I always hear about world-renowned chefs but never anything about Baristas. I gather this is perhaps due to the complex variety of food vs the still very large but less large variety of coffee, and the artistic capabilities when you have more than just coffee and milk to play with. I’d like to hear other people’s opinions here. I feel coffee is forever growing in popular culture, so perhaps this will change?
You seem to find that those in the coffee world who are well respected have transcended the title of Barista and have gone on to educate themselves extensively in coffee science, roasting and business. Education and innovation play a big role here.
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No, but a lot of top coffee people obviously end up in more influential and entrepreneurial roles and become thought leaders in business to a large extent (James Hoffman, David Abramovitch)
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I’ve seen this, but I’ve seen Chef’s do similarly and still withhold the title of a chef. For example popular one, Gordon Ramsey. Has his own show, owns multiple restaurants but if you look him up he’d still come under the title of a chef. Then again I guess he’d likely come under the title of an entertainer and entrepeanur all the same mm.
Yeah, there’s just a lot more you can do with food on the whole. As awesome as it is, coffee is much more limited.
That would be pretty cool to see. But I just don’t see that happening anytime soon. Generally, in the food/beverage world I notice that more chef’s do appreciate some good coffee, but many chefs and regular folks just don’t hold coffee in the same regard as food. Take your bartenders or mixologists for example, I feel like the top tier ones also don’t get the same love… even sommelier. And honestly, I get it. But you never know, coffee is still growing.
Gordon Ramsays is truly a great chef who doesn’t just cook great dishes and also understanding the art of food. Everyone knows that he’s able to use all kinds of ingredients and actually possess knowledge of foods throughout his cooking, not only that, he goes beyond like knowing the health effects of consuming foods as well and how it can benefit people. If you think about its actually the same as a ‘Barista’, a ‘Barista’ isn’t just someone who’s familiar with the coffee bar and becoming skillful only with coffee brewing, roasting, and winning championships. Rather, if you look into ‘specialty’ coffee about how certain baristas or coffee traders were involved with visiting growers and learning about the origins of coffee, its clear that there’s the notion of not just only about being in the consumers viewpoint of drinking enjoying coffee, rather, its about understanding where it came from and the roots.
So for me, a chef or a barista although they may sound like different occupation, but in truth their all important because these are the people with special knowledge about the food we eat, the benefits, and even where the food comes from. It teaches us to be aware of the effects of our environment that’s influencing the crops, the people who grow it, the geography, etc…some people don’t care, but I think it plays a big role for humanity to educate especially to consumers.
Oh…and I think people shouldn’t limit the notion of a chef is just a master of cooking food or dealing with food, instead it is possible to include the fact that chefs can be a barista too…or a barista can also be a chef.
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Yeah, I feel very similarly about it but it’ll be interesting to see how it progresses into the future as more and more people drink coffee.
I think on the ground level at least to a large extent it has to do with the format and recognition of training required to be considered a chef vs barista. In Australia at least it takes a four year apprenticeship to be given the title chef. Whereas a barista can be anywhere from a moderatley skilled hospitality worker whos been shown how to use a coffee machine to a highly skilled, often award winning, professional with years dedicated to perfecting the art and science of coffee preparation. While there are various programmes and courses available worldwide. Barista training does not yet recieve the same universal recognition as that of a chefs training. In the general public’s perception this probably makes it harder to recognise the professional status of a barista and even further idolize them to the state of celebrity.
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