MattyC
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Posts posted by MattyC
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I started to, lost interest. Seems fine-ish, really just seemed like a weaker answer to something like A Chef's Table or Mind of a Chef or any of that ilk. I agree with what I saw that it was rushed, I think an hour would be have been better - I found myself thinking Emeril didn't do a terrible job either, so maybe more time would have helped.
I'll finish watching it when I can't think of anything else to watch as a filler, I don't see it as something I'd hurry to go finish. Not saying it's bad, it just didn't seem to catch me like some of the other high-quality food shows as of late. Maybe it's just me, it seems to have a really high rating?
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It's PR and media plain and simple. I also don't think it's white vs whatever, but more about "pedigreed" vs a "nobody" - there are plenty of white chefs who legitimately have more experience cooking a certain type of ethnic food than someone of that ethnicity due to interest.
It's how the media pushes it - someone with a big name opening a taco place? Well he's big and famous for a reason because he worked for X and Y, so that means he's so skilled he must know this other stuff too - that's how they spin it, and that's how the moronic masses interpret it.
There was a chef in my area who got too big too fast with his first place, opened up a taco place for his second restaurant. Hype was UNREAL. All any website or publication ever talked about. It opens and guess what? Overpriced crap. Reviews were shit, people were pissed - you name it, whatever you could think of happened, happened. Was there anything at ALL in his experience, history, or even ethnicity that showed he would be good at tacos? No. Not even the slightest. But because he was "big" and he was great with PR it got hyped for no reason.
It's just a circus, which is too bad. Amazingly talented people have their restaurants closed every day before so-and-so who was on chopped or worked as a line cook for X opened their newest abomination and that's all anyone knows.
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On 8/28/2016 at 4:27 PM, Tri2Cook said:
"You kind of sound like you wish you could be in the kitchen forever. Some people do make it work."
If can work... but forever is exactly how long you'll be in there. I know I'm certainly in no position to retire and don't see that situation changing if I don't decide to move into another line of work sometime in the near future.To be honest, yes, there was a time I wanted to do it forever, but that changed a long time ago, over the years. Unfortunately, Tri2Cook said...... sure, you *can* literally do it forever, but you'll be stuck in it, never really getting anywhere, but for any sort of end game, I really don't think there is a future in the kitchen for people anymore, if there ever was. I agree that the snowflake idea that pastrygirl mentioned is part of it - a big part of it - but the others who aren't like that, the smarter ones, I think see the end of the road as a low-paying and painful purgatory unless you become big and famous, which hardly happens. But cooks now don't want to put in the work to become big and famous, they just want a few thousand instagram hits and their own show within the first 2 years of cooking. Take the shortcut.
Being a big name successful chef chef is rare, and to be honest getting more rare by the day. It's the same famous chefs opening up just more restaurants in new cities. And that coupled with wages not being livable, young cooks being terrible and needlessly arrogant, you have a recipe for a job where you NEED to leave in order to live.
It just seems I hear this even more lately. Cooks not even trying to get their 10 years in before finding something else. Year ago old cooks/chefs I worked with were sticking it out. Now, everyone is trying to find some other way to be around food but out of the kitchen. Almost all of my friends around my age or a little older over the past few years have moved into a different career, and shunned the kitchen.
And @pastrygirl, I actually took a job as a food sales rep for a company that I myself actually ordered from for years. I get to be around and learn about food a ton still, and have regular hours, expense account, dental insurance, good pay, etc - it's completely foreign to me to work in a field now that actually takes care of me. I was never opposed to evolving into a new career, but I never really understood honestly how much the restaurant industry short changes you or beats you down until moving into something else. I'm around food and talk about food all day, without the downsides I'm used to. I'm actually really happy. Plus, I get to see my 11 wk old son every night, which is huge to me.
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9 hours ago, pastrygirl said:
I don't know if it's any more prevalent now, but the hard long hours will take a toll on most of us sooner or later.
Maybe this, and I just notice it more now? I don't know, before it always seemed like you cook until you die, but now, even with people my own age (low to mid 30's) people are leaving. Seems sooner because things are that much worse with this industry? I wonder what the long term effects of this are if people go into this knowing after 10-15 years you're going to leave anyway.
