Why are Professional Kitchens Run by the French Brigade System?

“YES CHEF”. “NO CHEF”…all endearing dialogues of a busy, bustling, “serious” kitchen as portrayed in our fav culinary shows and most likely a realistic audio heard in many professional kitchens. But honestly I always wondered why? Why the overt display of discipline, why the matching uniforms (especially white?? like c’mon"), why the clear consciousness of rank…(insert Heath Ledger’s “Why so ssseriousss?”)? Like you’re cooking up good food here, why do you need to worry about all of that?

According to Le Cordon Bleu’s website, modern kitchen teams are based on French Chef Auguste Escoffier’s kitchen brigade system. Not only is he credited in developing the five mother sauces, he used his experience in the French army to ensure a kitchen could work to maximum efficiency. Lightspeedhq.com mentions that the brigade system was instrumental in enhancing the quality of French cuisine since it standardized procedures, streamlined roles and had a strict chain of command which made it easier for French restaurants to maintain consistency in their dishes. Reading all this just got me thinking, does this mean that before the kitchen brigade system were restaurants playgrounds of utter chaos? Before this system became universal, were kitchens just inefficient? You can’t convince me that restaurants in Japan or India or Iran were inefficient before the late 1800s (around the time this kitchen brigade started to popularize). Matter of fact, how were kitchens like in the earliest restaurants?

The History Channel published that the very first establishments that were easily recognizable as restaurants popped up around 1100 AD in China during the Song Dynasty in cities like Kaifeng and Hangzhou as they were densely packed with inhabitants. Elliott Shore, who is a professor at Bryn Mawr College and co-wrote the book Dining Out: A Global History of Restaurants, explains that there was a lot of trade happening back and forth between these northern and southern capitals of the 12th century Song Dynasty. As such, traveling Chinese tradesman weren’t accustom to local cuisine. Shore puts it this way, “The original restaurants in those two cities are essentially southern cooking for people coming up from the south or northern cooking for people coming down from the north. You could say the ‘ethnic restaurant’ was the first restaurant”. I’ll be honest, food and cooking are a huge part of human history and so I just found it surprising that the first reported restaurants would be around 1100 AD. I for sure thought it would be much earlier than that as there was a lot of trade happening earlier than this time period, although I could not find any other website or article that evidences earlier restaurants. Furthermore, I really wanted to understand how these early restaurants operated. I came across a research project by SiLin Ye and it included an excerpt from a Chinese manuscript about a popular restaurant.

“The waiter took their orders, then stood in line in front of the kitchen and, when his turn came, sang out his orders to those in the kitchen. Those who were in charge of the kitchen were called ‘pot masters’ or were called ‘controllers of the preparation tables.’ This came to an end in a matter of moments and the waiter—his left hand supporting three dishes and his right arm stacked from hand to shoulder with some twenty dishes, one on top of the other—distributed them in the exact order in which they had been ordered. Not the slightest error was allowed.”

Quite interesting to learn that theatrics played a huge part in the experience and operations of the earliest restaurants. Many restaurants today also incorporate music and theatrics as a part of the dining out experience. How cool the scene would have been…I mean not even a single error was allowed. Not only is one getting a meal experience where they are getting introduced to another region’s cuisine but they are also able to indulge in a feast for their eyes and ears! Was it an exciting sensory overload? Who knows?! However, this is a recountment of one popular restaurant during this time period. I guess I can generally state that this could have been a trend that ultimately spread out regionally. But I doubt that every restaurant was like this…that could not have been possible no? Well this establishes that the only divisive factor in terms of segregation of duties was between the servers and cooks. I did not find further evidence of there being a logical division of tasks among the cooks. I guess that leaves me wondering with questions like…does one person have the same role all the time or do the positions shift? Was there any leader or “person in charge” that oversees all the cooking? What measures were taken in place to ensure things don’t get chaotic in the kitchen? Sigh, I could not find answers to these but if you know or are able to find comment below and let me know! One thing is for sure though…if even the slightest error was not allowed, these types of early restaurants could not have been THAT inefficient.

Also just to be clear, there is a slight debate on the oldest recorded restaurant in the world. I’ll explain how. According to Matador Network, it is apparently St. Peter Stiftskulinarium in Salzburg Austria. In the year 803 AD, the St. Peter “abbey cellar” was mentioned in the records for the first time by Alcuin of York, a courtier of Charlemagne. The author did a great piece on the restaurant and its history (linked below). She writes, “The reason some people don’t consider it the oldest restaurant in the world is because it wasn’t accepting money for food when it first opened. It was tradition to serve food to religious travelers, who would often stay and help at the monastery while passing through. But if you define a restaurant as “a place that serves food to travelers,” well, St. Peter’s tops the list”. So evidently there was no brigade system in operation during this time in the St. Peter kitchen and yet its food operations attracted the likes of Christopher Columbus and Mozart according to Food Republic. Although I wish I could locate articles that mention specifically how the kitchen was run. Perhaps one day I can indulge in a first-hand experience at St. Peter and see if any of the locals or kitchen team members would know. Until then, I shall stick to my current assumptions.

