What makes a chef? By definition, “a professional cook, typically the chief cook in a restaurant or hotel,” but what is it really? Does the number of years that you’ve worked in the kitchen matter? What about the caliber of cooking that you deliver? From a line cook to an executive chef to the head of culinary operations for a massive corporate chain, everyone will probably argue something different. Nikos, Yianni, Peter, and Joe are serving up their answers from a back-of-house perspective and answering questions, including:

• When you graduate culinary school, does that automatically make you a chef?
• Do you HAVE to go to culinary school to be a true chef?
• Is doing a stage (pronounced staj) an important part of developing your culinary career?
• Can you be a self-proclaimed chef?
• What is the difference between a cook and a chef?