I was wondering how many people did the switch to something else because I actually just did so myself, and I keep seeing how things are now, and how things were, even months ago, when I was stressed, overworked, broke, and I'm left wondering in reality why I didn't move to the other side of things sooner. Yes, I love cooking, but I also love being able to afford rent and feed my family.
To me it just seems like there is no end game for being a chef anymore, that it's 'cook for a while then find something else when you get burnt out or have a family'. I wonder if this is another reason why nobody can find good help anymore either, because why start a career in something you'll have to leave down the road anyway if you want a family or to not have health issues when older.
Kinda nuts thinking of it that way.
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24 minutes ago, Wayne said:
You might be interested in reading this article by one of our local writers.
http://torontolife.com/food/cooks-leaving-toronto-kitchens-corey-mintz/
I actually read that after someone I know posted it on facebook. There was an article from some paper in Maine not long ago talking to 5 chefs and why they left the kitchen as well.
As I said, seems to be more prevalent now than even a few years ago, at least that I'm noticing anyway.
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So I've been working in kitchens since I was in high school, which puts me in the industry about 17 years now. It never really paid was well as other people I knew, went to school with, etc, but I was a cook, a chef, and despite all of the BS we know to be in the industry, I could never see myself doing anything else. It was a tough love, but love nonetheless.
These days, I keep hearing about more and more people switching to something else, getting out of the kitchen, hanging up their aprons, switching to something new. Staffing issues, obnoxious food shows, too many restaurants, etc, all seem to just be draining the industry even more - I'm curious to those who have been doing this for a while, if you've ever started thinking about this, especially those who have families? Do you think unless you somehow make it *huge*, that the industry has a sooner expiration date, if it does at all?
I just feel like I keep seeing more of it with people I know - so-and-so is making aprons, blah blah is working at an oyster farm, etc etc. Things still related to food, but not killing yourself in the kitchen anymore. I'll admit it's been something in the back of my mind for a while now - as much fun as something like my custom soba-kiri is, not feeling like death and working 100 hour weeks without dental just doesn't seem to be a fair trade off
So curious if those doing it for a long time think about this kind of thing, or if anyone has done a switch like this themselves.
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4 hours ago, Lisi said:
Whenever I visit a restaurant as a customer, and not as a chef, I make sure the parent knows to control their child or else I will. Our waiters are told to ask patrons to leave if they refuse to stop their children from screaming. Parents these days, they are gonna be the death of me...
To be honest, I think if you went up to a parent and made a comment like that, they would hit you. I know I would.
It's a small child, who is more or less just getting the grip of coordinated motor functions, it's not a robot. Have a child, go ahead and attempt to "control" it and let me know how that goes.
I responded in this thread a long time ago, and I still agree with what I said - a few minutes it's fine, and in most cases is unavoidable, no matter how great of a parent you are - it's just how they communicate. They can't tell you what exactly is bothering them, and they can't let you know what exactly they want - it may take a little bit to get them happy, and even then, sometimes they just want to complain for no reason.
At the end of the day, as TicTac said, you may have to put up with a little noise, it's nature. 40+ minutes, as the original article stated? No, of course not, that's beyond reason and shifts to the parents just being bad/lazy/stupid, but to think that a child can be controlled and that you can escape any noise during an outing is nonsense. Even the most well-behaved child will get hungry at some point, unless of course you plan to control them not to eat?
Even if your meaning was strictly talking about *extended* spells of screaming or cry, you just simply don't say things like that to a parent. Handle it firmly yet politely.
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I would say, as someone else said, around 50$ per recipe is decent to ask, or if there is a lot involved, figure out what their budget is per hour, a flat fee for X amount of work, etc. Work with them, come to an agreement, but settle on something that's fair for you both.
Keep in mind, this is so much more than just making a recipe that works. They're paying for a precise intellectual product that they can utilize to create product, to sell the recipe to others in some cases, etc.
And before you do anything for them, my advice that I learned the hard way - get or write up a small contract. People and companies, large or small, can easily dick you out of something.
