The Classical Brigade

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
As noted earlier, one of Escoffier’s important achievements was the reorganization of the kitchen. This reorganization divided the kitchen into departments, or stations, based on the kinds of foods produced. A station chef was placed in charge of each department. In a small operation, the station chef might be the only worker in the department. But in a large kitchen, each station chef might have several assistants.

This system, with many variations, is still in use, especially in large hotels with traditional kinds of food service. The major positions are as follows:

  1. The chef is the person in charge of the kitchen. In large establishments, this person has the title of executive chef. The executive chef is a manager who is responsible for all aspects of food production, including menu planning, purchasing, costing, planning work schedules, hiring, and training.
  2. If a food-service operation is large, with many departments (for example, a formal dining room, a casual dining room, and a catering department), or if it has several units in different locations, each kitchen may have a chef de cuisine. The chef de cuisine reports to the executive chef.
  3. The sous chef (soo shef) is directly in charge of production and works as the assistant to the executive chef or chef de cuisine. (The word sous is French for “under.”) Because the executive chef’s responsibilities may require a great deal of time in the office, the sous chef often takes command of the actual production and the minute-by-minute supervision of the staff.
  4. The station chefs, or chefs de partie, are in charge of particular areas of production. The following are the most important station chefs.

    • The sauce chef, or saucier (so-see-ay), prepares sauces, stews, and hot hors d’oeuvres, and sautés foods to order. This is usually the highest position of all the stations.
    • The fish cook, or poissonier (pwah-so-nyay), prepares fish dishes. In some kitchens, this station is handled by the saucier.
    • The vegetable cook, or entremetier (awn-truh-met-yay), prepares vegetables, soups, starches, and eggs. Large kitchens may divide these duties among the vegetable cook, the fry cook, and the soup cook.
    • The roast cook, or rôtisseur (ro-tee-sur), prepares roasted and braised meats and their gravies and broils meats and other items to order. A large kitchen may have a separate broiler cook, or grillardin (gree-ar-dan), to handle the broiled items. The broiler cook may also prepare deep-fried meats and fish.
    • The pantry chef, or garde manger (gard mawn-zhay), is responsible for cold foods, including salads and dressings, pâtés, cold hors d’oeuvres, and buffet items.
    • The pastry chef, or pâtissier (pa-tees-syay), prepares pastries and desserts.
    • The relief cook, swing cook, or tournant (toor-nawn), replaces other station heads.
    • The expediter, or aboyeur (ah-bwa-yer), accepts orders from waiters and passes them on to the cooks on the line. The expediter also calls for orders to be finished and plated at the proper time and inspects each plate before passing it to the dining room staff. In many restaurants, this position is taken by the head chef or the sous chef.

  5. Cooks and assistants in each station or department help with the duties assigned to them. For example, the assistant vegetable cook may wash, peel, and trim vegetables. With experience, assistants may be promoted to station cooks and then to station chefs.