What is a Chef with Carla Hall

What is a chef? This is something I've been exploring this season on Chefs Without Restaurants. I'm Chris spear. And on this show, I talk to culinary entrepreneurs and people in the food and beverage industry who aren't working in a traditional restaurant setting. As part of these conversations, I've been asking my guests what it means to be a chef since so much of our discussion about what a chef is relates to restaurants. But this is the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast. So today's answer comes from the one the only Carla Hall. I got to speak with Carla recently for the show, and I'm so excited to release the whole episode. But like I've done with most of the episodes this season, I take this snippet out of the show, and release it here just for a quick opinion of what Carla thinks it means to be a chef, this part will not be in the full episode. So if you listen to this, don't think you don't need to listen to the whole episode. Because when that comes out, you're really gonna want to listen to that one. So I'm sure many of you know of Carla, she was on Top Chef for two seasons, she was a co host on the two. She's got cookbooks, done culinary residencies, and so much more. So I'll keep this intro short. Actually, when this episode comes out, I'm going to be over and Wales and England. But feel free to continue to hit me up at Chefs Without Restaurants on Instagram. And if you really want to get a hold of me, you can always email me at chefs without restaurants@gmail.com. And since I'm gonna be out of the country, I probably won't be promoting this as heavily as I normally do. So I'd love for all of you to share this episode. If you like this, share it, get the word out, I would really love that. And of course, a huge shout out to this week's sponsor, the United States personal chef association. So our mini episode will be coming up right after a word from the USPCA. Over the past 30 years, the world of the personal chef has grown in importance to fulfill those dining needs. While the pandemic certainly upended the restaurant experience, it allowed personal chefs to close that dining gap. Central to all of that is the United States personal chef Association, representing nearly 1000 chefs around the US and Canada. USPCA provides a strategic backbone to those chefs that includes liability insurance, training, communications, certification, and more. It's a reassurance to consumers that the chef coming into their home is prepared to offer them an experience with their meal. USPCA provides training to become a personal chef through our preparatory membership. Looking to showcase your products or services to our chefs and their clients. partnership opportunities are available. Call Angela today at 1-800-995-2138. Extension 705. Or email her at aprather@uspca.com for membership and partner info. So you know, this is the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast, one of the questions I've been asking everyone this season is what does it mean to you to be a chef, you know, as so much of the world identify chef, as someone working in a restaurant, you don't work in a restaurant? So what does it mean to you to be a chef?

Um, for me it is well, you know, it's funny because chef is a manager, they are the head they are the lead, they have the they're the ones who almost like the puppeteer in a restaurant. I feel likewhen my husband gets offended for me when people call me a cook, I'm like, but a chef is a cook. Sometimes a chef isn't a cook, but a cook as a cook, right. So I think in my world than a chef is creating menus and creating experiences, which I still do, creating recipes that are executed in various places. And it is managing a kitchen on a much smaller level. I have been challenged by people who will say so do you have a restaurant? And I'm like no. And they're like so what are you doing now? I you know, they want to they place this value on having a restaurant and because the layperson doesn't see other jobs where chefs or cooks can be they sort of poopoo you and devalue you. Andyou know, it's an eye roll. And in sometimes I feel like I want to educate them. And then I'm like, Well, why? Why? Why do I have to spend some of that as we go, you know, not saying that you but like me

as someone who loves what they do, but I've cooked in retirement communities, which translates to like nursing homes, right? So like people say like, Oh, what do you do? And you tell them you're a chef and then at a retirement community that you kind of get this like as a no you don't understand what I like I get really excited want to explain, you know all the cool things we're doing, but I feel like I've lost them because they just want to hear that I cook at some like Fancy Pants restaurant. Yeah, because they want to be able to have your food. They want to be able to like to taste your food. But yes to that point. I've also run into some chefs who were working in restaurants and I saw them later at events and they are now

work with chefs. And almost apologetically they're like, Yeah, I work here now. And I said, so how's that quality time with your family? They're like, Oh, it's great. I said, yeah. How about those holidays? Like, oh, yeah, so yeah, I said, this is the other side of things. It's not always at a restaurant where you have this joy and balance of life. And it wasn't until almost like just talking to them that they're like, Okay, she's not gonna judge me. But again, it is ego, because when you go to culinary school, it's all geared toward restaurants. You are told this is where you should be. For the most part. I mean, I think I think now, there's food science. There is, you know, research and development, there are recipe testers there, you know, food stylists there all of these other things that people can do. You know, that's why I want to bring some attention to them on the show. I mean, I, I already released over 150 episodes, and they're all people who don't work in restaurants. I mean, I've had a couple because they have like a food truck or something interesting. But they're mostly people doing really interesting things like not in restaurants. And I love kind of highlighting that and what cool things you could do. And hopefully, there's a young person out there somewhere who's like, oh, wow, I never realized that I could work for a company, Dave transit, who's been on my show. He works for Breville Polly science and he travels the world teaching like Michelin star chefs how to use you know, their induction cooktops. Like, yes, so cool. Like, how cool is that? Yeah, yeah, even making a product even, you know, coming out and you decide that you want to do pickles. And, you know, that's your thing. You start at a farmers market and it gets bigger, and then you know, and then you sell it to a store. You know, there are so many outlets for chefs who don't have restaurants. Go to chefs without restaurants.org To find our Facebook group, mailing list and Chef database. The community is free to join. You'll get gig opportunities, advice on building and growing your business and you'll never miss an episode of our podcast. Have a great week.