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I'm sorry about everything. I think it's easy for some people to forget, or not understand, how an industry like this can really kick you when you're down, or if you already are, be so, so hard to get back to.
I get the depression - a long time ago, life decided to really law down a giant shit storm on everything in my life. I lost pretty much everything professionally, personally, financially, and of course at the same time got hit with multiple medical conditions that while not serious in the long term, were extremely painful. I had never really had an easy life as it was, but it just all came down at once - I really almost couldn't handle it. I sought help, I moved to try and re-start things, etc. So while nobody can ever really know what someone else is going through, I do sort of get feeling depressed, and it's something I never wish on anyone - I hope things are starting to look up, even slightly.
I don't know if anything that I say will be helpful, but I can say what helped me get back on track.
To me - learning rigid technique again, following in the "footsteps" of famous chefs, strict and proper with skills and dishes, immersing yourself back into the almost militant way of cooking that these idols of yours handle things, if the wrong first step. To me, you said right at first what in my opinion should be the starting line: You aren't happy.
What helped me was re-discovering what made me want to cook in the first place. I had to enjoy it again, and going through books, practicing my cuts, etc, sure wasn't how I found love with the profession in the first place. To me, just making food, any food, whether it was what I had been trained and taught early on or not, had to be fun. Was I probably going to screw up? Of course I was. Was I going to be as great as I was at doing X as I had been a few years ago? Probably not, but that again, was part of it. I had to discover my love of cooking all over again, and at that stage, being the rigid and organized chef again wasn't what made me happy, it had been what stressed me in the first place.
I had also found that what I had been cooking many years wasn't what I generally thought of, naturally drifted to, if left on my own. All my early career I had only done french and Mediterranean - as I just cooked for 'me' more and more, I moved away from that. Years later, my style is completely different - I had it drilled in my head I *had* to cook french when I was younger, because that had just been the *thing* to do, but after being away from kitchens for a bit, and trying to get back into it and figure out why I really wanted to do it, I had found without that drilled into my head, it wasn't what I had wanted all along. Just something to think about.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that before the technique, before the worship of other chefs, before the recreating other peoples' work, be yourself, mistakes and all. That's part of cooking, and that's part of how we all learned how to cook professionally. Once I found what made me happy, and once I WAS happy being around food again, THEN came the technique and the re-learning.
Again, just my opinion. I can't speak for you, or for anyone else, but I'm glad I took the steps that I did. I love what I do, and I don't think I still would if I hadn't rediscovered what made me love it again before anything else - because at the end of the day, why do any of us do this? It's difficult, stressful, poorly paying in many cases - if there isn't love, then what is there?
I would for sure stay with just small, intimate dinners, for now. Be around friends when you make food. Be open to trying new things. Focus on the why of your cooking, rather than the how.
I know this is all a little contradictory to the prep lists, and rigidity of what you've been looking for, but sometimes the least likely approach can be the most helpful. It's worth a thought or two
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I worked at a small place while it switched over to the kokonas system that Alinea and the like have a few years back - at the end of the day, unless you're a small, very high-end place, I don't really see the point - I noticed some people weren't jazzed about it, because 72 hours (or whatever it was) out is a lot of time, and to hold people to it that far out, especially with larger groups, was enough to annoy some enough to head elsewhere. Was it a big deal? Not really, but I also didn't really see the need of the change to that system.
I guess my opinion is sure, go for it? But what are you really gaining from it? Pre-paying does deter *some* people, and are you really *that* worried about people cancelling? Generally speaking, for really nice 'occasion' places, people are dedicated to showing up - I never really had any issues with a lot of no-shows, and unless you're charging hundreds for tasting menus and have a reputation to match, then what benefit are you getting as opposed to just charging to a # when they don't show?
And as far as tacking the tip on, I would for sure do that - I mean, as you say, people *should* be getting the same level of service, and if it's a really high end place, with the meals being set and payed up front, why leave the service up to chance? A lot of places include it, and if you're an establishment that is gunning for an all around 'special occasion' restaurant, top shelf service is just part of the package.
