When the old man was young he trained to become a cook, which nowadays is called chef, at the time not that many wanted to become cooks, as it didn't have a nimbus of working-class heroics; his friends became welders and so on. The catering business is a simple science when you have mastered the basic one is free to stamp one's personality on the dishes. Restaurants was glad to get a proper cook oops, I meant chef, the one they had was usually one that smelled of drink and smoked a cigarette of over the food, mind ashes don't show up in your gravy. Yet, it was an uphill struggle as everybody βwomen- could cook back then, but now that the skill is lost, the chef is on TV, showing how it is done.