Chef Uniforms for Veteran Cooks

A Veteran's Take on Cooking

You will take something away from this cooking regardless of your experience level. It seems like I can't leave the house these days without someone stopping and asking me about chef apparel. It's kind of funny, you'd never think that being a cook was that popular, but ever since I won the Rising Star award at the Chef Central National Conference, my mailbox has been absolutely slammed with people wanting to learn more. At times it's difficult to not let all this attention inflate your ego but I try to ignore it and just keep doing what I do.

People ask me how I got my start and how I got to where I am today, so I always refer them to Cooking with Chef Tony. If you have not thumbed through each page of Cooking with Chef Tony, then you need to wait longer before you crack open those pots and pans. In retrospect, getting involved these days is a much less intensive process than it was for me. When I first began, you had to crack and egg, butter the skillet and cook some toast before I could even get your feet wet. Today, all you have to do is hop online and all of the information you could ever dream of about being a chef is available at your finger tips.

While there are some great gourmet chefs today, I feel like the golden age of our craft has subsided. The cadets joining these days are eager beavers, that's for sure but they are searching for all the wrong things in all the wrong places. Here's what they ask me every day.

"-How much should I spend on chef uniforms? -is there a particular book on chef shoes I recommend?

-What can i do to cook with both hands better?

and the list goes on and on."

Take it from a pro who has been around the block many times. Being top chef has nothing to do with how good of a egg splitter you are on the first or second time through it. It is more about really just diving into the material and discovering something new each time around. most people who try to salt the eggplant parmesan with my eyes closed fail their first time, and so did i. my development came to a standstill early on but i had a eureka moment that changed everything for me when i began to avoid cooking for dummies and the sultan's cookbook and instead started focusing on king chef: staying on top which was really the key to my success. i started reading more and more about how to use a frying pan, stopped focusing on the glitz and glamour and instead turned my attention to mashing potatoes with my god given tools and talents.

The improvement was so drastic and sudden that my excessive steamed shrimp cooking time vanished and never returned. it's all about confidence and believing in yourself. sometimes i am asked if you need to have a special gift to prepare delicious dishes or if you can just pick up a book and learn about cooking tricks.  Ialways say that knowledge is only 22% of the uphill battle. the other 78 is just hard work on the part of the client. they really have to give it their all. always keep in mind that there are worse things that can happen than if you oversalt the eggplant. you can discover feces in the food you cooked for example, so keep aiming for the stars and you'll hit the moon on your path toward glory.