Culinary Professionals and Food Scientists
Preface: The article describes the difference between a culinary
professionals and food scientists.
When developing food products, culinary professionals and food
scientists often have different priorities. A culinary
professional will think about the senses when looking at a
creation - taste, texture, aroma, and appearance - while the
scientist would likely first consider stability, shelf life, and
packaging.
Culinary professionals have knowledge of foods that cannot be
measured by analytical instruments. For example, they are highly
skilled in judging individual raw materials. They recognize
"fresh" by sight, touch, or smell.
Although a culinary professional may possess detailed knowledge
of raw materials, he or she would not necessarily know how, for
example, to keep the ingredients from lumping in commercial food
packages. Traditionally, they are fortunate to be creating food
that is eaten much sooner after preparation than a grocery
product will be. In a restaurant, the chef is not usually
required to consider food packaging, storage, and reheating in
the same manner as would be encountered in a manufactured food.