Michelin Starred Sommelier hours / Fine dining

[J_elias86]

I wanted to hear a few opinions on hours of work / lifestyle balance.

I know it is important to be on the floor in the restaurant conveying knowledge, However, it is also important to have leisure time to improve that knowledge.

A few questions for those practicing as Somms:

* How many hours are you currently working in your resto?

* How do these hours vary with previous restos you have worked at?

* Are you happy with the hours you are working?

* Do you have any experience working in france / italy as a somm? if so, how did this vary?

Kindest,

J.

[piracer]

I was working as a sommelier trainee in Les Amis, a restaurant in Singapore based on its wine list (78th best in the world in the top 100). We had 4 sommeliers working for a restaurant that usually sat about 40 or so on a busy night so yeah, we took it pretty seriously. Working hours wise, we pretty much did the same as kitchen crew (if that means anything to you). We had a really loose schedule where if you came in at 10am you would leave earlier than the guys that came in at 11am. So if you were staying for closing, i would normally get back home by 1am, earlier if it wasnt busy. So it was about 11am - 4pm, 6pm to closing (anywhere from 12am-1am). Obviously there were periods of time where we were extremely busy and everyone went home only at like 2.30am on that one particular night (it was a big ass party with 20 bottles (including magnums) or Petrus and DRCs.)

From my experience, the hours were pretty much the same in the other restaurants i had worked in. Lifestyle is of course really up to you. I had colleagues that always went out during their 2 hour break to meet friends or get stuff done, sometimes i just slept in the restaurant cause your always tired. Our head sommelier who is now the director of wines for the entire company (like 10 restaurants, 1 of which is in Hong Kong) could pretty much come and go as he like since he was turning over his duties to the next head sommelier. I dont know if you can be happy with these hours. I knew what the hours were like since ive always worked in restaurants. I didnt particularly like it (missed a lot of outings with friends and family) but it was a short 3 month stint before going off to uni.

Non of the sommeliers worked in France or Italy, although many of the sommeliers that worked for the company had opportunities to go to France and Italy to meet the wine makers, and of course we often had wine makers come down to the restaurant to do wine tastings and what not, usually during our breaks.

So i hope my experience helps you a little bit. Best advice is to just find a working sommelier right now and ask him/her. If you want to work with wines and like interacting with people (which is always fun), i definitely recommend it. Unfortunately, i just came from working in the kitchen so sometimes it was annoying not being able to cook.

[J_elias86]

Thanks for your information. That sounds really interesting. By the sounds of it you were doing around 70 hours a week? Is that correct? I'm intrigued by the learning difference between hands on and book study. It sounds like you were working with some amazing products.

[Pam Brunning]

Piracer I like your expression ‘big ass party’ was that their physique or their bank balances?!!