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The rich history that ties the first chefs, restaurants and Michelin stars

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The first chef ever came up as soon as mankind learnt how to lit fire. Human race started cooking and gradually they switched over from raw eating to cooked food. It took several centuries to transform the process “burn and eat” to be “cook and eat”. During the regime of old dynasties, the well to do strata of the society was never involved in cooking. Mainly cooking was assigned to the slaves. As the civilization progressed those cooks attracted some honor from the society as the human race is hardwired to like good foods. The emperors, kings and the elite class started to engage their private cooks.

Among many other major things, the evolution of civilization contained the seed of “Cooking”. Cooking also started to evolve according to the demography, culture, religion and climate. But till such time cooking was just a job not organized or structured. The first organized and structured approach to cooking was made by Georges-Auguste Escoffier, (born October 28, 1846, Villeneuve-Loubet, France—died February 12, 1935, Monte Carlo, Monaco), French culinary artist, known as “the king of chefs and the chef of kings,” who earned a worldwide reputation as director of the kitchens at the Savoy Hotel (1890–99) and afterward at the Carlton Hotel, both in London. His name is synonymous with classical French cuisine. From this point onwards the word “Chef” came in to being. The word Chef is derived from the term "chef de cuisine".

The first restaurants in modern history were

  1. Boulanger, in Paris 1765 - This was the first restaurant in the modern sense of the term.
  2. Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau in Paris, 1766
  3. Beauvilliers, in Paris 1782 - Founded by Beauvilliers in 1782 in the Rue de Richelieu, called the Grande Taverne de Londres.

Beauvilliers introduced the novelty of listing the dishes available on a menu and serving them at small individual tables during "fixed hours" Although historically the word “Menu” seems to have been started from here, it is interesting to mention that the first ever “Menu” was made by Sumerians Before Christ on a clay tablet and that menu was for the training of the priests to dedicate the prepared foods to the gods. Till such time the Restaurants were the main work place for the Chefs. The evolution of the society earmarked the category of Chefs into two broad segments.

  1. Private Chef
  2. Personal Chef

The subtle but huge difference

A Private Chef is employed by a single household on a full-time basis, cooking every meal, every day. Private chefs are part of the household staff; they may live on or off the premises.

A Personal Chef prepares meal for multiple clients, either in a client's kitchen or out of a commercial kitchen. Personal Chefs also do shopping for all ingredients. They prepare meals in a client's kitchen – sometimes using their equipment but often providing their own, such as a professional set of knives. They also leave detailed instructions for clients for reheating and/or freezing and cleaning up utensils used for cooking.

Private Chefs are salaried personnel and too costly to be affordable to common people while the Personal Chefs are so affordable by common people. Personal Chefs are available on demand. The Private Chefs can’t cope up with the globalization of menu as the skill set for such wide variety of menu can never be possible for a single person to achieve. Here comes the role of Personal Chef, one can hire a Personal Chef with the mastery in a particular cuisine. Personal Chefs are the by-product of the need of the society which has been fuelled by the Digital Market place such as Getchefnow. Before the Digital era it was quite difficult to find a personal chef -with acquaintance being the only the way out. But now the digital platform has opened the highway to get any Personal Chef for any particular cuisine. This digital platform also enabled the Personal Chefs to reach out to the clients and earn a descent income.

Of restaurants, Michelin stars and a new way forward

The digital platforms like Getchefnow liberated the Personal Chefs from restaurant dependency where they were often under paid - and at the same time customers also over paid. Until now, to celebrate a birthday or anniversary the only way was eating out to a restaurant or take away package from a restaurant. Dining at a restaurant is costly and you never know the health standards maintained at those restaurants alongside the ingredients they use. Only a Michelin Star restaurant can assure you on this. The Michelin Star procedure is a very strict one and very few restaurants hold such stars and obviously the cost is so unaffordably high. Here are a few Michelin star restaurants where the prices are nothing short of astronomical -

  1. Benu, San Francisco
  2. Royal Champagne Hotel
  3. The Noma Guide to Fermentation
  4. Etheliya Hananova

At the other end of the spectrum are - takeaway boxes and mealkits. These takeaway boxes and mealkits never go with any celebration. The icing on the cake is Personal Chef. Only Personal Chefs can deliver you the Michelin Star standard at very affordable prices. You define the cuisine and ingredients (organic or non-organic), the Personal Chef does the shopping, cooking, plating and cleaning up leaving your kitchen spotless. You celebrate your birthday or anniversary at your cosy home and let the Personal Chef create a different ambience. The presence of a Personal Chef enhances the feeling how much you care for the guests.

On a closing note, There are hundreds of recipe sites in the internet with required ingredients and directions how to cook. As are packaged ingredients for some cuisines with recipe of different brands. However, it remains to be said that it's only the cooking prowess of a Personal Chef that the flavors, taste and experience from the food is brought up to the next level.