I'm saying if you want to do it, do it, but if not, fine too - this system was really made for places where people were paying hundreds of dollars and not showing. I think if your guest average is around low 100's, it's fine but not really needed, I doubt you'll see much of a difference.
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On 3/4/2016 at 1:56 AM, pastrygirl said:
Is there no chef or anyone training you? Some chefs have their own definition of 'medium'and ways they like their line to run that we can't necessarily advise on.
I mean.... this is sort of a big one - where's the chef, or the person training you? Instant read thermometers are going to be the best best, no matter where you are, but some may not want to spend the money, so many chefs have many different ways of teaching this, and may have their own quirks.
*Personally*, without instant reads, I used to train my guys to use cake testers - the 'poke' test is never an accurate test, and is widely known to be pretty much the least accurate. Without a digital thermometer, I've found using a cake tester (the very thin stainless steel wire), to be the quickest with the least amount of room for error. Essentially you insert this tiny piece of metal into the center of a protein, keep it there for a few seconds, take it out and immediately touch it to your lower lip, which is very sensitive, and you can feel how cold, warm, or hot, the center is. Now, this means you generally have experience with temps, and what each temperature feels like, but it's recommended for being fast and relatively accurate. If you aren't super comfortable with temps, then of course you will need someone to teach you, or just end up using a thermometer anyway.
My advice is have someone there show you, give you tips, train you, etc - there isn't a shortcut working a burger station, that's experience you need to go through. If, for some reason, there isn't someone training you if this is a new position for you, get a thermometer - shy of that, I don't think there is a concrete set of rules that anyone can give to be honest. If you're on your own, read up on techniques, get an instant read, and keep practicing.
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Every time I've had a dish or something in a mag, I just make the damn dish. Having every single thing on the plate, in exact places every time is just phony - I don't do it for service, so why would I have a picture taken of something that someone wouldn't be able to come in and get? Nature is beautiful on it's own, and while I'll wipe the plate, make sure it's clean, etc, I just don't like doctoring it up to be something it's not.
I've worked with plenty of people though who have used everything under the sun to make the 'food' look perfect. Just makes me angry.Plus, I like being able to feed the photographer once they're done, if they have time. Just a nice gesture.
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I know I'm a little late to this, but I still wanted to chime in. Personally, I wouldn't go that route. To me, just purely looking at it from pros and cons, at this point in time, I don't generally see it as worth it. I do hope someday that changes, but right now, weighing the cost vs what you get out of it....well, nope.
On the plus side of schools, you do learn a wider spectrum of things right off the bat. That is a plus early on. But at the same time, you don't learn *enough* of each thing, and as others have said, you don't learn urgency. At all. And even on a dish station, even as a prep cook, you still need to work with that. In terms of hiring for my own place, In most of the cases I found those who hadn't been to school just as knowledgeable, yet quicker, and more reliable.
I know it seems silly to say things even like that, but in my experience, it's been true. Restaurant cooking is hard. Very hard. And sadly, most schooling doesn't ready you for the real thing. This whole business is built on people who push themselves, who care 110%. If a chef is successful someday, they aren't so just because they went to school, it all ends up being what they learned over the course of the career, things they had to push themselves to master and learn on their own, or if they went to school, *after* school is long done and gone - so if you're going broke and putting yourself into debt just to reach the same point in your career a few years in as someone who did not go to culinary school, why do it?
I'm not saying school is bad - I honestly and truly think education and learning are some of the most important things in life, but *at this point in time*, with how much culinary school costs and what you get out of it, I couldn't honestly say going to culinary school at this point in time is worth it, or will really get you that much further ahead than those who did not.
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But seriously, I'm not sure that making the introduction earns you equity. I like MattyC's idea about profit sharing. Restaurants are hard, and I think there are way too many of them opening in Seattle. Are you really going to be the next Ethan Stowell? I think you may be better off with a competitive salary and some opportunities to earn bonuses as the business grows.
That's the other thing too - there are a LOT of restaurants opening everywhere. On top of that, restaurants fail, even potentially great ones. Have you or your friend ever *ran* a restaurant? Opened one start to finish? A lot of people can cook, but I can tell you first hand experience that's just scratching the surface - there are so, so many things can even go wrong, even before it's open - maybe not the worst idea to work something out a little less risky than ownership in the beginning?
