Chef Mohamed Fouad Fahmy

I think a chef is someone who can cook their face off, while at the same time, having the ability to manage, lead and create a successful kitchen operation — restaurant or otherwise. One of the main problems is that the hands on, technical part of the job, which most of us enjoy most, requires a drastically different skill set than the other essential components of the job. So, yes, there are obvious hands on skills and techniques required, but a whole host of others, as well.

Chefs are different than just about every other creative professional, because of the fact that to express our creative vision, we have to manage and put so many other entities in place. We are unlike other artists whose work directly links back to the work they create — a writer, writes — a painter — paints, and an actor — acts. We have a slew of variables that are ever changing that affect