 |
| |
Attention All Cooks! Post your Cook-Houskeeper stories and experiences from your household, to the World!
Cooks or Chefs are household staff members responsible for food preparation. The term can refer to the head of kitchen staff in a great house or to the housekeeper, a far less prestigious position involving more physical labour.
In English great houses, they traditionally have a female; today's residences may employ a chef who is of either gender.
He or She is responsible for the preparation of daily meals and menus, as well as menus for parties and other special occasions. He or She is also responsible for the ordering of food, the maintenance of the kitchen and for keeping accounts with local merchants. The position reports directly to the lady of the house or sometimes to the housekeeper. |
The chef ensures supervises all kitchen staff. In large households, especially at a noble or royal court, this comprises an elaborate hierarchy, at the bottom of which come the kitchen boys (despite the name not always minors), in the largest households even further subdivided, perhaps the lowliest position being that of spitboy or turnbrooch, who had to remain close to the hot fire to turn the roasting meat; there were six at Hampton Court palace in Henry VII's reign.
There can be occasional staff conflicts over who supervises between staff, who may have duties that bring them into his or her realms of the housekeeper and the butler.
In the hierarchy of domestic service, a chef usually earned his or her position through apprenticeship, perhaps beginning in service as a kitchen maid.
Household management is the act of overseeing the organizational, financial, and day-to-day operations of a house or estate. It differs from housekeeping, which consists of the physical maintenance and cleaning of a house.
Today's cooks are likely to have spent years in domestic service in different households, or to have gone to culinary school. Few modern families can afford retinues of servants, so he or she is often expected to be a chef-housekeeper, responsible for cleaning as well.
|
|
