Hypothetical situation: Your kitchen services a boarding school with
children from around the world. The headmaster has told you to hire seven
chefs and each specialize in one of the seven major cuisines of the world.
Each chef runs the kitchen once a week and uses the rest of the week to
prepare for next time. The idea is to give the vast majority of the
students from all the different parts of the world a weekly taste of home as
well as expose them to other cuisines. Having said all that...

What would be considered the seven cuisines these chefs would cover?

My guess is:
European (from Iceland to Russia to Italy)
African
Middle Eastern
South Asia (India region)
East Asia (from China to Japan to Singapore)
Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
American

Scott Jensen
--
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Do you want chefs from all over, or chefs from all over with great cuisines?

I'm not sure what a great cuisine is, exactly. I guess that it's got to
have a wide variety of main and minor ingredients, and cooking techniques,
and tasty dishes from formal banquets to hearty rustic food. On that basis,
we can start with France and China, and don't ask me to rank order them.
Well, maybe put the French a little ahead for the variety of breads and
desserts.

After that we go to the second tier. Here, I think we have to look at
places that have the widest variety of fresh ingredients and have developed
a cuisine that makes the most of nature's bounty. Let's say Japan, Italy,
and California . California cuisine doesn't travel that well, except to
areas with a Mediterranean climate and a similarly wide variety of fresh
ingredients. So, if the boarding school is in Switzerland, there's no point
in bringing in Alice Waters (except maybe in the summer). The same is
probably true of Japanese cuisine, especially if a variety of fresh seafood
is not readily available.

At this point, pretty much all the techniques have been covered. For the
remaining cuisines, I would look for interesting local ingredients. I would
look for a Tropical climate chef who used a wide variety of chiles and other
spices in the highly seasoned dishes of India, Latin America, and the
Caribbean (Mexican and Indian food are surprisingly similar, especially if
you think of tortillas as chapattis).

Finally, for my magnificent 7, I think I would look for Mr or Mrs Meat - a
chef who specialized in grilled, roasted, and slow-cooked BBQ meat,
including Argentine beef (and Brazilian churrasco), African game, Aussie/New
Zealand lamb and goat, and pig from just about anywhere.




--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Louis Cohen
Living la vida loca at N37° 43' 7.9" W122° 8' 42.8"


"Scott T. Jensen" wrote in message
...
Hypothetical situation: Your kitchen services a boarding school with
children from around the world. The headmaster has told you to hire seven
chefs and each specialize in one of the seven major cuisines of the world.
Each chef runs the kitchen once a week and uses the rest of the week to
prepare for next time. The idea is to give the vast majority of the
students from all the different parts of the world a weekly taste of home
as
well as expose them to other cuisines. Having said all that...

What would be considered the seven cuisines these chefs would cover?

My guess is:
European (from Iceland to Russia to Italy)
African
Middle Eastern
South Asia (India region)
East Asia (from China to Japan to Singapore)
Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
American

Scott Jensen
--
Like a cure for A.I.D.S., Alzheimer, Parkinson, & Mad Cow Disease?
Volunteer your computer for folding-protein research for when it's idle.
Go to http://www.distributedfolding.org/ to sign up your computer.

On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 22:36:56 -0500, "Scott T. Jensen"
wrote:

Hypothetical situation: Your kitchen services a boarding school with
children from around the world. The headmaster has told you to hire seven
chefs and each specialize in one of the seven major cuisines of the world.
Each chef runs the kitchen once a week and uses the rest of the week to
prepare for next time. The idea is to give the vast majority of the
students from all the different parts of the world a weekly taste of home as
well as expose them to other cuisines. Having said all that...

What would be considered the seven cuisines these chefs would cover?

My guess is:
European (from Iceland to Russia to Italy)
African
Middle Eastern
South Asia (India region)
East Asia (from China to Japan to Singapore)
Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
American

Scott Jensen

Does American include Mexico?

modom

"Scott T. Jensen" wrote in message
...
Hypothetical situation: Your kitchen services a boarding school with
children from around the world. The headmaster has told you to hire seven
chefs and each specialize in one of the seven major cuisines of the world.
Each chef runs the kitchen once a week and uses the rest of the week to
prepare for next time. The idea is to give the vast majority of the
students from all the different parts of the world a weekly taste of home
as
well as expose them to other cuisines. Having said all that...

