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What do I have to do?
Being a chef is a very physical profession. You are required to remain on your feet almost constantly. Along with that, you must also be stirring, kneading, and chopping your foods.
Many times, you will have to do all of this while also having to ordering foods for hungry customers and critical customers.
A kitchen is almost scorching hot year round so you should be quite prepared for that. Even in the best conditioned areas, a kitchen is often as hot as 95 degrees or higher.
If that doesn’t sound like enough to do, try doing it while you are also maintaining all of the rest of the kitchen staff. Choosing to be a chef for a living is a very rewarding and time consuming job.
Now do you see why being able to multi-task is so important? The road to becoming a chef requires much training and hands on experience.
Here’s what you need to do to be a good chef.
A strong desire to be a chef is a good place to start. Having a good sense of smell, and taste will be necessary also. It would very difficult to prepare a good meal if you can’t decipher the differences from one spice to another; or if you do not know which spices go well together and which ones don’t.
Cooking is a lot different than being a chef is. If you are just cooking for yourself you have room for errors.
If you are cooking for a stranger, you will want to cook your food to perfection. Of course, you will also want to present the food in an enticing manner as well.
There are stages to becoming a chef. You have to start at the bottom, but becoming a chef is one of few occupations where you can get most of your training on the job. You do have to go to school and train as well, but much of the training is done in a working environment.
The Apprentice
It takes many years to become a chef, and much schooling to get to the position of head chef.
Most chefs begin by becoming apprentices for a few years so that they can get the necessary experience of working in a kitchen. Being a chef often requires you to stand on your feet for hours at a time and you are rarely able to relax for very long.
Most chefs start out helping out kitchen staff in urban restaurant environments because they are the most busy and offer a great deal of experience.
You will begin by helping the sous chefs, cooks, and prep cooks with their daily work like cutting vegetables, stocking shelves, or ordering food as per your instructions from the sous chef. This position is called an apprentice.
You may not necessarily be paid for your work depending on whether or not you are taking your position through a school’s curriculum requirements.
Some apprenticeships do pay you for the chance to train, but it really depends on your location. Trained apprenticeships that are required for your certification, and if they do pay; they pay little.
Of course, it is worth it because in the end, you can qualify for your certification. And the experience is invaluable to you when looking for a better and higher paying opportunity.
You can also choose to work in more than one restaurant so that you can associate under more than one mentor and get a better idea of what you want to specialize in.
If you can handle the stressful environment of working in a restaurant or whatever you decide on, then you can work your way into high chef relatively quickly.
For some people it can take as long as ten years to get to that position. In the culinary industry that’s considered fast. Here is a list of some of the jobs that you can get in the culinary industry while trying to work into head chef position.
Line cook
Line or station cook
Garde manger cook
Sous chef
Chef’s apprentice
Prep cook
Front of house Operator
All of these positions are great for the chef in training, and all can get you the experience that you will need in order to gain the ability to become the head chef some day.
If you are looking to set your sights a little higher once you have garnered the experience in the culinary industry, you will next look to better positions like:
Head line cook
Executive chef
Kitchen manager
Restaurant manager/owner
Food service supervisor
Caterer
Restaurants
Cruise lines
Resorts or hotels
Private club or spas
Contract food services
Truthfully, the possibilities are endless in the culinary field of work. Once you have garnered all of your training, you can pretty much chose any job you’d like to have.
This job requires that you work to satisfy the public, but it also guarantees you much freedom.
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