Again, just a suggestion, I don't want to tell people not to open a restaurant, or be a part of one that's opening, but it may be in your best interest to look at other benefits than a straight form of ownership, especially if there aren't a lot of people involved that have been in the business of new restaurants before.
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First, determine what you want out of this. If you're only looking to be involved for something like 5 years or so, then why worry about shares and things like that? That has it's own risks, and if you have other plans for the future, or if your end game doesn't coincide with this group and it's goals/style , then just being an employee is honestly for the best, especially as others have said, things go south.
If you're strictly speaking in terms of money, I'm not sure just being someone who introduced a few people is worth a high salary or a lot of money. On the business side of things, everyone involved would be getting paid and rewarded based on what they can contribute to the business, and other than introductions, you say you'll be starting as a sous - every sous working, or at least many, have goals of becoming CDC or what have you, so on paper, you'd really just be offering up what any sous would be able to bring to the table, so I can't see how that would entitle more money.
Now, I do have a suggestion, who knows if this would be something people would want, and it would need to be legally done up, but what about inquiring about a profit sharing package? You don't need to be involved as ownership, but let's say you get a contract done up, after X amount is paid back to the investors, or X amount of time goes by with the company, you start getting Y% of the profits? This way, if the first restaurant(s) are successful, you'll be rewarded more than just a regular employee, and it will encourage you to stick it out. And it terms of the ownership looking at it, if things aren't going well right off the bat, they didn't get stuck paying someone large amounts of money, and it would give an employee incentive to work hard, especially in the beginning, and if things go really well, they have an employee well rewarded.
Just a thought. I have friends who have done that, and they were always happy with that. They worked hard, helped the resto become successful, they ended up making really good money, and the owners didn't have to worry about paying a ton in the beginning getting a business off the ground.
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I loved Food Wars - although I actually enjoyed it *more* for the silliness and over the top nature, than history/culture stuff, and anything else. I tend to dislike most reality shows and whatnot because it's they're too dramatic/fight inducing, especially these days.
Food Wars did have some good facts and whatnot though - they had a professional collaborate and provide recipes, so everything is doable and real, although with other food centered anime, they tend to be fairly on point, so I'm not surprised.
I've never felt so excited/kept in suspense for potatoes cooking, than I have with Food Wars, if that's a selling point to anyone?
Fair warning though, there is a bit of fan service* if people aren't cool with that kind of thing - I think it actually worked pretty well with the whole 'over the top reaction' to food, and putting 'food porn' out there in a literal sense - a friend told me the guy who directed used to do ecchi, so it's not surprising, but I haven't confirmed.
But if you like anime, and like food (which I assume people do here?), I'd say it's a good watch.
*For those who don't know what I'm talking about, fan service isn't nudity or sex, but it's pretty much as close as you can get - Lot's of cleavage and whatnot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's out of place, but it does work here where it's used IMO. They REALLY enjoy the food.
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Just learned that I have an option to save the video to my phone, which I can then upload to Vimeo or YouTube. I don't know if its worth doing all that since its more about the immediate interactions, but good to know.
I think for special events/menus that could be kinda cool? People can still interact real-time, but also since they're special it would have appeal for later viewing. I dunno. I've been thinking about stuff like that when my place opens, seems like it could be fun - I'd do things like that now but it would be boring to watch me standing in a kitchen under construction drinking coffee.
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Will have to check your stream out - I've done a few broadcasts on there for some of my special dinners - did a 32 course that was like 7 hours, had a decent number of people watching and chatting, was fun. I tried to answer questions and joke with the people in the chat, I enjoyed it a lot.
I think it's a good market to get in to, the few restaurants that stream service on there tend to suck big time, IE some form of bad techno music and line cooks standing around. So if you had a decent stream, interesting and fun, you could probably get some pretty big viewing numbers.
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If it's counter positions, generally that's an hourly rate - It's not needed to tip, since the assumption with those paying them is that whatever wage they're making is on par with counter duties, not full service. I know some places leave a tip jar, but my experience is just if you want - I throw in money if they were kind and personable, but I don't tip in my standard 20% like I would for full service places, I just toss in a buck or two.
