Holiday traditions
In Russia, master classes on preparing original dishes are organized on this day. Chefs exchange experiences and share cooking secrets. Cooking competitions are held.
On this day, in many cafes and restaurants, the owners hold promotions for their visitors and treat them to original dishes. Catering establishments and amusement parks host exhibitions of culinary products and tastings of pickles. Masters create large-sized dishes and set records that claim to be included in the Guinness Book. Charity events are organized to raise funds, which are sent to orphanages and to provide treatment to children.
About the profession of a cook
What culinary college student doesn’t dream of becoming a famous chef? What does it take for a career in the field of cooking to take place, and for a culinary specialist to be talked about not just as a good chef who knows how to cook, but as a skilled maestro who surprises with his masterpiece dishes.
“What’s so complicated here,” the average person will say: “Study the recipe, cut it, fry it and put it on a plate. The main thing is patience and punctuality.”
Of course, such qualities are not the least important for success. Leave the dish in the pan for a couple of seconds or add a little more salt - and the whole treat is inevitably ruined.
But what about ingenuity, flair, impromptu? After all, it is rare that any real master adheres to the recipe thoroughly. And if you don’t fry the breast, but cut it open and bake it... What happens when we add a little lemon to the sauce... Or maybe decorate the top not with parsley, but with a sprig of tarragon? This is how new recipes and world masterpieces are born.
But for sophisticated experiments, the cook must have excellent taste and a sense of beauty, knowledge of technological processes and product compatibility.
A career does not begin with preparing dishes according to original and complex recipes. Usually, beginners have to run around as apprentices. And only determination and communication skills, responsibility and leadership qualities help to move up a step.
It is impossible to say that such a profession is easy. The specialist has to spend an entire shift, which can sometimes last up to 12–16 hours, on his feet, and in a stuffy, hot room to boot. Speed also plays a significant role. Slow people have no place in the kitchen. In addition, a person involved in cooking must have strong arms and stable hand joints. After all, they have to do all the work with their hands.
Therefore, not every applicant can withstand such a pace and load. Older people can only be found as cooks in the kitchens of catering organizations. In restaurants and cafes that are in demand, the demands on chefs are quite high. And age and the presence of certain diseases play an important role.
Compliance with sanitary standards is also important. The only requirement when hiring is to have a health certificate confirming the absence of infectious and dangerous diseases. But besides this, a kitchen worker must also be a neat person. Hairstyle, clothes, habits - everything is reflected in the image.
It’s interesting, but even having a specialized education is not always the key to success. Some famous masters have made good careers by taking regular culinary courses. A person who devotes himself to such a profession must constantly develop independently, study new technologies, get acquainted with the recipes of different cuisines, and learn to work on new modern equipment.
But if you still plan to become a technologist, chef or production manager, you will have to graduate not just from a lyceum or college, but from a higher educational institution.
It is in such educational institutions that the basics of culinary skills are taught. Students get acquainted with the cuisines of the world, with cooking technologies, with the composition of products, with the influence of nutrition on health, with sanitary standards.
Chefs engaged in self-development attend master classes, complete specialized courses, participate in competitions, exhibitions and even show programs. The most advanced ones try to undergo an internship with eminent maestros or get an education at well-known foreign culinary schools.
Interesting Facts
- Assistant to the ancient Greek god of healing Asclepius, cook Kulina later became the patroness of the art of cooking. It was from her name that the word “cooking” originated.
- The specialty of a cook originated in Rus' in the 11th century. As a science, cooking began to develop only in the 17th century, when the process of spreading food establishments - taverns - began. Then they were replaced by taverns, and later by restaurants.
- In Russia, the first book of culinary recipes (“Brief Cookery Notes”) was written in 1779 by S. Drukovtsev.
- On March 25, 1888, the first culinary kitchen opened in St. Petersburg.
- In France, there is a tradition according to which a chef's hat should have 100 folds. 1 fold equals 1 method of preparing an egg dish.
