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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
The fast and easy way to find your place in the culinary field Ever dream of exploring an exciting career in culinary arts or cooking but don't know where to begin? Culinary Careers For Dummies is the perfect book for anyone who dreams of getting into the culinary profession. Whether you're a student, an up-and-coming chef looking for direction, or are simply interested in reinventing yourself and trying your hand at a new career, Culinary Careers For Dummies provides the essential information every culinary novice needs to enter and excel in the food service industry. Packed with advice on selecting a culinary school and tips for using your degree to land your dream job, Culinary Careers For Dummies offers up-to-the-minute information on: culinary training, degrees, and certificates; the numerous career options available (chef, chef's assistant, pastry chef, food stylist, caterer, line cook, restaurant publicist/general manager, Sommelier, menu creator, food writer, consultant/investor, etc.) and the paths to get there; basic culinary concepts and methods; advice on finding a niche in the culinary world; culinary core competencies; food safety and proper food handling; real-life descriptions of what to expect on the job; and how to land a great culinary job. * Expert guidance on cooking up your career plan to enter the food service industry * Tips and advice on what to study to get you where you're headed * Packed with information on the many career options in the culinary field Culinary Careers For Dummies is a one-stop reference for anyone who is interested in finding a career in this growing and lucrative field.
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Culinary Careers For Dummies®
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Table of Contents
Culinary Careers For Dummies®
by Michele Thomas, Annette Tomei, and Tracey Vasil Biscontini
Culinary Careers For Dummies®
Published byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011936933
ISBN 978-1-118-07774-0 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-16835-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-16836-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-16837-0 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Authors
As managing editor at International Culinary Center of New York, Michele Thomas oversees editorial production and distribution of the school’s proprietary curricula for its professional and amateur French and Italian cooking, pastry, and bread-baking classes. She was introduced to the thrills of cooking and candy-making as a child through her mother’s work with holiday gingerbread displays. After studying communication and media at Fordham University, she started a career developing K-12 picture books, textbooks, and teaching materials in science, mathematics, and reading for several major publishers, including Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, Harcourt School Publishers, Pearson Education, Houghton Mifflin, Rosen Publishing Group, and Newbridge Educational Publishing, as well as the Department of Education for the US Virgin Islands. She has also covered food, fitness, nutrition, fashion, education, home, and lifestyle for Metro Newspaper Service, where she also wrote marketing materials for diverse clients, such as Disaronno Amaretto, OXO, the Platinum Guild, the Accessories Council, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, and Armstrong Floors. A Brooklyn, New York, native, Michele teaches high school academic-essay writing for Legal Outreach, a New York-based nonprofit mentoring organization. She also teaches creative writing as a volunteer with Girls Write Now, one of the top 10 after-school programs in the United States.
Chef Annette Tomei is a food and beverage educator based in New York City. She is a 1994 graduate of The French Culinary Institute (FCI) and holds a master’s degree in gastronomy from the University of Adelaide with Le Cordon Bleu Australia. She has been a chef, an educator, and a speaker covering an array of subjects from basic knife skills to aphrodisiacs in the kitchen to beverage pairing. Her work takes her from New York and California to Italy and beyond.
Annette is the co-author of Chile Aphrodisia (Rio Nuevo) and a contributor to Fork Me, Spoon Me: the Sensual Cookbook (Life of Reiley). She has also written curriculum and designed and managed educational programs for both The French Culinary Institute and The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone.
Tracey Vasil Biscontini is the founder, president, and CEO of Northeast Editing, Inc., a company specializing in the creation of educational content for publishers. She holds bachelor’s degrees in mass communications and education from King’s College and a master’s degree in English from the University of Scranton. Recently named one of the “Top 25 Women in Business in Northeast Pennsylvania,” she is a former educator, journalist, and newspaper columnist whose award-winning writing has appeared in national magazines. Since founding Northeast Editing, Inc., in 1992, she has managed educational projects and authored test-preparation and library-reference content for some of the largest publishers in the United States.
Northeast Editing, Inc., is located in a former rectory in Jenkins Township, a small community nestled between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton in northeastern Pennsylvania. Tracey’s company boasts a relaxed working environment that serves as her staff’s home away from home. When they’re not hard at work, the editors and writers at Northeast Editing, Inc., enjoy breaks in a large backyard and welcome hugs from Prince, a former stray that is now a resident office cat. Tracey lives in Avoca, Pennsylvania, with her husband Nick, son Tyler, and daughter Morgan.
