The "C" Word

I'd like to thank Food Network (to some extent), Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen and any of the other overly dramatic, pseudorealistic "Chef" shows that I may have missed. These shows, along with growing investment in "value added" products as well as an increase in lazy culinary degree students has seemed to strip the title Chef of it's original dignity.
Keep in mind that I am not from the "old country", nor was I trained by anyone from there, in fact there were a number of the old world culinary "rules" that I enjoyed disregarding in my formal education and beyond. However, there always seemed to be a certain respect and reverence given to someone who was the Chef, especially the Head Chef or Executive Chef, because it was presumed that they knew their stuff, that they had put in their time and paid-their-dues, typically working their way up through the ranks, from the lowly dishwasher, eventually to the Sous Chef and so on. This produces (in a dedicated person) a true Chef, someone who knows a his way around a kitchen whether it's his or not, this produces a Chef that knows how to properly use a knife whether it's on a piece of fruit or a side of beef.
This is what I was taught to believe that a Chef is, not merely a cook (they of course deserve their own respect), but someone who was a cook, artist, businessman, expediter, scientist, mentor, antagonist, protagonist, miracle-worker, butcher, fish monger, farmer, sociopath, madman, pirate, scholar, glutton, asshole and friend.
These television "personalities" that we enjoy watching so much (I'm guilty too) don't represent what it really is to be a Chef, some of the attributes are there, especially the ones that make for good TV, but the true reverence has been lost. We refer to any hack with a French knife or a skillet in his hand or a chef coat on her shoulders as a Chef even though they likely couldn't tell you the difference between a carrot and a parsnip or a loin and a tenderloin, hell they probably still try and saute food in a luke-warm skillet!
Unfortunately this may be the "Chef's" that we have created by our own recklessness. Now all you need to become a Chef is tuition money and time, sure you have to learn something in order to graduate and receive your "certification", but hell, a number of these schools and programs have such minimal requirements for on the job experience that you can become a Chef and barely lay foot in a real working restaurant kitchen.
I guess on the bright side, the drop-out rate for culinary school is still higher than the divorce rate, 50-75%. So it's good to know that some of these "I'm too good to do that" or "I'm not paid enough to have to do this" whining gringos are still getting sifted out. If we're really lucky, eventually (and I really doubt this) there will be more honest representation of what Chef's do and what restaurant work really is like.