ACF…The American Culinary Federation
I recently completed and passed my testing to receive my Certified Executive Chef Title and Certification.
It was a 3 year project and WAS very hard to accomplish so let me start with that; those who have earned it before me and will earn it in the future have truly accomplished something noteworthy!
But what is that??
To their credit; it is said The ACF brought Professional Chefs out of the Blue Collar Workforce and into The White Collar Workforce; I feel this is true; their standardization of recipes and techniques are thorough and establish a strong base for measuring an individuals growth and achievement.
This has been especially true for the Educational side of the Culinary Industry.
More and more employers are asking for C.E.C Certificates from their candidates for their Executive Chef Leadership positions; let’s face it; the vast majority of people hiring an Executive Chef in a large Property don’t know much of what an Executive Chef does! The C.E.C. Certificate gives them a level of comfort knowing they are at least getting a specific amount of strong basics from a Certified Chef; doesn’t guarantee it is a good hire but at least the Candidate will be familiar with all the prerequisite components of the job.
Let’s face it; the professional chef talent pool throughout history have been plagued by a lot of very bad actors!
Okay, back to my 3 year project, let me ask you; of the 200 or so World’s Best Restaurants/Kitchens; how many are run or owned by ACF Certified Chefs? Without doing much research to confirm; my guess it is very close to ZERO!
The Standardization in it’s success effectively eliminates creativity and “thinking out of the Box”; we never would have Molecular Gastronome or even ‘Fusion’ Cuisines if we were all ACF trained and regimented.
I wanted to assist the local college with their culinary program so I could have an inside track to the talent coming out so I needed the Certificate to be part (leader?) of the Culinary Educator Team; since I already had 30-40 years as an Executive Chef; I went into the exams without practicing!
Well even though I blew the evaluators away with my prowess and completed all tasks on time (they said no one ever finishes on time); I failed miserably by their standards. I think it is not a stretch to say they did not want an upstart like me coming out of the blue and stealing one of their top Certificates (C.E.C is only surpassed by Master Chef Certification); most of their Candidates come up through the ranks of ACF; earning several Certifications prior to a C.E.C. and viewing them as culinary gods along the way and they wanted to make sure I knew how important they were.
Telling me my technique was foolish and time consuming (did I mention I finished on time); to be fair, I did make mistakes but they were mean and not helpful in their criticism and I learned little.
My second try I still did not practice; (Egotistical Chef Thing) and again failed but this time; the evaluators were helpful and while they pointed out things I could have done which were not allowed by the previous evaluators (???so much for Standardization??) but most importantly; they told me it is not about cooking so much as it is about “Passing The Test”!!
They told me to simplify everything and make it like a well choreographed dance; every move planned out and with smooth transitions to next task and technique; it wasn’t about ‘blowing them away’ with new techniques or wild presentations; these evaluators were all Culinary Instructors and they explained that in the Classroom Kitchen; they need to make sure they are only teaching “best practices”; there is that standardization thing again at it’s greatest value!
The 3rd try I practiced my complete meal presentation 8-9 times and when I took the exam again; I executed my dance flawlessly and I was rewarded.
Looking back, yes I’d say they all were a little arrogant and impressed with themselves and I tired easily of it as the exam has absolutely nothing to do with what I do daily in a professional kitchen and doubt seriously if any of them could claim the culinary accomplishments I have and repeat on a daily basis but I will say I was humbled in the amount of effort required to achieve the goal!
Now signed,
The Grumpy Chef, C.E.C
The Grumpy Chef 