Top Chef – Is attitude a key ingredient in a kitchen?

“Too many cooks spoil the broth”, this very proverb, if taken literally shows how much team coordination is required in a cooking place. I have never been to a kitchen where more than a single person is in charge of cooking, even in the Sushi restaurants where the Sushi Chef is assigned to an entire table, it’s his day for the art of game. In rest of the places, the kitchen is a black box. What matters is on the plate, you don’t even care if your palates make a dozen cooks betting on their art of culinary. But whatever it might be behind the scene, evidently all it takes to bring out a plate of delicious and desirable food is precision. Rightness in measurement, timing, procedure, none can be ignored. This clearly shows if there is more than one mind working in a kitchen, coordination, at no price, can be negotiated.

Lately, I have been very much into the Top Chef show on BravoTV. For those who don’t know about it, it’s a reality show based on a culinary competition. The season starts with 12 chefs from various places, with in-depth formal education in one or more major streams of culinary expertise. In every episode, a challenge is announced and the rules are set. I must say, it must be taking a lot of thinking and planning for each of the chefs to compete with their dish. At the end of the competition, one of the contestants will be eliminated and rest all will move to the next challenge round.

In one of the challenges, the chefs had no idea where the competition is going to be held and they had to prepare breakfast for 10 (am not sure of this number) hungry athletes, they had no idea what kind of facilities/equipment they avail in the challenge spot. On the day of competition, they wake up at the ungodly hour of 3AM in order to be in Malibu, and the surprise waits for them there. They had to cook breakfast for 100 hungry surfers on a sand top grill. Few of the competitors simply freak out, they were just no prepared for it, and their breakfast needed some direct heat that was not available. Nonetheless, most of them came up with very creative and seemed-delicious varieties of breakfast. It sure was hell of a challenge. All the challenges, so far, are equally full of surprise and provided the contestants enough opportunities to show their culinary expertise. And all of them, brought out so much of surprises, the inventions on spot were endless.

Well, that was a big introduction, shows my immaturity in writing skill. Now, talking of the competition, one strong observation was attitude. Of the 12 contestants, there was this guy with hairdo that did not belong to this century, yet, very catchy. He, without much doubts, is incredibly handsome and can be noticed in a huge crowd, though his odd experimental style sometimes make you frown your brows, but you cannot ignore him. About his cooking skill, I believe he is strongly imaginative, creative (except for the recurring use of foam in all dishes, where did he learn to do that?) and blessed with an extraordinary sense of presentation. That could easily make him a perfect chef. But his team acknowledges him for something else; he is the target-of- hatred of his fellow chefs,
In many episodes few of them have mentioned on their being patient or their trial to ignore Marcel, but eventually they give up. No episode ended without someone yelling at him after holding his nerve for as long as he could. For example, in one of the episodes, he offered to help a contestant, and spoilt her Brule. It cannot be proved if it was an honest mistake or it was intentional, but even if he is given benefit of doubt for this one, there are many more of such kinds. Like last episode in Hawaii, one of the very talented and so far, the contestant with the straightest attitude (Elia, per me, is the finest in the cadre, a perfectionist in the kitchen and an admirable team player), had her boiler on a stove, and without consulting anyone, Marcel decided to move it aside and put his pot on the stove. Ironically, the judges don’t even entertain such complaints if the dish turns out good (and the effort you put to bring it to that point from a point far below where it actually should have goes unnoticed). One of the judges said “we are here to judge your food, not your behavior in kitchen”.

Sure, this was a culinary competition where only the taste, originality and presentation score. If the food is not good, it will never sell, if it’s good, no one gives a damn to what a jerk the chef is. And the judges have been making it clear. The initial 7-8 episodes were purely team work based where teams were formed, but the judgment was mostly done on individual performance, but it has been loosely mentioned that team work counts. And so far, in most of the episodes, Marcel’s inability to cooperate with his fellow chefs, tendency to goof up others’ recipes, have been reported. Yet, he made it to the finale. I have a strong feeling that a person with that strong imagination, culinary idea, and ability to implement can surely make it to the TOP Chef title, but does that mean it’s the end result that counts, even at the cost of jeopardizing others’ venture? Eventually it’s getting clear in all fields that what eventually matters is what we offer to the customer. Even if we manipulate at work to make our work look more special and better in quality, and thanks to the colleagues who still stick to the morale lessons of ethical way of work, if we can sell our soup, we are the TOP Chef.