Working in a real kitchen has changed my outlook at school

[lokbot]

Hello everyone I've been going to culinary school at a community college for 2 semesters and have been working in a fast paced fine dinning restaurant for 3 months now. It has taken me to the point where I don't find my classes challenging and am generally unmotivated at school. The pace and output at work has me bored at school and running circles around other people. Now I'm even questioning if I want to continue next semester so I can get a second job in another kitchen. I wonder to myself if the AS degree is going to be worth while in the long run. I really only have desire to work in independent restaurants and don't care for corporate gigs (the hand and neck tattoos make that hard anyways ) I feel that people go through school to get a job doing what I do and I already reached that point. Don't get me wrong I don't think I know everything. I just have a feeling that I will learn more from working than going to school. I just don't want to shoot myself in the foot for not getting the paper that can help me or even give me a higher pay grade.

I'm wanting some guidance from people who have been where I am right now. I plan on talking to my chef at work this week and the executive chef from my school. My semester is coming to an end so it's about time for me to try to make a choice. Well thanks for taking the time to listen to me vent. I hope to hear feed back from you soon.

-Loki

[Willspear]

suck it up and finish while working at one job. Throwing away a what half completed as degree is kind of foolish as it can help open doors more and more. Just my thoughts but community college is cheap and you are a good chunk done and being able to put a college down on a resume is a nice thing. Sure you'll make more money for one year but who knows what opportunity you may miss due to lacking a degree. More and more places are looking for a degree + experience these days and with the economy where it is they can be picky and you are getting both its really win win.

also from school you pick up some things that are nice to have like typically serve safe cert if you ever plan to get in with the acf the as degree cuts a ton off the cont education requirement.

Also worth noting often times you can learn some things worth knowing that you wont do working the line in many places like more extensive baking etc. It will help round you out a little. The accounting courses are always good as a good chef needs to be on budget and also worth mentioning the language courses are always handy. Learning good spanish is a worthwhile venture and its never bad to learn a 3rd language.

just because you are better than some people who have never cooked before doesn't mean there is nothing to learn if you look you will learn more. Get to know your instructors pay attention to their teaching styles use them for industry contacts they may have.

food and the production of food is the easy part its the everything else that is hard. At the end of the day I make pretty damn good food for example but if it wasn't for every little thing learned from all over to do with people and managing of people and how to handle situations I wouldn't be much better than a solid cook.

[Lisa Shock]

I agree that you should stay in school and finish the degree. You've got a good opportunity there to get a degree under your belt fairly quickly. Then, if you so desire, you can get more challenging degrees later. There are now master's degrees out there to be earned in culinary programs, and if you quit at one school, you may have to start from scratch if you decide to move ahead with education in the future. And, in the future, you will be competing for jobs with those people who have bachelor's and master's degrees.

Also, your job can't cover everything you'll learn in school, like Willspear's example of baking. There will be things to learn, including discipline and the value of practicing. You've also got things to memorize (like the temperatures at which each of the three components of an egg cook, the temperatures for tempering various types of chocolate, and the effects of acids and bases to name a few) which can take you further into modern experimental cuisine.

I'd also like to mention that there's always something to be learned in a situation. I'm in my 40's and I'm still learning a lot, even in situations I've lived through hundreds of times. You've got to be open to it, because it ultimately means that you'll keep growing and improving.

Since you're doing so well in school, you've got the perfect opportunity to really hone your skills: perfecting your knife cuts, developing more speed, and of course, mentoring others.

As an 'A' student you'll be first on everyone's list for referrals and future opportunities -something you may need if your relationship with the current boss goes sour. Fact is, the school will give you things on pieces of paper (transcripts, letters of recommendation, awards, etc.) that you'll have to show for the rest of your life. -Five, ten, twenty years from now, who knows where your current boss will be and if he'll be willing to send out a letter of recommendation.

