Like poets, most chefs had to die to become celebrities until Paul Bocuse and his pals launched nouvelle cuisine in the early `70s and revitalized French cuisine. The subsequent ”new American cuisine” movement in this country brought culinary stardom to Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, Paul Prudhomme and others famous and rich.
But the era of viewing chefs as celebrities with the accompanying panorama of entrepreneurial opportunities is ending. This is a time of struggle and belt-tightening for restaurants, especially those small, ambitious, creative enterprises that have brought America`s culinary reputation to a new level.
”Things change,” says Gordon Sinclair, owner of Gordon restaurant.
”Creative directors were flying high in the advertising business in the
`70s. Now no one talks about them.”
That bit of truth has not been lost on Chicago`s current crop of young chefs.
Geoff Felsenthal, executive chef of the Bacin organization, which runs Bacino`s pizza restaurants, Sweet Bean Cafe and Bella Vista restaurant, says he has a great deal of creative freedom and loves his work. But at 35 he has abandoned the ”strong vision” of owning his own restaurant and says he wouldn`t advise his 2-year-old son to pursue a career as a chef.
Age of discovery ending
Michael Smith, 32, recently named chef of Gordon restaurant, says there`s so much happening now among chefs experimenting with new food combinations who`s to say it won`t keep happening?”
And although Jonathan Fox, the 27-year-old executive chef of Papagus, works under the corporate umbrella of the ultra-successful Lettuce Entertain You Organization, he is cautious:
”I think the situation is changing for chefs. Competition is fierce. Investors won`t gamble. We all need to be much more conscious of costs. It`s harder to be carefree, play with exotic ingredients, grab attention.”
Depending on your source, it is ”the end of the age of discovery, the closing of the frontier” (in the words of renowned chef Mark Miller of Sante Fe`s Coyote Cafe and Washington`s Red Sage) or a moment when ”despite the economy, demand for our culinary graduates has never been higher” (according to Kendall College director of career development Suzanne Mynard).
Like many young MBA graduates who had hoped to soar to high management positions but are still looking for jobs, young chefs, many of whom earned degrees at respected culinary schools, face the prospect of a life without book contracts, consulting fees, endorsements and their face-like Paul Newman`s-on a line of food products.
Chefs who once were the focus of restaurants could be moved to the back burner as restaurants begin to cater to savvy, outspoken diners who eat out less often and are conscious of price, diners who are eager to relax with simple but flavorful food instead of worshiping the fussy fare at a temple of gastronomy.
And the result could be that chefs of tomorrow may face less opportunity to experiment, fewer resources in terms of ingredients and staff, and a public unwilling to pay whatever staff, and a public unwilling to pay whatever is asked for novel creations.
Restaurants calling themselves bistros-suggesting a casual ambience and familiar, even homey food and unpretentious wines at moderate prices-are doing very well. Last year there was a raft of restaurant openings by Chicago chef/ owners, among them Tuttaposto, Gyspy, Vinci, Relish. This fall there have been few; at some, such as Bossa Nova, the chef is in the background.
”The focus of Bossa Nova is entertainment, not the chef,” says designer Mark Knauer. ”It`s aimed at the hip niche. That`s a trend that may not last, but a lot of restaurants are trying to ride it.”
Mark Miller predicts there will be fewer opportunities for young chefs to mount showcase restaurants. ”The learning curve has gone way up in terms of what a chef has to know about business and management,” he says. ”My first restaurant cost $75,000 to open (in 1975), the second (in 1979) $300,000. Coyote Cafe cost $600,000 in 1987, and Red Sage (opened earlier this year) is a $5 million investment. It makes your head spin. There`s no room for error, for learning on the job. Now both investors and paying customers are less willing to take risks, so it`s not so easy for young cooks to move into the spotlight.”