What would be considered the seven cuisines these chefs would cover?

My guess is:
European (from Iceland to Russia to Italy)
African
Middle Eastern
South Asia (India region)
East Asia (from China to Japan to Singapore)
Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
American


These are major cuisines? Why not just collapse S. Asia, E. Asia, and the
Pacific into "Asia and the Pacific", then you'll have room for South
American and Antarctican.

Peter

Once you get past the traditional "major" cuisines...

French
Chinese
Indian
Italian

....it tends to get a bit tricky to narrow down all of the possible choices,
combinations and permutations to just seven. To get the most bang for your
buck, you're going to need some chefs with pretty broad repertoires to pull
it off. Off the top of my head, here's what I think I'd go with:

1. Asian/Pacific Rim (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Aussie,
etc.)

2. Eastern European (including Russian, and maybe Austrian(?))

3. Western European (German, French, Italian, Austrian(?))

4. Asian Subcontinental (Indian, Bangladeshi, etc.)

5. Latin (including Spanish, Mexican, South and Central . American,
Caribbean)

6. American (including the traditional regional foods, California cuisine,
Soul Food, etc.)

7. Middle Eastern/Mediterranean/African (This would include Kosher and Halal
cooking)


"modom" wrote in message
news
On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 22:36:56 -0500, "Scott T. Jensen"
wrote:

Hypothetical situation: Your kitchen services a boarding school with
children from around the world. The headmaster has told you to hire
seven
chefs and each specialize in one of the seven major cuisines of the
world.
Each chef runs the kitchen once a week and uses the rest of the week to
prepare for next time. The idea is to give the vast majority of the
students from all the different parts of the world a weekly taste of home
as
well as expose them to other cuisines. Having said all that...

What would be considered the seven cuisines these chefs would cover?

My guess is:
European (from Iceland to Russia to Italy)
African
Middle Eastern
South Asia (India region)
East Asia (from China to Japan to Singapore)
Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
American

Scott Jensen

Does American include Mexico?

modom

"Scott T. Jensen" writes:


Hypothetical situation: Your kitchen services a boarding school with
children from around the world.

Oddly enough I know a woman who went to a Swiss boarding school whose student
body was international. One Friday a month the dinner was whale meat. To this
day she can't abide fish of any sort.

Trust me, the nuns were more interested in developing minds and souls than in
bellies.

IMO seven cuisines aren't enough. I like the idea another poster had about
using chefs who specialized in various aspects of cuisine - meat, vegetables,
breads, etc - but even that would require the chefs to collaborate on a menu -
somehow I can't see say, Friday's menu looking like
Breakfast - meat
Lunch - meat
Dinner - meat

Too much like spam, spam, eggs and spam.

1. East Asia
2. South Asia
3. Southern Europe/Mediterranean (includes Italy/Greece)
4. Northern Europe (Alsatian chef, swings between French and German
5. Spain (preferably a Latin/Southern American chef trained in classical
Spanish cuisine)
6. Arabic/North African
7. Eastern Europe/Balkans

American (US) I'd skip. Given our cuisine is largely derived from successive
waves of physical and cultural immigrants it shouldn't be hard for any of the
other chefs to cover that particular section of the water front.

Best,

Marc
6.
5.

modom wrote in
news
On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 22:36:56 -0500, "Scott T. Jensen"
wrote:

What would be considered the seven cuisines these chefs would
cover?

My guess is:
American

Does American include Mexico?

modom

Or even South American?

I see five great cuisines:

French
Italian
Chinese
Thai
Indian

Even those break down by regions, but they are bodies of knowledge
that work from principles and have influenced other cultures/nations
to adopt these principles.

This is a broad statement, but I think a bit more easily workeable
than the Seven Seas approach above.

It is of course open to debate.

--

Il faudrait que tout le monde réclame
Auprès des autorités
Une loi contre toute notre indifférence
Que personne ne soit oublié

Carla Bruni, «Tout le monde»

"Scott T. Jensen" wrote in message
...
Hypothetical situation: Your kitchen services a boarding school with
children from around the world. The headmaster has told you to hire seven
chefs and each specialize in one of the seven major cuisines of the world.
Each chef runs the kitchen once a week and uses the rest of the week to
prepare for next time. The idea is to give the vast majority of the
students from all the different parts of the world a weekly taste of home
as
well as expose them to other cuisines. Having said all that...