Authors' Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Angela Harmon and Nicole Frail, editors at Northeast Editing, Inc., who devoted countless hours of research and writing to help create this book. We also thank Tracy Boggier, our acquisitions editor, who got the ball rolling; Linda Brandon, our incredible project editor, who offered advice and guidance every step of the way; our wonderful copy editor Caitie Copple; and our knowledgeable technical editor, Russ Zito.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.
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Introduction
So you’re considering a career in culinary arts. Good for you! Culinary careers are both rewarding and challenging, and some even allow you to utilize an artistic flair. The job outlook for culinary careers is good, in part because culinary professionals work in so many different places. For starters, they work in all types of restaurants — upscale restaurants, hotel restaurants, chain restaurants, diners, and more. Some work in pastry shops and bakeries. Others work for caterers and in institutions such as schools, universities, hospitals, and nursing homes. Some lucky culinary professionals cook food for guests in resorts and spas and on cruise ships. Those with an independent streak seek employment as personal and private chefs. Wherever you find a commercial kitchen, you find culinary professionals hard at work.
Some culinary careers require you to know about food but don’t require you to cook it. Food writers earn a living writing reviews of restaurants and articles about food for magazines and websites. Food photographers snap shots of food for advertisements, product labels, cookbooks, and menus. A food stylist arranges food to be photographed or filmed — a task that’s much harder than you may think. They have to think creatively and use tools such as staples, tweezers, and glue to make the “food” look delicious (Although it certainly doesn’t have to taste that way and in some cases it isn’t even food at all!). Other non-cooking culinary careers include brewing beer, selling culinary equipment, handling public relations for restaurants, and marketing culinary services and products.
To land a job as a culinary professional today, most people must attend culinary school. Working your way up the culinary ladder is still possible without education, but you have a better chance of getting your foot in the door with a culinary diploma or degree. You have many options when it comes to choosing a culinary school. You can attend a local community college or technical school or attend a large, prestigious culinary school such as The Culinary Institute of America.
When it comes to finding your first culinary job, be humble. You won’t walk in a restaurant and be offered the position of executive chef. You won’t walk into a pâtisserie (pastry shop) and be made a pastry chef. The same goes for a culinary school, you can’t expect to teach culinary school without culinary training and experience. Do you see what we’re trying to say here? You need experience and a culinary education to land many jobs within the culinary field, so you most likely won’t land the job of your dreams right away — that is, until you acquire needed knowledge and skills. You must be willing to start at the bottom and work your way up the ladder.
About This Book
The culinary arts field is an ever-growing and ever-changing industry. Think about all of the restaurants located in the area where you live. Now think about how many people these establishments employ. Many culinary opportunities also exist outside of restaurants and hotels such as in schools, catering companies, newspapers, grocery stores, and even private homes. If you decide you want to pursue a culinary career, you have a lot of decisions to make, and Culinary Careers For Dummies is designed to help you with these decisions, as well as educate you about the various careers within the field and the steps you need to take to land a job.
This book begins with a general overview of the culinary industry, exploring the places where culinary professionals seek employment, whether you should attend culinary school, and which culinary education is right for you. It then explains the different culinary jobs that exist in traditional establishments, such as restaurants, hotels, bakeries, and catering companies, and nontraditional settings, such as publications, labs, commissary kitchens, wineries, retail shops, and more. We also provide information about how to land your first culinary job, switch careers within the culinary field, and open your own business.
Culinary Careers For Dummies will give you all the information you need to prepare for, find, and land a culinary job that’s right for you.
Conventions Used in This Book
The following conventions are used throughout the text to make things consistent and easy to understand:
We use the phrase culinary arts to refer to the art of cooking and preparing foods and the phrase pastry arts to refer to the art of preparing pastries and baked goods. Degrees are offered in culinary arts and pastry arts, and cooks, chefs, and bakers all participate in the art of cooking or the art of preparing pastries.
We use the phrase culinary professional to refer to any job in the culinary world. Chefs, cooks, servers, and dishwashers are all culinary professionals. Food writers and photographers are also culinary professionals.
We use the phrase culinary school to refer to any type of school giving classes about cooking or the culinary profession. A technical school offering a culinary certificate is a culinary school, as are schools such as the prestigious French Culinary Institute.
We carefully distinguish between a chef and a cook. A chef typically holds a higher degree than a cook or has received more formal culinary education. A chef may also earn a high salary and oversee staff. A cook, on the other hand, prepares items on a menu that a chef creates. A cook typically does not earn as much money as a chef, nor manages other staff.
