How to become a cook?

[DanM]

Are there any chefs near you that you admire? I would give them a call and see if you can get 20 minutes of their time to discuss being a chef and any advice they have to further your career. If you are daring, you could even offer to stanche for a day.

If you want to learn the basics, I also recommend learning some baking and skills. The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg and Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman will teach you what you want to know.

Dan

[Panaderia Canadiense]

And if you're serious about picking up baking skills, talk to the actual panadero/a at a local artisanal bakery. There are some things that can't be easily learned from books that a master breadmaker can show you in a day.

[acidfrog]

Not sure if this is the correct place to post this

Just made a decision to really go for it in the culinary industry

2 weeks in and already met a lot of people.

Just starting to worry if i can take on this journey with no culinary college degree or educative background.

i am pretty confident that it is not needed as i feel like there is little i will learn that i already know especially in the first year or two.and how much i could possibly gain in those 2 years by working hard in a kitchen.

Unfortunately only getting little prep and a lot of pot washing at the moment but other offers have been flying about.

What do you guys think am i lost without college or university or an institutional award ?

[liuzhou]

Yes, College first.

i feel like there is little i will learn that i already know

Ha! You don't know what you don't know,

[acidfrog]

An expanded answer would be more appreciated.

[acidfrog]

i guess im looking for people to encourage and tell me why not to in all fairness

[Mjx]

. . . . Just made a decision to really go for it in the culinary industry

2 weeks in and already met a lot of people.

Two weeks into what? That is, in what sort of place are you working (e.g. restaurant, diner, hotel restaurant, catering service)?

Not sure what you mean by 'a lot of people'; well-connected to others in the industry who have useful jobs to offer?

Just starting to worry if i can take on this journey with no culinary college degree or educative background.

i am pretty confident that it is not needed as i feel like there is little i will learn that i already know especially in the first year or two.and how much i could possibly gain in those 2 years by working hard in a kitchen.

Unfortunately only getting little prep and a lot of pot washing at the moment but other offers have been flying about.

Without knowing anything about your relevant background, it's not possible to really say; more details are definitely needed, but a 'little prep and a lot of pot washing' is not going to get you far.

What sort of offers have been 'flying about', and are they being offered to you, or someone who's only done a bit of prep and washed dishes?

What do you guys think am i lost without college or university or an institutional award ?

Well, what is your goal?

Apart from that, if you look at the careers of various successful chefs, it's pretty clear that there's no one winning formula, but no one gets far without working their arse off and being in the right place at the right time, with a robust skill set (regardless of how acquired) ready to deploy.

[liuzhou]

An expanded answer would be more appreciated.

Sorry. I don't know what you don't know.

If you want an expanded answer, go to college. That is what they provide.

[acidfrog]

I am working in a restaurant of decent quality they try the right things and are using local produce

Head and sous chef just came from a Michelin establishment

By meeting i mean networking

I have a large library of cook books and chemical analysis books i have spent a lot of time with food and in a domestic kitchen i have previously been offered a few writing jobs and did a bit of prep and station work a year ago

i understand that but i feel and trust the guys when they say they will try to throw some more things my way and get me more hours which they have kept to so far

my goal is to be cooking have a role of reasonable responsibly in a desirable establishment

sorry about lack of punctuation my keyboard has broke well the coma and full stop buttons to be precise

[acidfrog]

Sorry

i think you were mistaken i am not writing currently it was a job offered to me whilst i was doing a bit of travel writing

although thank you for the nice warm welcome to the forum

i feel a bit deflated now

i was probably just asking for re-assurance that not going down the path of college is appropriate and is just as valid

that and a friendly conversation

ow well

sorry for interrupting *your* forum

[minas6907]

Hey man, dont take it so personal. In all fairness, I'm also having a difficult time discerning what your looking for. Do you want to be a chef? Truthfully, any chef in the industry will tell you that spending two weeks doing some prep and dish washing is certainly not enough to decide that you want to go head on in the culinary field. I think most individuals would need to give it a few years.

[acidfrog]

yeah of course i understand that totally for sure

i have done a few months before and it is about 2 months i have been working now to be more accurate but i can understand for sure how people drop in and out of it all the time

all i know for now is that i have done quite a few thing over the past 4 years and none of them have been as pleasurable and given me as much passion as being in a kitchen

unfortunately all i know for now is that which could all change so i think you are right if i am still game 2 years from now then maybe i should look into college but for now i will continue to get my head down and work with a fire under my ass get around and meet people learning as much as possible !