What would be considered the seven cuisines these chefs would cover?

My guess is:
European (from Iceland to Russia to Italy)
African
Middle Eastern
South Asia (India region)
East Asia (from China to Japan to Singapore)
Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
American


It seems wrong to lump all European cuisines together. I would say , for
example, that Italian has more in common with Middle Eastern than it does
with Scanadanavian.

Likewise, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai are all very diferent.

Likewise I bet that standard Australian fare is worlds apart from
traditional Polynesian.

Bottom line? It's a silly question.


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 22:36:56 -0500, "Scott T. Jensen"
wrote:

Hypothetical situation: Your kitchen services a boarding school with
children from around the world. The headmaster has told you to hire seven
chefs and each specialize in one of the seven major cuisines of the world.
Each chef runs the kitchen once a week and uses the rest of the week to
prepare for next time. The idea is to give the vast majority of the
students from all the different parts of the world a weekly taste of home as
well as expose them to other cuisines. Having said all that...

What would be considered the seven cuisines these chefs would cover?

My guess is:
European (from Iceland to Russia to Italy)
African
Middle Eastern
South Asia (India region)
East Asia (from China to Japan to Singapore)
Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
American


I would quibble about the last two. Oz, NZ, and USA have some of the
most brilliiant chefs working today, but this has been the case for
such a limited time that their cuisines are largely synthetic.



Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a


Capsizing under chute, and having the chute rise and fill without tangling, all while Mark and Sally are still behind you

You'd definitely have to have a British chef. If the English cooking is so
abyssmal (look I just go by what I am told) it has to be included to get the
kids to appreciate the other cuisines.

-Ginny
With tongue planted firmly in cheek.

"Virginia Tadrzynski" wrote:
You'd definitely have to have a British chef. If the English
cooking is so abyssmal (look I just go by what I am told)
it has to be included to get the kids to appreciate the other
cuisines.

That's why I included American in the original seven I thought might be it.

Kidding. Just kidding.

Scott Jensen
--
Got a business question, problem, or dream?
Discuss it with the professionals that hang out at...
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"Louis Cohen" wrote:
Do you want chefs from all over, or chefs from all over
with great cuisines?

They can all hail from Nuuk, Greenland for all I care. They just need to be
considered really good cooks (a.k.a. chefs) for a particular cuisine. And
having the credentials to back up that claim. Perhaps graduating from one
or more cooking schools with an emphasis in those cuisines, working at
5-star restaurants similarly specialized, and/or winning cuisine-specific
cooking contest.

The secret ingredient for this Iron Chef contest is ... *dramatic drum roll*
.... Spam!

Scott Jensen
--
Got a business question, problem, or dream?
Discuss it with the professionals that hang out at...
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"Snapper" wrote:
Once you get past the traditional "major" cuisines...

French
Chinese
Indian
Italian

...it tends to get a bit tricky to narrow down all of the
possible choices, combinations and permutations to
just seven. To get the most bang for your buck, you're
going to need some chefs with pretty broad repertoires
to pull it off.

And that raises the question about finding such chefs. How would you and
others go about that? Is there a cooking magazine that all chefs around the
world read? Perhaps a select few? Or would there be a better way to make
such chefs aware of such job openings?

Off the top of my head, here's what I think I'd go with:

1. Asian/Pacific Rim (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai,
Vietnamese, Aussie, etc.)

2. Eastern European (including Russian, and maybe Austrian(?))

3. Western European (German, French, Italian, Austrian(?))

4. Asian Subcontinental (Indian, Bangladeshi, etc.)

5. Latin (including Spanish, Mexican, South and Central .
American, Caribbean)

6. American (including the traditional regional foods, California
cuisine, Soul Food, etc.)

7. Middle Eastern/Mediterranean/African (This would include
Kosher and Halal cooking)

Thanks for your take on this. Seeking to better understand your recommend,
I'd appreciate your take on MrAoD's seven-cuisine recommend and your
thoughts on his evaluation of the American cuisine. His recommend being:

1. East Asia
2. South Asia
3. Southern Europe/Mediterranean (includes Italy/Greece)
4. Northern Europe (Alsatian chef, swings between French
and German
5. Spain (preferably a Latin/Southern American chef trained
in classical Spanish cuisine)
6. Arabic/North African
7. Eastern Europe/Balkans

American (US) I'd skip. Given our cuisine is largely derived
from successive waves of physical and cultural immigrants it
shouldn't be hard for any of the other chefs to cover that
particular section of the water front.

