The Network of Chefs - Power and Place

Figure 1. Swedish Chef (Muppet Wiki)

 The people that work in the hospitality industry, especially chefs, are known to have a set of generic conventions that govern how they act inside and outside of the workplace. As shown by Kuttainen (2016), genres are a form of discourse, which enable identity to be constructed and social relationships to be constituted. I find this incredibly relevant to the other employees of my workplace as I will describe further. Seeing as though I myself am a full-time working chef, I thought it appropriate to use my real life network; that of my workplace, as my network topic for these sets of blogs.

The physical place in which I find myself in, at work, is that of a restaurant. It is very easy for me to find my way around the kitchen, talk to other staff and generally feel at home with my surroundings. I also inhabit a conceptual space whether I am at work or not. Customers come into our restaurant expecting a specific quality of food and service, because they identify the name of our restaurant with the expected quality. The concept of knowing what the large yellow M stands for when you see it in the distance, is an example. As Tuan (1977) states, "One person may know a place intimately as well as conceptually." (pp. 6) which helps to underline the concept of a place being a space at the same time.

There also quite a few different sorts of power in my workplace: reward, coercive, and knowledge are the main examples. As we want to get paid for the work we are doing, we are rewarded with a payment each week to keep us coming back. The apprentices in the kitchen sometimes work in fear of doing something wrong or making a mistake in order to not get in trouble, a form of coercive power. Then we arrive at the power of knowledge, which is the one that even the general public is confused about, this little post about the assumed knowledge of chefs is a good starting point -     http://www.escoffier.edu/culinary-arts/.

I hope that everyone will find my reviews on my workplace interesting as I write about it over the next few weeks. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.


Reference List


Escoffier School of Cuilnary Art. (2016). The 4 myths of cooking that all chefs must address. Retrieved from  http://www.escoffier.edu/culinary-arts/.

Kuttainen, V. (2016). BA1002: Space and identity: Genre and transformation, week 3 notes [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au 

Muppet Wiki. (no date). Swedish Chef.  Retrieved from http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Swedish_Chef

Tuan, Y. (1977). Space and place: The perspective of  experience. London, Great Britain: University of Minnesota Press.