Top Job Thursday

Is A Chef The Right Profession For You?
A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.

United States and Canadian Training
Culinary education is available from a wide number of institutions offering diploma, associate, and bachelor degree programs in culinary arts. Depending on the level of education, this can take one to four years. An internship is often part of the curriculum. Regardless of the education received, most professional kitchens follow the apprenticeship system, and most new cooks will start at a lower-level chef de partie position and work their way up.

THE BENEFITS OF BEING A CHEF
You Are In The Spotlight
When you cook for people there is a great sense of accomplishment. You spend hours in front of a hot stove conjuring up your delicious creations and then get to enjoy the smiles on peoples faces when they taste the first bite. You relish the moment when a waiter or waitress tells you how much a customer enjoyed your Garlic and Ginger Crusted Salmon. You flip through your local food magazine and see a restaurant review that features one of your creative dishes.

You Found a Career You Are Passionate About
What is better in life than being able to work at a career that you truly love? If you want to be a chef, you have to love what you do. You have to truly enjoy cooking and baking, if not, those long hours in the restaurant kitchens are going to seem like days. If cooking feels like a chore then it may not be the right career for you.

THE STRESSES OF BECOMING A CHEF
It's Hard Work
Being a chef is a difficult job. You are standing on your feet for hours every day. There is no time to sit and rest, its too busy for that. You will develop all sorts of new aches and pains from lifting heavy bags and boxes.

You Will Have To Deal With an Unpleasant Working Environment
Be prepared to sweat. Working in a kitchen has been compared to working outside all day under a hot sun in 90 degree weather. You will constantly be working over an open flame and reaching into hot ovens.

Kitchens can be rather dirty. You will eventually have to deal with garbage and grease that accumulates in many kitchens.

Being a chef can be dangerous. You will probably be burned a number of times from the hot ovens, pots and pans, boiling liquids and hot oil. You will get cut. When things get busy and you have to work faster, your concentration diminishes and a sharp knife, food processor blade, blender, or broken glass can be lethal weapons.

Everyone Can't Be Emeril
Just because you got your degree at The Culinary Institute of America doesn't mean you are going to land your own spot on the Food Network or get your own line of custom made cooking products and make millions of dollars. I am not trying to belittle that dream. If that is what you are shooting for, then by all means go for it, but in most cases cooks do not make a ton of money. So try not to get discouraged if you don't make it big. The food industry is a busy world and is always in need of good chefs that love what they do and are willing to go the extra mile to prove it. Make that your number one goal above all things.

The Hours Aren't Great
When you become a chef, be prepared to work very long hours, holidays and weekends. Many new chefs have abandoned their careers because they could not cope with spending so much time away from family and friends.


Working under intense heat with people barking orders and shouting food requests at you left, right and centre, with the ever prevalent risk of slipping on some oil, burning yourself whilst cooking or dropping a heavy item of equipment on yourself why would anyone want to become a chef? Unsociable hours, irregular shift patterns....working as a chef seems to be a foolish career choice indeed and one that is best reserved for only the most pain-loving of those among us!

There can be no denying that being a chef is a tough career, and one that does not suffer fools gladly, and one that demands only the very best from its employees. It is a career that will require creativity, commitment and a genuine passion for food as well as a meticulous nature and a willingness to learn new skills.

However, there is a tendency to focus exclusively upon the negative aspects of the culinary/hospitality sector and that is a real pity because among the challenges, pitfalls and dangers that arise during the course of this career, there is a genuinely engaging and extremely rewarding job indeed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef.%20Ralph%20Serpe, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/should-you-become-a-chef.html, Josh Stone, http://www.bestbuyuniforms.com/chefarticles/all-the-benefits-of-being-a-chef.htm