Good chefs have to gather factors regarding good health, patience, creativity and imagination Photo: Hoa Sen University
Mr Sanh Ly, Chairman of the HCMC
professional chef association said:” Chefs who learn by gaining experience from
others will lack knowledge of food preparation and preservation, food safety,
chemical products used for cooking or the correct proportions to use. There are
though still many skilled chefs working to extremely high standards in
traditional dishes.
Meanwhile chefs who trained in cooking
schools officially (from three to six months) are usually very well equipped with knowledge as well as
having received an official certificate making it easy for them to find a job
even though their skills and practical experience is limited. On the other
hand, some chefs don’t wish to invest more time in studying and have passion to
develop themselves in restaurants. Chefs
who can cook good dishes make a good salary and don’t care as much about the
knowledge of how to prepare ingredients. They also lack the necessary knowledge
about food hygiene as well.
There are many schools training chefs in
HCM city now and thousands of chefs have graduated. However, there aren’t any
schools specializing in training fully professional chefs. Recently Mint
trained chefs to international standards at their Phu Nhuan District School,
but these are only on a small scale.
Dr Nguyen Nha, Head of the Institute of
Vietnam Cuisine Research said: “Good chefs have to gather elements of health,
patience, creativity and imagination and they have to know how to manage their
team, organize and assign tasks as well as preparing menus, negotiating,
speaking other languages and being passionate about their cooking career. I
used to judge the final exams for graduated chefs in Asia, Europe and Vietnam.
When I asked students how to prepare food, they didn’t know how to respond,
especially on factors reflecting cuisines of different countries.
Fusion cooking is something of a rarity
here whether it is English or Chinese or Vietnamese or any other. The key
reason is that the training program for professional chefs is still very young
and most of the programs don’t focus enough on the features of Vietnam cuisine.
The training is still just general and they don’t have any provision for
teaching languages. Therefore Vietnamese chefs have difficulties in
communicating or exchanging ideas with chefs from other countries.
Job opportunities and income generation for
people who follow a cooking career is very big. A student from the Kitchen
Administration and Management Faculty told us that he just took a part time
job, and his salary was between $150 and $180 per month.
With the situation of needs and status of
current cooking career many food experts worried that it is necessary to unify
the curriculum for a specialized program for chefs over the whole country.
The module on cuisine and culinary culture
should be increased because of the amount of time and number of lectures. In
addition to Vietnam culinary knowledge it is needed to add additional
information regarding the culinary knowledge of not just the region but the
whole world.
Followed
by Quynh Mai
Phu Nu HCM magazine