cooking with gas and cooking with adjustable temperatures.

• Arguably the most famous food pioneer is Auguste Escoffier, the father of the a-la-carte dining experience. As most chefs learn during training, he was the creator of the Brigade System that was used to streamline and organise work in the modern kitchen. He was the author of the definitive recipes for the five mother sauces (béchamel, velouté, espagnole, sauce tomate, hollandaise), and also lobbied for women to have the right to eat in public.

• Post-WWII, Philip Harben and James Beard were the original trailblazers for the first cooking shows broadcast on television.

All these big names have made it possible for chefs to get to where they are in the 21st century, with an abundance of cooking skills and techniques.

Fast forward to the 70s and 80s and chefs were seen as entrepreneurs as many opened their own restaurants and catering businesses.

In the 90s chefs were viewed as entertainers with television cooking shows becoming more and more popular.

Celebrity chefs were seen cooking and sometimes competing against each other in a variety of shows.

Some were not restaurant owners or qualified chefs but more cooking personalities.

Lately, chefs have become educators and voices of reason.

A new generation of chefs is emerging and includes the likes of Ecuadorian Rodrigo Pacheco, who is actively advocating the importance of environmental awareness and food security and educating people on the importance of fruit and vegetables in nutrition.

Charles Michel from Colombia is promoting the importance of limiting food wastage and warning of the excessive consumption of meat products due to the impact on global warming and destruction of the environment.

In some ways, the future of the planet lies in the hands of the next generations of chefs as more sustainable food sources may need to be found, diets might have to be adjusted and our impact on the environment through the way we eat and what we eat may have to change.

In the future will all our meals be compacted into one pill taken three times a day? Will our diets be more plant-based or even insect-based? Will there be shortages of ingredients and will some of our favourites be extinct or no longer exist? Who knows. We’ll have to jump back into that DeLorean and set the date for around 2123 to find out!

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