Bakercraft Questions

[Francesca]

The bakercraft information up on the website is interesting but left me wondering, what do Journeymen bakers do? From what I can tell, head cooks are generally (or always?) women, who may have bakercraft training, but not necessarily. The website resources seem to suggest that some of the tasks someone trained in the bakercraft would do are complex desserts, including pastries and wedding cakes. So, would a Journeyman baker posted to a Hold be in charge of making fancy dishes for special occasions and wouldn't be working in the kitchens?

[Suzee]

Very good questions. If you think of the Head cook as the Kitchen Manager, she'd be what most Holds would have available and she'd do good "home cooking" with whatever ingredients were available.

Actually, this cook could be self-taught and very talented as many of us are at home.  But think of the difference when you go to a restaurant that has a Chef.  There is just an excellence factor that most likely is quite identifiable.  This could be a person who went to Culinary school.  I know my daughter did!

I would imagine that a Lord Holder could make sure he had one on hand that would plan the meals with the headwoman and staff.  Currently, on earth, there are many kinds of Chefs

Executive Chef: 
The term literally means "the chief" in French.  Every kitchen has a chef or executive chef who is responsible for the operations of the entire kitchen.  (A commonly misused term in English, not every cook is a chef.)

Sous-Chef:
This position means "the under chief" in French. This is the person who is second in command and takes responsibility for the kitchen operations if the chef is absent.

Chef de Partie:
Also known as a "station chef" or "line cook", is in charge of a particular area of production.  In large kitchens, each station chef might have several cooks and/or assistants.  In most kitchens, however, the station chef is the only worker in that department.  Line cooks are often divided into a hierarchy of their own, starting with "First Cook", then "Second Cook", and so on as needed.

Others are the soup chef, the vegetable chef, bread chef, pastry chef, etc.  When you have lots of people cooking together, you need that Journeyman to keep them all efficient and execute his vision.

When you are cooking for 10-30 people a cook or three can do the job without the need of that extra level of expertise.

Of course the specialty of a pastry chef wouldn't be needed in a random cothold, but probably would at say Amber Hills, Emerald Falls, or Sunstone.

[Francesca]

Thanks, Suzee. This is really helpful. I was assuming the head cook would do some of the things you listed and so couldn't figure out how a Hall-trained baker would fit into this.

[Suzee]

well there are very talented self-taught cooks.  But Chef requires the certificate/schooling.

[Dani]

I would think a journeyman baker would also be the guy who would be swapping recipes with people too.