Jonathan Fox agrees: ”Part of why chefs became so visible was the ability to run the entire restaurant, to cook for themselves, not the public, and to grab attention with new dishes using exotic ingredients. ”
Adds Gordon Sinclair, a restaurateur who has groomed a full stable of star chefs, ”Restaurant investors have gone back to clipping coupons, and some fairly credible chefs are on sidelines doing books or consulting. As a result, there seems to be an oversuppply of chefs.”
In short, the times are changing, and a new generation of emerging American chefs is going to have to deal with a less brave new world.
How will they do that?
One portent is the recent formation of the Chicago Chefs` Alliance. Nine talented young local chefs have formed a group, as Jonathan Fox puts it, ”to get to know others in our line of work, share experiences, talk about day-to- day problems and use our collective talents to help others.”
Joe Doppes, the chef who owns the Taylor Street Bistro with his wife, Annie, started the ball rolling.
”I`ve been in Chicago since 1987,” he says, ”and I really don`t know very many people. When you put in a 12-hour day, six days a week, it`s hard to talk about what you go through and have people relate to the hours, stress, your love for the work. Other chefs know. They know different cuisines than I do, have different styles. I found myself wanting to get to know some of them on a personal basis, to be able to call them and get some input.
”The nine of us who have gotten together want to cooperate on helping apprentices, sharing purveyors and doing charity work. I see a trend of restaurant people coming together to form associations for joint promotion and fund-raising events.”
Concerns for the future reverberate well below the chef level. What is the sag in high-end dining doing to job prospects for culinary school graduates?
”Demand is actually increasing,” says Kendall College`s Mynard. ”In this year the job per graduate ratio has gone from 3 to 1 up to 5 to 1. The biggest growth area is corporate dining. Contract management firms such as ARA and Marriott want chefs for everything from employee cafeterias to corporate dining rooms.
Jimmy Schmidt, the Detroit-based chef whose reputation brings him applications from all over nation, comments, ”Our young cooks are fairly inspired. They see being a chef as a profession. I think that`s validated by the salary and reputation America chefs have earned.”
”New cooks want to get to the top too soon,” says Peter Schonman, in dissent. The whiz-kid chef of Vivere, who is only 28 but already has put in more than a decade behind the range, says ”it`s very hard to find kids who want to work and learn. It seems to me fewer and fewer of them want this as a serious career.”
Sinclair sees the employment situation for experienced cooks tightening up as owners try to save money by hiring fewer sous chefs. This will lead to more responsibility-and pressure-for the junior cooks.
All the chefs agree that one thing that hasn`t changed are the demands of the job. As Debbie Gold, chef of Mirador, puts it, ”You only learn so much in school. Cooking is hands-on work.” Adds Michael Smith, her husband, ”to become a real cook, you have to live in the kitchen. Some places have eight-hour shifts, but you have to be willing to put in 12- to 14-hour days.”
There has been a healthy evolution in one area, however. Sexism in the kitchen is fading here, if not in Europe. According to Jonathan Fox, American kitchens are more open to minorities and women than they ever have been. The opportunities are there. It`s important to us as American chefs and healthy for industry.”
Young cooks, these chefs agree, come from cooking schools with a good deal of knowledge but too little training in basic, classic cooking techniques and too little respect for the repetition necessary to obtain the level of consistency today`s customers expect.
”It`s no longer enough to dazzle them with products they haven`t seen before, like baby vegetables and free-range poultry,” observes Jonathan Fox. ”The direction we`re going is toward simplistic, very down-to-earth cooking. That calls for patience and discipline.”
Those who can`t stand the heat and look on from outside the kitchen tend to agree that the sluggish economy has caused uncertainty, even gloom, and has led to restaurant cutbacks and closings. But if the era of chef worship is ending, it appears the craft has been permanently upgraded and will continue to provide opportunities for young cooks.
Says Jeremiah Tower, chef-owner of San Francisco`s Stars: ”Fame may not come the same way in years ahead, but I see an incredible future for young restaurant chefs. It rests on exploiting the link between taste and health.”