[Edward J]

O.K., here's long and well thought out answer:

N.American culinary schools focus on "front end loading". That is, they cram you full of knowledge, with little emphasis on repetition or developing skills to compliment this new knowledge. The experience needed is left up to your future employer and you.

Now, in defense of culinary schools, they do teach you the right way of doing things (or they should, in any case...) It is almost impossible to find an employer who will teach you the right way to do the variety of techniques (sauteing, braising, hot and cold emulsions, dough work, cold work, meat fabrication, seafood preparation, etc) that you really need.

In defense of the employer, you will be shown how to work quickly and efficiently, you will be expected to develop your skills and to apply what you have learned to more and more elaborate dishes.

In other words, both school and on-the-job-learning compliment each other. This is something the Europeans figured out a long time ago, and why apprenticeships are a three way contract between apprentice, employer, and learning institution--almost an ideal situation.

Bear in mind, in the U.S. there are no national standards/benchmarks that defines a cook. This fact is one of the reasons that the hospitality industry is the way it is.

Best advice I can offer you?

Work for about a year before going into culinary school. Work p/t during culinary school.

Remember this: If you go into culinary school with "0" work experience, you will graduate from culinary school with "o" work experience. This fact does not go un-noticed by future employers.

Hop this helps

[Lisa Shock]

One big difference between culinary school and on the job training is depth of knowledge. Working, you'll learn your restaurant's menu and style and what your head chef likes, and not much more. So, you'll wind up with an in-depth knowledge of, say, Portuguese food but with no grounding in pastry fundamentals.

Even with a bunch of books, and a good knowledge of French, you're missing the hands-on instruction you'll get at school. -Whether it's help fluting mushrooms, boning a whole chicken intact, or learning the feel of underdeveloped gluten in bread dough, there's a lot of hands-on education in school.

Also, as time goes by, you will be at a big disadvantage without a degree. Most chefs have them now, if not master's degrees, and, twenty years from now I expect that having at least a bachelor's degree will be absolutely necessary. Most people I know now, at mid-life, are returning to school to get the master's to be able to progress at work.

[Dexter]

There are also a large number of different options in the educational paths you take. Going to a culinary program at one school may be very different from the another. What I mean is, going to a school like Cornell of University of Houston, they have degrees in Hospitality Management. There are still culinary programs within those departments that are very good, but the programs emphasis is on the management end of the business. Other schools, like Johnston and Wales, or the CIA also offer bachelors degrees, but their programs focus more on the kitchen and service itself. Yes, they cover managerial details well, and you will have the option of custom tailoring your education anywhere you end up.

Also ask yourself, how much money am I willing to pour into this? Culinary school is an expense. If you do a search, you will find several threads where we've hashed over the relative merits and faults of schools vs just going straight to work. (Honestly, it's worth your time to do a search and read through them. This forum has a ton of very talented people on it who have offered decades of experience and perspective in every imaginable aspect of the culinary world.) Some schools are fantastically, head spinningly expensive. And, for the most part, the jobs are not high paying - particularly when you are starting out. I personally find it hard to justify taking on a $100,000 loan to get jobs that pay less than $15/hr. However, there are community college programs, many of which are excellent, that cost a small fraction of that amount. The trade off is the badge on the diploma. What that's worth depends very much on your personal goals.

All of these schools want you to do externships. A couple of them (the CIA in particular) require you to have a fair amount of time in a professional kitchen before you are admitted to the program. This is their way of acknowledging that an academic environment does not teach you everything you need to know to go to work. It's like Edward J said above - schools teach you a very broad base of "what's right", but don't teach you speed or efficiency. Workplaces teach you speed and efficiency, but will really only teach you what they want, regardless of wether or not it's "right."

Either way, work now. School can wait a couple of years. Learning that this is (or is not!) an appropriate fit is more important than anything else. Work hard, and keep trying to find new things to take on and do well in the kitchen. Stage at other restaurants. And be honest with yourself about what you want to be doing in 5 years time.

Best of luck,

-D

(Hah - in the time it took me to post this, LindaK posted two of the bigger threads on schools vs work. Well played!)

