mattyp1214

Hi everyone I am currently a culinary student going to work at a very respectable restaurant in less than a month. I am however searching for information regarding stages in Spain/France. I have been following a few blogs and would like to get some info for future reference on setting up a housed stage.

Congrats.. go to Cornell you can't go wrong there for any profession! I go to JWU and majority of the kids probably won't end up working in the business or wouldn't cut working in the hospitality business. No matter what degree you obtain, particularly from Cornell, is not going to hurt you. Plus Andy Bernard went there, I would go for that reason alone. Many people coming out of Cornell are often working the business or management side of the hospitality business, so if that's what you want to do it will only help. If you are looking to go into the culinary side it will help a lot when you want a management position.

If you've already worked there for a year I would just go and ask the chef if he can set up one for you. If he doesn't start writing emails and letters tot he places you are interested in, it worked for me. YOU SPEAK FRENCH!! That is so valuable in this industry, I wish I spoke French!! Call and write some places in France I guarantee some will let you go stage! Having experience in a foreign country at Robuchon is already a big deal. Like I said just try...call, write, email, w/e you need to do to set it up yourself, shoot for the biggest and just see if they respond. Trust me it works. you are offering to go work for free, someone will give you an opportunity.

Your best bet is going to be getting as much experience as possible. In the end sure El Bulli does hire a couple food scientists, but getting that job is like winning the lottery. Majority of people that work there worked their butts off for the last 5-10 years and met the right people. For the restaurants you are looking at, elbulli and alinea, they are going to take either a person with tons of experience in the best restaurants in the world or someone who knows somebody. So start working at the best possible place you can, whether thats the best restaurant in your small town or w/e, and work your butt off, make connections and maybe someday you can work in one of those kitchens. Places like Alinea have waiting lists for people that want to work there, and every person on that list has already worked at a couple michelin starred places. El bulli brings in only like 40-60 cooks a season with them getting about 1000 resumes for each one of those spots. As far as schooling goes, go to a place that offers degree programs in culinary and and get an AS in Culinary and a BS in nutrition, management, etc.

It wasn't too hard...I am trailing for a spot to go and intern for culinary school for three months. In the beginning I emailed my resume and cover letter to all the restaurants I was interested in (mainly Bay area and NYC) and if they responded I went from there. I lucked out on Daniel in that they responded, the main reason they did so was because I started contacting places in October for my internship in March. So if anything start early.

I am going to stage at Daniel in January so I can let you know how it is. I have never worked in NYC so I'm pretty pumped up just to see what it is like.