According to the top culinary institutions around the world, the positions listed below are explained in order of hierarchy based on the French Brigade system:

Chef de Cusine

Simply put, the Executive Chef. I have seen instances where publications differentiate between a Chef de Cusine and an Executive Chef as well. Essentially this position is the most senior position in a professional kitchen. In a large organization, this position would be focused on more business-oriented operations with high-level oversight. Again depending on the size, the specific duties can vary but this position generally dictates menu development and ensures the operations of the restaurant run smoothly. They also may act as “expediters” to ensure quality control right before a dish reaches a customer.

Sous Chef

The second-in-command. This position directly manages and oversees every station in the kitchen. It is a pivotal role in the kitchen as it requires inventory management, enforcing safety standards, equipment maintenance and some HR duties all while being prepared to jump in to assist any station. They may also have a hand in menu development.

Chef de Partie

A station chef. This position is responsible for one area or one station of a kitchen. They may be referred to as the saucier (sauce) or entremetier (entrees) or patissier (pastry). This position also monitors the quality control of any dish that leaves for final plating.

Commis Chef

The line cook - one of the most demanding roles in a kitchen. Essentially, these are the people cooking the food. They can move from station to station and operate under the guidelines of the chef de partie.

Prep Cooks

As the name would suggest, this role is all about the prep. Their responsibilities consist of the important preliminary work like chopping and peeling vegetables and organizing ingredients and equipment that higher-level cooks and chefs need. In fact, this is part of mise-en-place, the setup required before cooking begins.

There are other various positions, but generally they all fall under these categories.

The PBS article I linked below has a great breakdown of the classic “Chefs Whites”. It was news to me to learn that the individual behind the classic white get-up is actually Marie-Antoine Carême. Before him most chefs wore grey attire, but Carême and Escoffier believed wearing white best symbolized cleanliness in the kitchen. Escoffier just fine-tuned the fit and standardized the double-breasted white coat. The tall cylindrical chef’s toque, credited to Carême, used to be worn by the chef de cuisine to indicate highest rank level. However, these days, we don’t see too many chefs wearing such hats. Logistically makes a lot of sense why but it would be fun to see it in motion, I assume.

So I guess we come back to the question as to why professional kitchens operate under the brigade system. I guess I conclusively would say that it is an overly extreme and organized approach to dealing with an environment that is highly sensitive to chaos. Maybe arguably, it produces an effect similar to a “well-oiled machine” where varying necessary duties co-exist in a functional manner that helps to produce an end result that is high in quality. However, in a traditional sense, there is an extremely fine line between operational efficiency and operational chaos in a kitchen. The military-like manner can create a breeding ground of hostility which is not conducive for a positive work environment. Though highly disciplined and organized, especially in fine dining, this culture takes a devious toll on employees and can create an abusive atmosphere especially if inept leaders are at the top of the hierarchy. Being a genius chef and being a genius leader are two very different positions that need their own set of training. The CHAAD project details this grueling and often traumatic experience in their blog post which I have linked below. Reading it felt like witnessing a microcosm of an overarching theme, the 1% vs. 99%. So again, why are professional kitchens operating under the brigade system? I mean the system itself seems the most efficient, kind of like democracy. You know like how Churchill said that democracy is not the best form of government but it is the only one that works thus far. I for sure am paraphrasing but that is the idea. I think fixing democracy is way beyond my intellectual means but fixing the culture of the kitchen brigade system is doable by all means and by anyone. The satisfaction of customers and kitchen staff can coexist and management should prioritize that.

Links to websites mentioned/referenced:

https://www.cordonbleu.edu/news/what-is-the-kitchen-brigade-system/en

https://www.lightspeedhq.com/blog/kitchen-brigade/

https://www.escoffier.edu/blog/culinary-pastry-careers/different-types-of-chef-jobs-in-the-brigade-de-cuisine/

https://www.tastingtable.com/1198396/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-kitchen-brigade-system/

https://thesmartlocal.jp/oldest-restaurants-japan/

https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/meals-ready-to-eat/how-the-military-has-shaped-the-way-restaurant-kitchens-operate-today

https://www.jennydorsey.co/single-post/anti-intellectualism-in-the-restaurant-industry

https://www.eater.com/2019/8/12/20799538/french-brigade-system-stage-chef-michelin-restaurants

https://www.history.com/news/first-restaurants-china-france#

https://www.historyhit.com/history-of-restaurants/

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/cb1661ba8f4b4c84bde8058e205739fc#

http://www.flavorandfortune.com/ffdataaccess/article.php?ID=678

https://www.fastcompany.com/90669668/the-forgotten-history-of-the-worlds-first-restaurant

https://www.stpeter.at/en/die-geschichte-erleben/#:~:text=The%20Stiftskulinarum%20is%20situated%20in,York%2C%20a%20courtier%20of%20Charlemagne.

https://www.foodrepublic.com/1443626/oldest-restaurant-world-austria-mozart-columbus/

https://matadornetwork.com/read/oldest-restaurant-in-the-world/

https://www.opentable.com/blog/history-of-restaurants-vibe-shift/

https://www.thechaadproject.org/blog/how-war-came-to-the-kitchen