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In order to understand Culinary Philosophy, we should first understand what culinary is and its relevance to philosophy. Culinary means “related to cooking” and refers to any broad area of interest. So, put simply, culinary refers to the art of preparing, cooking, presenting and serving food. Quite literally, the term Philosophy means "love of wisdom". In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. Philosophical thinking is found in all parts of the world, present, and past. In short, culinary philosophy defines what food is and how cuisine is related to society, to the natural world (including human bodies), and to the supernatural. It is also reflected as one’s Love of wisdom related to cooking. Since “Love of wisdom related to cooking” is a relative term, its intensity and passion vary from person to person, more specifically from chef to chef. And such variation of “Love of wisdom related to cooking” leads to different styles and genres of chefs. Chefs with profound realization of culinary philosophy become legends like Gordon Ramsay, Jemmie Oliver, Allain Ducasse.

The first step of realization of culinary philosophy starts from kitchen and dish washing, cleaning the restaurant round the clock and remember its not easy. The aspiring chefs consider these as maintaining their place of religion. Lots of determination and passion are the fuel to tread the path to become a chef. The ladder is like this:

1. Executive Chef

2. Head Chef (Chef de Cuisine)

3. Deputy Chef (Sous Chef)

4. Station Chef (Chef de Partie)

5. Junior Chef (Commis Chef)

6. Kitchen Porter

Once the doctrine of culinary philosophy is imbibed in chefs, they take the path to excellence. They start thinking about how to improve and improvise the culinary ideas according to their ability. Slowly but surely, in this way Culinary Philosophy starts evolving. And with the advent of new technologies, the chefs get more freedom and inspiration to create new culinary processes.

Food is often used as a means of retaining their cultural identity. People from different cultural backgrounds eat different foods. The areas in which families live and where their ancestors originated influence food like and dislikes. Culture is influenced by food through various ways such as tradition, religion and family. These aspects are what makes us different from others and create a whole new society, as food can influence the way people eat and their religious practices. Food Culture can be defined as the attitudes, beliefs and practices that surround the production and consumption of food. Food Culture incorporates our ethnicity, and cultural heritage and provides a mechanism of communication with others both externally and within our families and communities. From an economic perspective, food is an essential input to ensure a society that can produce goods and services. It is also a main provider of jobs to any economy and drives consumption.

The all-pervasive effect comes into play when Food joins hand with Cuisine through Culinary processes. Depending upon demography, culture, climate and religion cuisines take different form, identity and taste. The primary cuisines in the world are Asian, French and Continental. But each country has its own cuisine which sometimes overlaps with the nearby countries. Traditional cuisine is passed down from one generation to the next. It also operates as an expression of cultural identity as food. Immigrants bring the food of their countries with them wherever they go and cooking traditional food is a way of preserving their culture when they move to new places. It’s a global transfer of culinary wisdom. As a result of such overlapping the Cuisines also start evolving. In musical analogy, it is like mixing Rock with Blues and not being genre specific, it sometimes gives birth to outstanding pieces of work.

For the extraordinary few who tread the road of becoming chefs, they consider the Kitchen as their stage and the kitchen items as their instruments. The top chefs in a kitchen is like the conductor of symphony and the audience wait at the table. A chef imbibed with Culinary Philosophy always thinks very deeply and takes his own course of execution and as a reward sometimes get endowed with Michelin Stars.