Edited October 14, 2012 by Dexter (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I forgot to mention the humble cost card, which you will be forced to learn about in school, but, may not be taught at work. Whole television shows (Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, Restaurant Impossible) have been constructed to display unschooled restaurateurs' inability to create a cost card. It can mean the difference between profit and bankruptcy.

Sanitation is also an area where a school environment may excel over a real-world application. School will probably offer (the good ones do) an advanced sanitation course like ServSafe, whereas to work in most counties you just need a food handler card which can be gotten by answering 20 really basic questions. School will also drill you on cleaning schedules and equipment cleaning procedures.

[gfweb]

One piece of advice...avoid debt.

[ChefRobb]

I was over 20 years (off and on) in the food service indusrty before I attended Culinary School. I breezed through the first year and a half. Then the classes became more in depth and I realized there is a ton I didnt (and still dont) know about professional cooking.

Yes you can make it in the industry without a degree but the odds are very much stacked against you. Even with a degree you still must pay your dues and work your way up, a process that takes years. School just accelerates the process.

It also depends on what you mean by making it. Lets face it, very few Chefs are rich. Some make a very good living at it. But most do it for the love (because the pay sucks). It is a cut-throat business and a very stressful and demanding one. If your goal is simply to cook and you don't require things like insurance, job security, or extra cash then follow your dreams.

I appoligize for being blunt but there is a reason why the average turn-around rate for restaurant staff is 250% annually.

My best advice to you is work as hard as you can for at least a year. Prove you are dedicated by hanging around after your shift and asking questions. Take on as many tasks as you can handle and let it be known to anyone who will listen that it is your intention to learn to cook. Sooner or later you will be given a chance. Be humble, be respectful, and work your butt off. Practice and study in your off hours. If after a year you still want to continue then you will know what path is right for you.

You can learn a lot by working as a cook, but it is usually limited to the dishes and cooking methods used in a specific kitchen. School frees you of this by giving the knowledge and skills to apply to any kitchen. That is why I decided to go to school. I was tired of being told that this is the way it is done because the Chef said so.

Now I'm the Chef.

Best of luck to you. There has never been a more exciting time to be a professional cook.

[radtek]

I say get an education. In the industry you will be expected to know most of the fundamental aspects of traditional recipes and profession of cooking. Sure you can follow direction at a restaurant and learn/parrot their methods and recipes but you will have a hard time without knowing the "Why" and rationale of what you are doing and accomplishing. Your confidence may be high; however, I've spent a lot of time around restaurant kitchens and it's very apparent who is educated and who was just a line cook. Even those with many years of experience.

And it will say something about you to a potential employer. There's a world of difference between those that have chosen this lifestyle and those that have little choice.

Edited October 25, 2012 by radtek (log)

[Alex]

I agree with ChefRobb and radtek, and for this reason as well: I'm not in the field (except for some time on the writing end of things), but I suspect it's much like many others--your being able to do what you want, where you want, is part what you know, part (likely a bigger part) who you know. School will help you with both of those. The rest is luck, serendipity, cosmic confluence, or whatever else you want to call it.

[ScoopKW]

I think a good liberal arts program is a must. Not just for the career, but for a well-rounded life. Learn Spanish. Seriously. Learn it. Other languages might be French and/or Chinese. You can't go wrong learning a bunch of languages. History courses are useful. Writing courses are similarly useful. My advice for education would be: 1) Go get a BA in something. History, English, journalism, communications, doesn't really matter. Go get a classic education. Then go to a culinary school. And work in kitchens to pay for it all the entire time. Maybe part-time work. But keep at it. My BA from a highly-regarded school has helped me in life so many times, I can't imagine what life might be without it. And while you're at it, take some finance courses, just because. This isn't a particularly lucrative field. Know how to manage your money. You might also want to consider getting an MBA. Most of the executive chefs where I work have MBAs in addition to culinary training. At the end of the day, a restaurant is a business, much like any other. That's why we call the restaurant "the store." As in, "We don't have any foie in the store, chef. Please order some."

I agree with everyone who says that culinary school will show you how to do things properly, once. But kitchen work will teach you how to do things efficiently, often. It's a one-two punch. You need both.

[teonzo]

I strongly suggest to read the Eggbeater Blog from start to finish, there are tons of valuable advises.

Teo

[Baselerd]

Not so sure with the culinary industry in particular, but I think with any profession it's much harder to get into a good position without a degree from an institution, regardless of whether or not you have the required skills.