As a young pastry cook at Eleven Madison Park, Genie Kwon grew accustomed to a kitchen tradition: Every time the chef shouted out an order, the other cooks responded in unison, “Oui, chef!”
Or as you may have heard it on the FX show “The Bear”: “Yes, chef!”
For a long time, Ms. Kwon, who co-owns the Filipino restaurant Kasama in Chicago, associated the phrase with the unyielding hierarchy of the kitchen at Eleven Madison Park, known for its exacting vision of fine dining.
How it’s pronounced
/yĕs shĕf/
That was until a few years ago, when she started hearing friends outside the industry using the phrase casually and, sometimes, sarcastically.
Can you grab my jacket? Yes, chef!
Pass the salt and pepper? Yes, chef!
The term Ms. Kwon once uttered out of intimidation in the kitchen was now casual parlance among friends.
You can credit the rise of the phrase in everyday language to shows like “The Bear” or movies like “The Menu,” which explore the underbelly of restaurant work and have stirred a renewed fascination with kitchen terminology.
The exact origins of “Yes, chef” are unknown, but some historians trace it to the 19th-century French chef Auguste Escoffier, who established the brigade system, a strict chain of command for roles in a kitchen, with the chef meting out the orders. (The back story explains why it’s “oui” at Eleven Madison Park.)
According to Luke Barr, author of “Ritz and Escoffier,” the system was a response to Escoffier’s experience in abusive and dysfunctional restaurants. He thought hierarchy would bring order and “calmness in the kitchen,” Mr. Barr said. Saying “Yes, chef!” signaled an acknowledgment of a directive, and a level of compliance that underscored the power structure.
Like many French culinary traditions, the brigade system set a new standard for restaurants. When the Covid-19 pandemic unraveled the restaurant business overnight, discussions erupted over the brigade system, and whether it was contributing to the exploitation of workers, who often face verbal abuse, have little to no health benefits and endure occupational hazards, like oven burns.
Cooks on “The Bear” use “Yes, chef!” to address all kitchen staff, no matter their status. But that’s not always the case in real restaurants, where a “cowering assistant” might say it in response to a “preposterous instruction,” Mr. Barr said.
“This term that originally has this connotation of respect and serenity in the kitchen,” he added, “has come to symbolize this abuse of power.”
That’s why some workers dislike that people outside the industry have adopted its lingo.
“It seems almost disrespectful to me,” said Darron Cardosa, a longtime server who runs the website The Bitchy Waiter.
When Ms. Kwon and her husband, Tim Flores, opened Kasama in 2020, they wanted to create a collaborative environment. They did not ask their staff to say “Yes, chef,” but workers still did out of habit.
Mr. Flores said he realized “Yes, chef” wasn’t the problem — it was chefs who demean workers. “The idea that we need to dismantle the hierarchy and the brigade is wrong,” he said. “We need to get rid of toxic culture.”
Even Mr. Cardosa said that the movement of “Yes, chef” outside restaurants is perhaps a sign that kitchen language can evolve, along with kitchen culture.
“Maybe it is not so bad that it doesn’t mean what it meant 15 years ago,” he said.
Priya Krishna is a reporter for The Times’s Food section and New York Times Cooking. She is also currently serving as interim restaurant critic.