- According to historical data, the profession of a cook first appeared in the ancient Greek civilization on the island of Crete in 2006 BC. Among the ruler's subjects there was a man whose duties included preparing food for the soldiers.
Eclairs with boiled condensed milk
Eclairs with boiled condensed milk Ingredients
- 125 ml milk
- 100 g butter
- 4 eggs
- 150 g flour
- 1 tsp. Sahara
- 0.5 tsp. salt
- 1 egg and 1 tbsp. l. milk for lubrication
For cream and glaze:
- 1 can of boiled condensed milk
- 100 g sweet cream butter
- 100 g mascarpone
- 25 g powdered sugar with vanilla
- whipping cream 35%
Step-by-step cooking recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Combine the milk, 125ml water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan. Place on the fire and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add all the flour at once and beat with a wooden spoon until you get a thick mass without any lumps of flour.
2. Place the pan on the heat again. While stirring, lightly dry the dough, 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating vigorously with a wooden spoon. The resulting dough should be viscous, smooth and shiny.
3. Using a pastry bag with a star nozzle with a diameter of 1.5 cm, place sausages 6–10 cm long, 3 cm apart, onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, brush them with beaten egg and milk. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Cool.
4. For the cream, beat the butter with the mascarpone until fluffy. Without stopping whisking, gradually add boiled condensed milk. Place the cream into a piping bag fitted with a pointed tip. Make a hole in the side of each eclair with a nozzle and fill with cream.
5. Having filled all the eclairs, prepare the glaze: mix enough cream with powdered sugar to form a thick, flowing mass (start with 1 tbsp, adding 0.5 tsp at a time). Drizzle the glaze over the eclairs and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Toasts
“Congratulations on International Chef's Day! May your life boil like hot broth on the stove, may your career grow like yeast dough, may your success be as lush as whipped cream, and may the breathtaking aroma of love reign in the air of your family!
“On this wonderful October day, the whole world celebrates International Chef's Day. These guys fill our lives with joyful, delicious moments, thereby making us all kinder and better. We want to thank them for all the “goodies” that they come up with and prepare for us. Be happy"!
“On Chef's Day, may the sweetest wishes of all wonderful chefs come true! Let a satisfied visitor always return to you for a new portion of happiness with which you fill your dishes! Happy professional holiday!
Heartfelt congratulations on Chef's Day in prose in your own words
Every person loves to eat tasty and healthy food, but cooking is not always a joy. You have a culinary talent that definitely needs to be put into practice. I want to congratulate you on your professional holiday, dear cook. Let any troubles and difficulties remain in the past, and you will certainly enjoy the treat. I wish you happiness and inspiration, the opportunity for active progress along the right path. May fate allow you to fully enjoy the fulfillment of desires and professional achievements, the discovery of various facets of cooking. I am confident that you will be able to achieve every goal you set and prove your skills to many people. Let your professional activities please you to the fullest, and let your cooking not become boring. Enjoy life and appreciate work, love cooking.
I really don’t want to follow a diet that involves numerous dietary restrictions. Dear chef, you always know how to surprise and delight with your talent and previously acquired skills. Let every day of work provide only numerous opportunities for further development of skills and abilities in professional activities. I wish you joyful everyday life and the opportunity to enjoy your work, implement your professional skills and accumulated knowledge. Let everything help you actively develop in a direction that is becoming closer, more expensive and more important. I know that fate will give you numerous opportunities for development in the art of cooking and will allow you to understand what is the basis for professional success. Congratulations on this truly significant culinary day.
