The practical craftmanship and social practices of apprentice chefs in a professional kitchen setting

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Abstract

The background for this article is a project that explores the concept of apprenticeship training as an educational learning framework in the training of chef students from the chef training program at a technical college in Denmark, as well as in two high-end Danish restaurants. Here I conducted anthropological fieldwork over the course of six months in late 2022. As a chef’s assistant, I explored and experienced how craftmanship was studied, assimilated, learned, and mastered, mainly using senses. I also experienced how newcomers are socialized into and expected to challenge and submit to the prevailing logic and doxa of the field and profession through master-apprenticeship training practices. That means that as an essential part of the learning schemes that newcomer apprentice chefs are expected to understand and master, this article seeks to unfold both a kind of practical craftmanship as well as certain social aspects of the socialisation processes practiced in the restaurants as an often unsung part of vocational educative practices.

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Keywords

apprenticeship, chef, vocational education, craftmanship, social learning

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