Its an important maturation process, Barber says.

Dan Barber: I mean I would think . . . You know the age of the . . . What is . . . The Food Network kind of goes in defiance of this like traditional apprenticeship program that I went through, and that it seems to me more chefs . . . more cooks today could really benefit from. Yes. So the answer is ... qualified I think an apprenticeship program . . . The kind that I went through was, you know, in France and kind of hard core . . . is an important maturation process. Hard-core because back then there weren’t the rules there are today in the French kitchens. And they were mean places to work and they didn’t like Americans. I mean they don’t like Americans now, but they didn’t like Americans then. You know and the French kitchen of the history, the social dynamic that’s involved in . . . in the gastronomical services wherever you are, but especially in the kitchen, is intense. And it takes a lot of discipline and a lot of technique and whatnot, and that’s a great place to learn. Spain today is a big one for cooks to go to and get the same sort of inculcation of history of discipline. So yeah I think it’s really important.

Recorded on: 2/11/08