Then, there's the issue of your training as viewed by future employers. Just because one place does things a certain way doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best way. Employers want to know that you have learned the theory and techniques properly so that you can optimize their business, not run their kitchen just like someone else's. Many employers would rather help someone who just graduated get up to speed than have to break a know-it-all of a hundred bad habits.

[lokbot]

thanks for the feed back guys. You've been able to help put things in a better light. Especially that 5 years from now I wouldn't have anything but an extra year at a second job on my resume, but a degree is so much more than that.

-Loki

[angevin]

It sounds like others have been pretty convincing. But I'll also add that you should about what you'll be doing at age 30, 40...50. I work at a large food company that employs chefs; many come here having had it with the long odd hours and backbreaking work, maybe they want to start families, etc. Experience and culinary degrees are required.

I realize at this exciting stage in your life, that option might sound pretty distasteful, but you never know. A degree you'll always have...it leaves your options open as you move through the stages in life.

[SuperdavE]

Loki

I was in the same predicament you are in where i was working at a bomb restaurant under a great chef and i wasnt learning a damn thing in school. I recently stopped taking classes and picked up a prep cook job at another restaurant. I dont regret it at all yet but im planning to go back someday and finish my degree.

A great thing about having two jobs is that even though im not learning anything at my prep job, im still making alot of money which is going towards a trip to chicago to eat at Alinea and L2O.

Ultimately it's up to you to decide what is better for you and your situation. No lie, the degree helps in the long run but i dont think a break would hurt if you needed it.

[lokbot]

Yeah I figure I better knock it out now because I plan on leaving California and if I do I'll most likely not come back just to finish up my degree and the credits probably won't transfer. I'm just trying to fill my bank account so I can stage a really nice restaurant for a while when I finish school. One of my friends from school has the great fortune to be staging "The French Laundry" this summer.

-Loki

[Special K]

What Willspear (or was that Bacon?) and the others have said: Stay in school. You'll be glad you did in the long run. As I recall, it's in the last few quarters that you really learn the business end of the profession. It's hard, and it's boring, and you might hate it, but boy, will you be glad you learned it when you need it later on.

I'd also stay in touch with that friend who's staging at The French Laundry! Who knows, they might ask him to recommend his successor!

And just a side note, don't let your tattoos keep you from trying for a coporate gig down the line if you want it. One of the best teachers here at my high school is a former chef, and her tattoos (awesome as they are) didn't keep her from being hired to teach impressionable young teenagers!!

[Edward J]

LokBot:

You're barking up the wrong tree....

Look, school has one, and only one mandate: To learn the curriculum.

Work has only one mandate: To turn a profit.

School is not work, and work is not school.

If you're lucky you will be shown the right way to learn techniques and procedures in the workplace, but it is not the employer's mandate to do this. If it is more profitable to say, make "omelettes" on the flat top, or to bake the crud out of them under the salamander, or to mark off a bunch of steaks and then finish them off in the oven, then it will be done. Speed is of the importance here.

At school the focus is on the right way of doing things, but not speed. Then again you're paying to learn this stuff, so you might as well milk all you can out of the experience.

Whatchyaneed is to find out what happens to cooks when they turn 40-ish. Actual cooking pays diddly-squat, and to earn a decent living you need to move into management--ie: a Chef.

A good Chef can not be unless he/she was a good cook--just like a good coach can not be unless he was a team player beforehand. In life, nothing is finite.

Don't take my word for it, ask around.

Hope this helps

[roosterchef21]

Stick it out and finish your degree. Who knows, you may not enjoy a kitchen so much when your 30. It's good to have that degree for any future career paths you have in mind. It may help with university entry or getting another job in a slightly different career path.

[Anna N]

Get your degree! I once worked for Atomic Energy of Canada and we had people with degrees in everything from Marine Biology to Theology and it didn't matter if they were in the typing pool or designing nuclear reactors, if they had a degree of any kind they were automatically in a higher wage bracket. A degree is not just a piece of paper but proof that you can set and reach goals!

[fishoner]

always finish what you start u dont start projects at work and then hand them off to someone else do you