Scott Jensen
--
Got a business question, problem, or dream?
Discuss it with the professionals that hang out at...
misc.business.consulting, misc.business.marketing.moderated
misc.business.moderated, and misc.entrepreneurs.moderated

"MrAoD" wrote:
"Scott T. Jensen" writes:
Hypothetical situation: Your kitchen services a boarding school with
children from around the world.

Oddly enough I know a woman who went to a Swiss boarding school
whose student body was international. One Friday a month the dinner
was whale meat. To this day she can't abide fish of any sort.

Humorous story. I didn't know there was such a demand for whale meat. :-)

Trust me, the nuns were more interested in developing minds and souls
than in bellies.

Yeah, teaching nuns tend to be that way. My hypothetical school wouldn't
be. It would view excellent food as one of the way to make the student body
happy. Happy to be attending the school and happy as they do their studies.

IMO seven cuisines aren't enough.

How chefs (separate cuisines) would be enough?

I like the idea another poster had about using chefs who
specialized in various aspects of cuisine - meat, vegetables,
breads, etc - but even that would require the chefs to
collaborate on a menu - somehow I can't see say, Friday's
menu looking like
Breakfast - meat
Lunch - meat
Dinner - meat

Too much like spam, spam, eggs and spam.

Even though Spam is a magical meat?

The idea is to give complete control over the kitchen to the chef on the day
they're to work to create as they see fit and not have a battle of the chef
egos. That and to break up the monotony the same food all the time and/or
done with same mindset/approach. A chef has a certain style in their
cooking and that tends to come through no matter what they cook, especially
if it isn't their main cuisine.

1. East Asia
2. South Asia
3. Southern Europe/Mediterranean (includes Italy/Greece)
4. Northern Europe (Alsatian chef, swings between French
and German
5. Spain (preferably a Latin/Southern American chef trained
in classical
Spanish cuisine)
6. Arabic/North African
7. Eastern Europe/Balkans

Thanks for your recommendations.

American (US) I'd skip. Given our cuisine is largely derived
from successive waves of physical and cultural immigrants it
shouldn't be hard for any of the other chefs to cover that
particular section of the water front.

The idea was to have an "American" day of food each week, as there's
expected to be a significant number of American students. The idea being to
make one day different from the day before. Given that intent, would you
still not include American? If you would then, how would your seven
cuisines change?

Also, for me to better understand your recommendations, I'd appreciate your
evaluation of Snapper's. His was as follows:

1. Asian/Pacific Rim (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai,
Vietnamese, Aussie, etc.)

2. Eastern European (including Russian, and maybe Austrian(?))

3. Western European (German, French, Italian, Austrian(?))

4. Asian Subcontinental (Indian, Bangladeshi, etc.)

5. Latin (including Spanish, Mexican, South and Central
American, Caribbean)

6. American (including the traditional regional foods,
California cuisine, Soul Food, etc.)

7. Middle Eastern/Mediterranean/African (This would
include Kosher and Halal cooking)

Scott Jensen
--
Got a business question, problem, or dream?
Discuss it with the professionals that hang out at...
misc.business.consulting, misc.business.marketing.moderated
misc.business.moderated, and misc.entrepreneurs.moderated

"modom" wrote:
"Scott T. Jensen" wrote:
What would be considered the seven cuisines these chefs
would cover?

My guess is:
European (from Iceland to Russia to Italy)
African
Middle Eastern
South Asia (India region)
East Asia (from China to Japan to Singapore)
Pacific (including Australia and New Zealand)
American

Scott Jensen

Does American include Mexico?

Yes, I was tossing into North, Central, and South American into "American"
for the list above. And I knew that probably was wrong, but that's why I
posted my question to this newsgroup. I wanted to know what would be a
better answer than the one I came up with to my own question.

Scott Jensen
--
Got a business question, problem, or dream?
Discuss it with the professionals that hang out at...
misc.business.consulting, misc.business.marketing.moderated
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