Landing your first fine dining kitchen job

[Twyst]

I'm currently a culinary arts student and am wondering what the best way for me to get my foot in the door of a fine dining restaurant is. I have significant experience in the front of the house, but have zero back of the house experience. Im more than willing to stage and work for free, but what types of places should I be looking for for my first experiences, and how should I approach trying to earn an internship? Should I be aiming high and trying to offer my services to well known restaurants or should I just try to volunteer anywhere in order to at least get a little kitchen experience before I try to stage in more wel known kitchens?

Edited January 20, 2012 by Twyst (log)

[ScoopKW]

1) What's your GPA?

2) Does your school have a culinary competition team? Are you on it? Has the team won anything?

3) Have you done any volunteering?

4) What languages do you speak?

Basically, are you graduating with something to show an employer besides a sheepskin? Makes a big difference when job hunting. There are thousands of recent culinary school grads hitting the streets every semester, looking for work. It's my experience that employers are looking for people who did more than just attend classes.

The reason for question #4 is that I would leave the country and work in a kitchen abroad to build up experience.

[Twyst]

Thanks for taking the time to reply! Im currently a 4.0 student in culinary school and graduated from regular university with a 3.7 average. Ive joined the ACF chapter at my school and am in the wine club. I have also volunteered both at the food bank and spent time working the field with a local CSA. The problem is Ive never set foot in a professional kitchen and dont know how to go about getting a foot in the door. Im getting a late start as I am 30 and decided I hated sitting at a desk all day doing a job I despised, so I think going overseas for an extended period of time is not something that would be possible for me at the current time.

Edited January 21, 2012 by Twyst (log)

[ScoopKW]

The problem is Ive never set foot in a professional kitchen and dont know how to go about getting a foot in the door.

Your school doesn't have a restaurant that serves the public? If so, that counts as a professional kitchen.

Unfortunately, I think your chances of jumping straight into fine-dining are nil. There are simply too many applicants for a dwindling supply of positions. My experience with culinary school is that it allows the graduate to skip the "start as a dishwasher/pantry worker" bottom-rung on the ladder and go straight to prep.

Prep is prep -- it doesn't really matter where you do it. If fine-dining is your goal, move someplace that has a LOT of fine-dining restaurants. New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New Orleans -- whatever city fits your needs the best. Go work at any restaurant. Work like hell for a year. Go out to eat a LOT (and network, network, network*). And then start putting in resumes.

* Don't just network with back-of-the-house. A good restaurant manager can get you a job just as easily as a chef can.

[Karri]

I am currently working at this hotel on the beautiful, sunny island of Gran Canaria I know for a fact we take students.

Moneywise the hotel will pay for a part of your flight, offers a room to stay in in the hotel and three meals a day.

It's a five star hotel, if you decide to send an application, put in that you are interested in working in La Trattoria and the Orangerie.

The kitchen is very experimental and the menu is actually changing now. We run a 4-piece set menu on a two week rotation. The culinary style is Italian in La Trattoria and French in the Orangerie.

Welcome!

[ChefJohnny]

If you've never worked in a kitchen before, Id suggest you don't go straight to "fine dining." They'll chew you up and spit you out in a heartbeat. Get your feet wet someone decent. Learn. Work hard. Gain some rep. Then try to move up to the finer restaurants in whatever town your in.

And just to throw my $.02 in the pot, your GPA, club affiliations, blah blah blah doesn't mean as much as you think it does. This industry is flooded with kids right out of culinary school. Ive been in the position to hire culinary school grads MANY times, and I'm look more for practical experience and work ethic than I do for GPA or ACF membership status. What's going to set you above everyone else is your talent, not what grade you got in Knife Skills class. Get into a restaurant and work your ass off, say Yes/No Chef, and PUSH. Trust me, it'll go a long way when you ask your Chef for a recommendation to get into a better/fine dining kitchen.

- Chef Johnny

P.S.- I graduated with a BA in Culinary Arts from J&W. So don't think I'm talking down, in any way, to a culinary school education.

[piracer]

In my experience i've been told where i worked in Singapre to alway aim for the very best restaurants if your just starting out and doing prep. As scoop said earlier, prep is prep but i would say being some place fine dining may hold your prep work to a hugher standard. Not saying that a cafe or bistro cant put out fine food but easentially since its the bottom rung of the ladder it'll be easier to get a place then if you were applying for a sous position, for example. Good luck though!