That's Yukio Hattori the "Voice of Iron Chef" , he was the heir to a centuries-old traditional style of Japanese cooking originating from samurai household protocols, I got to say HI! when I was cookering in Japan in the early 2000's, he was a bit of a Master  ......Me? Um, I trained to get my papers, that makes you a Cook. I worked REALLY freakin' hard to earn the right to proudly wear that white jacket ,buttons and checks, and even harder to get my Black Pants. In a Brigade, after YEARS, you get promoted through the ranks from apprentice, commis ( qualified cook )  .... demi( little or half) , chef de partie ( IC of a section) , senior cdp .....and finally get to Jnr sous( second)  IF YOU'RE GOOD ENOUGH and bleed from the hands/ arms and feet daily and say "YES CHEF" in a shouty voice a million times a day .At this stage you get to ditch the check pants and swap 'em out for blacks , its a really proud moment in a cooks career.
You then become a sous( ie lose the jnr bit , which IMO  is there just to remind you that you are on the many steps of a journey to approach an ever elusive mastery that will always move further away the more you learn and grow.That word mastery to me is a lifelong journey so I kind of have a problem with being a "Master" after a season of TV......any hoo , then comes  senior sous / executive sous or chef de cuisine . You FINALLY become "Exec Chef"( ie just Chef in most Brigades ) and it was always said with a little gravity  - we'll just call it the "C Bomb" from here on in-  with a capital C (and usually ditch the hat and apron and swap the knife for a pen/tons of boring meetings).I respect the legacy, the Craft, the uniform, the rewards of receiving and then passing on knowledge (we do that "watch one, do one, teach one" thing that all other crafts were built on and practiced and I love it ) ,"standing on the shoulders" type thing of guilds etc etc etc .You EARN the right to call yourself a "cook" after a Cert 4 ( ie when you finish tafe ,we don't really call the apprentices "cooks", they're called, um , apprentice's !.... and once a year or so, if we're feeling full of love and praise, we might say "apprentice cooks", just to be nice and use all the weird management motivational witchcraft stuff they teach us at corporate retreats - instead of "barky face shouting" which is the standard form of kitchen comms :). So to grow a cook you find someone  with a ton of resilience, mentor / train them for around  10 000 hours ( yup, 5 years odd AFTER  their 4 year apprenticeship. Do the math if you don't believe me, and NONE of us worked a 40 hour week in the oldy times so  realistically even if you cut through the ranks in a big brigade to sous chef in 5 years it's more like 20 000 hours plus the 8000 apprentices need to complete ) , guide  that aforementioned  MASTERy as it develops ,nurture a passion to make guests happy , pick them back up repeatedly when a bad Saturday night double service destroys them, watch a bunch of hotline scars gather on their  forearms , see their confidence and skill  keep growing year in, year out,  while inhaling the specific odour of stress leaking  into their stinky little clogs from sweating buckets over a grill or pans or a wok, ...whatever...
The term "chef" is derived from the French meaning "Chief" ie Boss Peop, that upper case C is when  its a PROPER NOUN , when it's a title, there is only ONE of those per Brigade, The Chef. You don’t get to call yourself a chef until you earn it (even with a little "c" cause that's just a noun) .MasterChef uses the "c Bomb !" in its title, it even uses a big "C" - come on people ,together with the "master" bit  thats INSANE!! I have no doubt there were/ are some amazing cookers on the show, it has produced people that can cook me under the table and I take my hat off to them. Yes it's been a great way to unearth  really really freakily talented food people to launch careers as cookers, but that's the point, they're cookers :).....would you call someone a dentist (common noun) cause they were fabo at messing around with a drill and teeth on the telly? That all in NO WAY mitigates my absolute LOVE of the best damn host TV has ever seen, the best cooker, one of the best humans I have had the privilege of getting to know, one of the hardest working quickest/ quirkiest minds the industry has had the honour of us gracing our plates, and who’s whisky flask is in my knife bag JIC, the giant of a man and all round crazy bastard Jock Zonfrillo, Big Love Big Man, miss you .......
So thats my beef, yup it's stupid and petty but I feel words have power and are important. I've a hard won title. I earned my little c and then the Big C , I'm a Chef, but I have no way neared the unattainable and elusive Mastery we all chase everyday  .... . I feel cookings something you do because cooking for someone is one of the nicest and most rewarding things you can do, it's not a really a competitive sport, it comes from a place of loving seeing people happy, loving working in teams of likeminded people to create  memorable and exceptional experiences for diners .I get a little uneasy  when the spirit of the craft is used as a competitive sport  for accelerated fame!, fortune!, marketing dollars, product placement, network profits blah blah blah . Oh hang on maybe it will be a competitive sport in the next Olympics, they DO already have that mad thing with the brooms, people running around on a slippery floor, weird heavy round things...... which is basically same same as a kitchen only it looks a bit colder, quieter and less exhausting.........