I still wouldn't say it's even needed - it's nice if they were good people, but it's not the same expectation as full service.
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I'm iffy on Eater. I've deal with people eater a bunch of times, and while they're good people, they're stuff is really up and down. Some articles they do the research, poll industry people, check around, so sometimes stuff is accurate, whereas the other half of the time it's just crap that gets emailed to them and they have to put out, or just rehash what the bloggers got to first, or what moron sent to them on the tip line.
I'd trust Eater for general ideas I guess, but I wouldn't swear by it, or be surprised if things are inaccurate or not worthy of a 'Best of' list.
Just with my own personal experiences, sometimes they've asked for details from me, other times they've just out of the blue pulled from a website or even facebook of mine, reported it half-assed, and I've had to email them to get facts changed and accurate.
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I actually disagree quite a bit - I see nothing wrong with adding more substance to a cookbook other than recipes. Honestly, I don't buy just books with recipes anymore - if you need a straightforward recipe, it's a 2-second search on the internet. Information is so easy to get these days, I think this is more of a sign of the times, rather than an easy to sell fad. People want more, because the knowledge base of everything is so much more than it used to be.
I like knowing where the inspiration came from for something, I enjoy knowing the process about how someone came up with something - hey, the author has a favorite soy sauce he uses, and talks about the maker? Great! I like knowing this, because it opens up a little bit more to me, exposes me to new products, and is far more interesting than how X's recipe is different by 1 teaspoon than Y's.
Honestly, she just sounds like an 80 year old when the internet came out, complaining how the picture box could talk to people.
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I've watched a few 'shows' and streams like this on periscope from time to time, just for kicks. I literally couldn't even figure out the slightest bit of appeal - some of the feeds were from fine dining places, so not only was the music bad ( I believe one place even had some terrible trance music playing as they tweezed the plates),everything was sterile and cold, nobody was smiling, and every plate leaving the pass was wiped down about 30 times more than needed because everyone was just standing around.
The only fun part of that was that it was on periscope, which means that everyone watching could comment and chat real time, and everyone was just making fun of it and commenting about how terrible it was to watch.
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So, I've recently become the Exec, at a local place. I've no real authority to change the menu, thanks to my owners. I can, and have, tried my best to improve the existing menu, as it stands. I've been met with about a 50/50 split of lovers and haters. The lovers, of course, urge me to keep going in my current direction, which I appreciate. The naysayers, however, are of an old lot, local folks who only discovered the place, because they heard (and discovered) that the food was bland, and unexciting.
What should I do? My owners are about 50% sympathetic to them, and its killing me, because I have to work twice as hard, to make both flavorful, and bland food, haha.
I'm caught in a position in which I like my owners, but hate my customers, ya know? Perhaps it's the opposite, now that I think of it...
I'm literally at a 50/50 point, as far as tableside commentary is concerned. Half love it, half hate it. The ones who love it are youngerish, 30-35, people like me, almost. The older crowd is really becoming a problem, though. Tonight was slow, but we still had about 20 people come in at once, half of them ordered steaks, mid-rare...then sent them back until they were mid-well...
Those of us in the business know what I'm talking about, and know that I mean no offense to anyone...
How can I, if I can at all, retrain my customers to accept tasty food, instead of pasty food?!!?
You can't, just like everyone else said.
Anytime there is a new chef, any time a place changes hands, or anytime someone wants to 'jazz things up' in a kitchen with an existing customer base, you'll have pissy people, and you'll have customer loss. That's just how things are.
People like what they like, and as bad as it sounds, generally speaking, the older bracket *really* like what they like, and that's it, no changes, and nothing new. When you're in a situation like this.....honestly, it's not worth it if you're trying to steer things in a new direction - that or you just suck it up and collect your paycheck, and deal with the fact a certain crowd will like one direction, and one will like the other. You just can't make everyone happy, and you won't be able to change their minds.
It sounds pretty bleak, but it's how it is.
