Comments on: UPDATED Aspiring Chefs: Get Trained By Vetri, Solomonov, Perrier and More

By: Natalie

Natalie — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 02:18:06 +0000

Who do I need to sleep with to get in this program? haha. JK. I don’t want to end up like that lady who offer sex for world series tickets….but seriously? haha

By: pmci

pmci — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:33:47 +0000

The vitriol here is something else. Even if some of the worst things hypothesized about the classes were to turn out to be true, what would be lost to people who participate? You won’t be out any money, and 20 hours is a small time commitment. A “shit show”? At the very worst, you’d get face time with and the opportunity to ask questions of a bunch of local chefs running successful restaurants. And if you haven’t gotten any hands-on experience with, say, butchery – 2 hours won’t teach you everything but it’d be nice to get a start, right? (And, actually, like many things in the kitchen, it follows a general pattern, so if you learn even one animal well you can often extrapolate on your own from there…)

Is this bad solely because you COULD knock on all of these doors and try to stage? I have to think that someone could commit to 20 hours and still do hands-on work at the same time.

By: John Dory

John Dory — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:30:30 +0000

If you simply knocked on the back door of any of the above chef ‘s kitchens and offered to help out, they will most likely accept and feed you.

By: Anon.

Anon. — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:24:48 +0000

@Rory I will go further to say It is actually slightly embarrassing to see chefs of this caliber pimp themselves out for the slightest amount of press especially if they are not getting paid. I cannot for the life of me think that Jean Marie Lacroix who I used to work for for 5 years thinks 10 random people can be trained for 2 hours a piece by 10 chefs to become serious cooks with any kind of potential. Something in this story it inaccurate if there is no exchange of money by anyone involved.

Really does ANYONE need Aimee Olexy to show them how to pair cheese with a fucking condiment?

By: rory

rory — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:44:43 +0000

@ Greg–because you can’t learn basics by training with 10 different chefs for 2 hours a piece. Not at all. It is a name-game, not learning how to cook via the brute force of repitition and being on the line.

In my field, many people go to 1 or 2 day conferences to learn new statistical methods with famous scholars in the field of methodology. I don’t care. Show me how you use them, think about your model, and what it means for the field. Then I care. It’s the same thing.

and again, i ask, how much do the chefs who donate their time to COOK get paid? I ask because I heard the answer was nothing (aside from covering food prices). That’s fucking pathetic if it’s true.

By: this is lame

this is lame — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 01:04:44 +0000

I feel sorry for any ‘aspiring chef’ in philly that tries to/goes to this shit storm.

So Vetri – will you hire someone who completes the ‘Masters Series’ over 6 month stage at Noma?

Horrific

good grief

By: B-Fre

B-Fre — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:23:43 +0000

Hype. This is nothing but pure hype. Cook is a place where wealthy main line lawyers go to eat and drink. No one cares about learning anything at Cook: it’s a fetish of exclusivity. Well, there are some yelptards who buy into all the PR. Shit, the only reason Cook is still in business is because it’s promoted here on Foobooz all the time. It’s Philly Mag’s overly priced prixe fix restaurant. That is all this place is.

By: Anon.

Anon. — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 23:54:56 +0000

@Greg keep drinking the kool aid.
This whole thing is so laughable and if it wasn’t so sad it would be funny.
There is nothing different about this overhyped escapade than taking classes at COOK on a normal basis except it is free.
First of all they are not “Masters Classes” because the word “Masters” refers to continued education by people with some established competence in the field they are studying.This is a situation where a few well known chefs are ostensibly teaching 10 people who clearly do not know how to cook with some ridiculous end goal of creating “philly’s culinary future”.
Philly’s culinary future is working in restaurants now or are going to actual cooking schools like CIA-FCI-Johnson and Wales-Restaurant school-Art Institute.
You guys are so full of yourselves and the idea that this reality crapshow is going to contribute to the high end food scene in any measurable way is the very definition of delusional.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:08:36 +0000

Not sure how Chef Vetri’s huffpo article was anything near the opposite of this…

1. No one cares about your resume…this checks out.
2. Don’t worry about what you get paid…this checks out.
3. Work ethic – this checks out.
4. Learn the basics – yep, still makes perfect sense!
5. Don’t ever think you’re above learning from anyone…ok, are you getting this, yet?!

Do I really need to continue here? Its reasons and people like these Chefs that Philly food scene continues to put out an amazing product and I love seeing it.

By: toki

toki — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 19:09:32 +0000

Chefs get trained by Vetri, Solomonov…taunted by Perrier