Jobs in the Cooking Field?

[ellenmelon]

I have often wondered what it would be like to take a course in being a chef. I only know about the really professional ones like the CIA, but aren't there some intermediary ones for someone looking at retirement but wouldn't mind being a cook or baker in a local restaurant?

I wouldn't mind on the job training but think it would leave holes...is there even a book that leads a cook through basic or advanced techniques?

What do you recommend Chef Mark?

I have heard that cheffing means long hours and a high pressure environment. Is this true of any restaurant?

[Chef Mark]

I don't know where you live but there are schools that have less rigorous culinary training than professional culinary programs. Vocational schools, high schools with adult education programs, and in NJ, one supermarket that offers a beginner's culinary course.

As to restaurant work....................it is a nightmare. Long hours, low pay, tremendous pressure, non-stop work, and controlling, narcissistic head chefs that will find fault with everything you do.

[DeBora4BobbyL]

Ellen, I have worked in the restaurant business. It is such difficult work dealing with difficult people. However, I enjoyed the work, which was grueling. lol

[cat lover]

In Llouisville Kentucky Sullivan College offers a culinary course; not sure what all is involved in what they offer, but they have recently built an entire campus of buildings to house it all. They even have a bakery they work in on campus that the general public can purchase from. Of course all this happened AFTER we moved from there! Would have been interesting to shop there and maybe talk to some of the students!

[DeBora4BobbyL]

Chef Mark, correct me if I am wrong, but most cooking/chef teachers are perfectionists. It is usually, "My way or the highway." If you love that profession, it is well worth it.

[LifeStar]

Hi Ellen,

I took some culinary classes at my local community college. They were in conjunction with the local BOCES program. I earned college credits while doing something just for fun. I took classes like "soups and sauces", "meats, fish and poultry" and "intro to professional baking" (which required too much math for me! LOL) I also took food sanitation and restaurant management courses. I did my own catering for a while, but the classroom kitchen work and catering (though small scale) was too hard on my (bad) back. I did learn my knife work very well... I can carve a mushroom cap into spirals, trim a potato to look like a baby football, and create a tropical island from 1/2 a cabbage and a few carrots LOLOL Also, I now own a toque and a pair of black and white houhdstooth pants that I'll never wear again! LOLOL...

The professors were addressed as "Chef" NEVER Mr or Ms. or Professor.... and they were always tough, but fair. (This was a community college, not the CIA) If you messed up, you scrubbed the walk-in or washed the pots, but you were never denied the chance to ask questions or to try again after you'd messed up.. as long as you learned from your mistakes...

I personally love to cook, but also would never want to work in a restaurant kitchen.. Long hours, hot sweaty work, and no respect... But the catering was fun for a while! ( It's good to be the king!)

[Chef Mark]

Chef Mark, correct me if I am wrong, but most cooking/chef teachers are perfectionists. It is usually, "My way or the highway." If you love that profession, it is well worth it.

One can be a perfectionist without needing to control others. The "my way or the highway" mentality is more about narcissism and control issues than perfectionism. There are many, many tasks in cooking that have more than one correct way to do them. Any chef that thinks HIS way is the only way has more going on in his psyche than just the need to do things "right."

See my article here on Momsmenu entitled "I Did it My Way" which addresses this issue:

http://www.momsmenu.com/food_for_thought/myway.shtml

[DeBora4BobbyL]

Chef Mark, I enjoyed your article.

I agree that perfectionists are different than narcissists. My experience with cooks and chefs are that they believe that their way is the perfect, right way. DH and I were talking this morning over breakfast about when I was a restaurant manager. I was transferred to a different restaurant that needed a manger because theirs quit, again. During one of the first shifts, the cook was in the back room reading the paper since we were slow. Several orders came in. I went and told the cook that he had 4 orders. He told me, "I'll get to them when I feel like it." I told him that if he didn't want to cook, he was free to clock out. But, if I had to cook those orders myself, I would be clocking him out. He said, "Go ahead." So, I clocked him out and quickly cooked the orders. As I was going to my office to call in a replacement cook before it got too busy. This cook approached me to tell me that he had challenged every new manager in the past and none of them could cook so he was able to get by with this behavior. I gained new respect that day. The cooks that were very, very, good at what they did were the most difficult to deal with.