There always comes a time when you just have to decide what's more important - cooking just to make the customers happy, or cooking to make yourself happy, because there are a million restaurants and areas where it can't be both.
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Sorry if I'm butting in here late - I've read everything (I think), and tried to keep up on things when I could, and I know in the end I'm not really adding much, but I sincerely wish you the best of luck, and will try and buy a copy for sure. This whole process is infuriating - so many undeserving cookbooks get published, and you're having a hard time.
I have an old friend, who used to be close at one time, who is putting out a cookbook in I think in Oct. Literally her only 'claim to fame' was that she was recently on a big food contest show - she did terribly, to be honest (getting kicked off halfway through the season, and probably should have gone before that), so it's even more frustrating to me to see just because she failed in front of a country, that she gets to put out an incredibly boring cookbook easy as pie, when there are others who struggle. Stay strong man - also, with the crowdfunding, aren't there a few services that are solely for food related things? I think crowdfooding is one, If I remember right. The apron and knife roll maker from Maine, weft and warp seamster, failed with kickstarter, but was able to fund his new workshop on one of those - just a thought, not sure if you've thought of that, or tried it. Also, my old colleagues publisher is 'page street publishing' based out of salem ma - just a thought, since they handled hers in a time when there is a lot that get turned down, and they seem to do quite a few cookbooks.
Hope anything helps, and good luck with all of this.
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Becoming a chef
in Restaurant Life
Posted
If it's something you really feel you're passionate about, then by all means pursue it. People have offered some good suggestions about getting your foot in the door and starting out - it's all great advise.
But I want to be very clear on a few things, because one of the more idiotic things I see are young cooks coming in who make decent home food, think they can become a 'professional chef' in just a few years with minimal work or real skill. If someone or something tells you that this is an easy profession to excel at, they're either an idiot, or work in a shitty hotel.
40-60 hours a week is laughably putting it lightly - don't be surprised if you, at times early on once you make it to some sort of leadership role and hit salary, end of working 70-100 hours. Have you worked triple digit work weeks consistently? If's stressful, exhausting, and just flat out crushing. You will hurt, want sleep, and never see existing friends or family. This year will be the first holiday season I get to see my family in maybe like 8 years - Every other year I've been working or too exhausted and sore from work to travel to see them. Generally speaking, holidays mean nothing to kitchen staff except days you have even more work to do.
Do you like having money to spend on things? Too bad, because in most cases you get paid shit. And I don't mean just 'kinda bad', but as in 14/hr is, where I'm from, a 'Good' starting pay. Congrats, if you're lucky enough to work a normal work week at about 40 hours, you'll make an astounding 29k per year.
Thankfully though, chefs who scream at you all the time are getting phased out - someone finally let it sink in teaching instead of throwing pans was a little better for a team building environment, but don't think you'll do something right the first time. Or the second. Or the third. Get ready for lots of criticism - things need to be on point, every time, so a little 'oopsy' in the middle of a busy dinner service isn't usually met with a pat on the back and the chef saying 'I'm sure the gentleman waiting 20 minutes already for that steak you burnt the shit out of will understand and will buy us all Ferraris as a token of friendship!'.
I'm not saying all of this to be negative, I'm saying it to be truthful and honest about what you want to get in to. Too many young cooks these days get it in their heads they can be what they saw on Top Chef or what have you for minimal work, when the reality is that this is a very, very, tough industry. This is a profession for people who care, and are passionate, and really have to enjoy every aspect of food, or else it's pointless. Especially these days - you need to be knowledgeable, you need to be a problem solver, you need to be a hard and tireless worker, you need to be learning new things every. single. day. - and to be a chef, not just a cook, you need to be a leader and a teacher, hold yourself to higher standards than the day before. Don't expect a payout any time soon, even in the first 10 years, honestly. And even then, it's all based on what you put into it yourself. You need to practice, to learn on your own and in the kitchen.
So again, if food and cooking is really something you are truly passionate, by all means go for it. But this is not a profession for the lighthearted, you need to really invest yourself. Try it out in a professional kitchen, and be honest to yourself later on if it's something you can stick with or not, there's no harm in realizing *now* that it isn't your thing.