How you want to enjoy delicious and healthy dishes with harmonious taste. However, it is not so easy to prepare them yourself. Dear chef, thank you for the fact that you can achieve your goals in your professional activities and show the bright sides of your creative potential. Let a variety of delicacies always be found on your table, and may life please you not only with meals, but also with comfort, inner harmony, and good mood. I wish you rapid development and achievement of new heights. I believe that a professional like you will definitely achieve success in the culinary activity that he really dreams of. May fate give you numerous opportunities for development and bring positivity. I really want to know that you can successfully develop in a direction close to you, achieve any task and believe in great success. I want to see you as a happy and positive person
Dear chef, you can deftly handle a variety of dishes and, of course, always show your bright potential. You delight me with your capabilities, which are not so easy to describe. I know that you can successfully prepare a variety of dishes and actively move forward in the direction you choose. Please accept my most sincere congratulations on the upcoming holiday, Happy Chef's Day. It is this holiday that must be celebrated brightly and with deep faith in amazing success. May every day bring opportunities for you to realize your potential and further development, achieving brilliant success. I really want to believe that you can become a successful and famous chef. Please live up to my hopes, because you can always successfully cope with the meal and delight your loved ones with it. Enjoy the holiday and think about what will happen next. Congratulations.
Are you ready to celebrate Chef's Day today, which is a truly worthy holiday? In this case, use the chance given by fate itself. Today you can celebrate your professional holiday and enjoy the admiration of your loved ones, because they know and understand how to act in order to support you in any endeavor. Dear chef, you are able to move brightly and rapidly towards your goal if you use the appropriate opportunities. I wish you confidence in success and grandiose achievements, because the potential that is initially inherent in you will certainly be enough for this. Let every day of work and even home cooking delight your heart, make you dance with happiness and believe in a better future. Appreciate fate, which turns out to be possible for the best discoveries. Be happy.
What can you please us with today, dear chef? What dishes were prepared? What lengths are you willing to go to in order to inspire us to learn about culinary skills and understand what worthy dishes are on offer? I know that you have prepared something special and the works of art in the form of your culinary embodiment will certainly touch our hearts. I would like to congratulate you on your special holiday and, of course, wish you only success and confidence in achieving any goal you set. You can actively engage in cooking and achieve any task, realizing your potential. The most important thing is to accept our wishes and most sincere congratulations on your professional day, which should be celebrated today. I believe that you can achieve better heights if you put in a little effort. Congratulations on the holiday that has already arrived. I sincerely wish you happiness!
You chose your special profession, focusing not on the constant vagaries of the stomach, which are natural. You managed to listen to your soul, which corresponds to your potential. Thanks to this approach, you managed to become a talented and famous chef, capable of demonstrating your established skills only at a decent level. Thank you very much for always trying to please us with amazing gourmet delights and confirming the following fact: the wonderful world of cooking is opening up its bright facets. I would like to congratulate you on your professional holiday, which is best celebrated not only with colleagues, but also with your loved ones. Perhaps you will decide to please your household with something special? Moreover, such an opportunity is available to you, my dear chef, because you are ready to successfully move towards realizing your potential in reality. Please accept my most sincere congratulations.
No matter how much time you spend on culinary skills, every task turns out to be successfully achieved. I would like to congratulate you on your professional holiday, Happy Chef’s Day. I know and understand how important it is to celebrate such a holiday, how important it is to find valuable words for congratulations. You can successfully complete any given task, proving that the universe has given you a huge talent, which must definitely be realized while preparing delicious and healthy dishes. The most important thing is to take advantage of what is initially given to you by the Lord, because only he controls the fate and capabilities and skills of every person. Please accept our deepest congratulations on this holiday, which should be celebrated brightly, enjoying the best dishes and amazing comfort. Happiness and inspiration, joy and harmony.
Please tell me what is the best way to prepare a variety of dishes? How can one achieve such amazing heights in culinary skills? I don’t know how difficult it is for you to complete your tasks, but I sincerely believe that you will continue to delight everyone with your enormous potential. Please accept my congratulations on your professional day and, of course, be inspired for success. You may be lucky in solving any task, so believe only in the best and, of course, strive for such valuable and attractive success. I wish you the realization of your dreams and the opportunity to show your best side. My dear cook, so many wonderful data can be found in you and they, of course, will always surprise. I wish you inspiration and bright opportunities for further development, happiness and inner harmony. May every day bring numerous opportunities for advancement in an attractive direction. I wish you happiness.
Dear cook, you can accept congratulations from us today. Of course, I would like to say only the warmest words of congratulations and support. We sincerely hope that today’s holiday, which promises to be bright and unforgettable, will leave only the best impressions. We wish you bright and positive days, inspiration and the desire for real success. You can reach any heights in the shortest possible time, because your character contains strength and perseverance. Let every dream find an opportunity for its realization, and let cooking become the best way to demonstrate your potential and desire to develop your cooking skills. Justify the trust that you have already earned. Let your creative success have more and more positive and important facets. Congratulations on your professional holiday and look forward to a luxurious table.
Present
Book for recording recipes.
A personalized recipe book will make an excellent themed gift. This book will keep the necessary recipes and culinary notes at hand.
Kitchenware.
Dishes, appliances or containers for storing food will be a practical and useful gift for the chef. Before choosing a gift, you need to clarify what culinary utensils a chef needs.
Apron.
An apron with an interesting inscription, drawing or embroidered name will be an original and interesting gift. This accessory will complement the chef's working style.
Kitchen timer.
A kitchen timer is a useful gadget for a professional cook. It will allow you to monitor the cooking time of food and become an assistant in the kitchen.
Simple Chocolate Cherry Pie
Simple Chocolate Cherry Pie
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- cherry – 160 g
- sugar – 50 g
- grated lemon zest – 1 tsp.
- dry red wine – 125 ml
For the test:
- butter – 50 g + a little more for preparing the mold
- sugar – 65 g + a little more for preparing the mold
- chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) – 200 g
- vanilla extract – 2 tsp.
- eggs – 5 pcs.
- flour – 70 g
- salt - on the tip of a knife
Step-by-step cooking recipe
1. Prepare a springform pan with a diameter of 20-22 for baking chocolate cherry pie. Grease it with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
2. Break up the chocolate and place on low heat along with butter and 30 g of sugar. Stirring, heat until the mixture has a homogeneous consistency. Remove from heat, add vanilla extract and let cool.
3. Divide the eggs for the pie dough into whites and yolks. Place the egg whites in the refrigerator until ready to use. Add the yolks one at a time to the chocolate mixture, whisking at low speed. Add flour sifted with salt and mix.
4. Beat the whites with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. The sugar should be completely dispersed in the protein mass.
5. Mix a third of the protein mixture into the chocolate mixture. Then, lightly whisking with a whisk or fork, add the remaining whites. Stir quickly. The chocolate pie dough is ready.
6. Pour the dough into the prepared pan and place in the oven for 35-40 minutes. The top of the finished cake should spring back slightly when pressed. Leave the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
7. Prepare the chocolate pie sauce. Place the cherries, sugar, lemon zest and wine in a small saucepan. Place on the fire and, stirring, bring to a boil. Cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
8. Place the cooled chocolate pie on a large plate and top with cold cherry sauce. Serve immediately. You can decorate with mint or lemon balm leaves.
Competitions
Fruit portrait
To hold the competition, it is necessary to prepare several identical sets of fruits that will correspond to the number of participants. Each participant must use the proposed props to create a portrait of a famous person or one of the guests of the holiday. The winner is the one whose work is the most original.
Spice shop
To hold the competition, you need to prepare jars with various spices. Contestants are blindfolded with tight bandages. Their task is to smell each jar and name what it contains. The winner is the one who never makes a mistake.
Culinary geography
Two teams take part in the competition. The host takes turns naming the countries, and the teams must respond by naming a dish of national cuisine. The team that answers first receives one point. At the end of the competition, the number of points is calculated. The team that scores the most points wins.
What a pastry chef should be able to do
The profession of a pastry chef can combine several professional areas: some specialize exclusively in creating cakes, others deftly work with chocolate - this is a chocolatier, and still others skillfully combine textures in plates, creating amazing signature desserts.
But there are things that every pastry chef should be able to do. For example:
- correctly beat egg whites for mousse and meringue
- bake sponge cakes
- prepare choux pastry for eclairs
- make beautiful jelly
- quickly prepare shortbread dough
- make perfect ice cream and sorbets
- pull out caramel threads
- bake crispy cookies
- prepare chocolate ganache
- glaze fruit