We use italics to introduce new terms that are defined.
Websites are printed monofont so they stand out from regular text.
What You’re Not to Read
Of course, we’d love it if you read every word of advice in this book — we wrote it, after all. We also understand, however, that life is hectic and time is limited, so we’ve outlined a few areas of the book that you may want to skip and return to when you have more time:
Text in sidebars: Sidebars are shaded boxes that provide extra information or detailed examples. Although you’ll likely enjoy the gems of knowledge in the sidebars, they won’t necessarily give you an edge in landing a job, so feel free to read them later.
Specific chapters: You can skip certain chapters if you think they don’t pertain to your needs. For example, if you’re just starting out and trying to determine what you have to do to land an entry-level job in culinary arts, you can skip Chapters 17 and Chapter 18, which deal with changing jobs and becoming a culinary entrepreneur. Or if you know that would never want to be a caterer or cook for an institution, you can skip Chapter 7 on volume cooking.
Our bios: Yes, it’s true. Although we think our lives are intriguing, you’re not going to be asked about them on a job interview. Sigh.
Foolish Assumptions
We all know what happens when we assume, but while writing this book, we decided to live dangerously and make the following assumptions about you:
You enjoy cooking and probably have for most of your life.
You’re interested in a career in culinary arts, pastry arts, or hotel/restaurant management and want to know more about jobs in these fields and where to find them.
You’re not familiar with the title and job duties of each person who works in different culinary settings such as restaurants, bakeries, and wineries.
You don’t know what it takes to specialize in a particular culinary field, such as cake decorating or beer brewing.
You’re not sure if culinary school is a good idea for you.
How This Book Is Organized
This book is divided into six parts and 20 chapters. The table of contents outlines the specifics, but following is an overview of what you can expect to see.
Part I: An Introduction to the World of Culinary Arts
In Part I of this book, you explore the basics: you learn the meaning of the words culinary arts and what a culinary professional does on the job. Culinary professionals come in all shapes and sizes — they are high school graduates, graduates of prestigious culinary schools, and career changers who decided to switch gears to pursue their dream. To become a chef, you can attend school or get an entry-level kitchen job and try to work your way up. Chapter 3 gives you the pros and cons of culinary school, and Chapter 4 describes various culinary schools, both in the United States and abroad.
Part II: Exploring Popular Career Paths
When you think of culinary professionals, you probably think of cooks in a chaotic restaurant kitchen, working hard to get tasty meals to hungry customers. Restaurant work is indeed one of the most popular career paths for people who love food. In this part of the book, we tell you what it’s like to work in a restaurant, including those in hotels and spas. You find out about the kitchen brigade, or the chain of command in a restaurant kitchen, so you can see where you’d like to fit in some day. In this part, we also explore some other common places culinary professional work: hotels and resorts, catering companies, and cafeterias in schools, hospitals, retirement homes, and even prisons.
Part III: Taking a Specialized Approach
Some individuals choose to take the road less traveled and specialize in a unique area of the culinary field. Part III teaches you about some of these careers, which include pastry chef, baker, personal or private chef, food artisan, food scientist, and culinarians who specialize in beverages such as wine. If you love food in general but a particular kind of food (or drink) in particular, this part can help you decide if a focus is right for you.
Part IV: Checking Out Non-Cooking Careers
Plenty of workers in the culinary industry never spend a day working in a kitchen or dining room. Perhaps your dream is to be a food critic (wouldn’t that be fun?). Chapter 12 discusses this possible career and other off-the-beaten-track culinary jobs, such as test-kitchen staff and food stylist. Some culinary professionals even work as public relations and marketing professionals for food-service companies or restaurants, as Chapter 13 details. You can also check out Chapters 14 and 15 for information on more non-cooking jobs, from culinary instructor to grocery store manager.
Part V: Landing the Job, Moving Up the Ladder, and More
Part V gets to the crux of the matter — landing a job in the culinary industry. Think of yourself as a product that you have to sell to an employer. Creating a top-notch résumé and cover letter is the first step in the process. Then you need to stop, breathe, and look around you for places to apply for work. Today’s job market requires that you be proactive and go out and visit establishments rather than just looking at help-wanted ads in newspapers and online. Visit restaurants, talk to the staff, and network with instructors, friends, and family. This part of the book also gives you tips for climbing the culinary job ladder when you’re ready to do so.
If your dream is to one day open your own restaurant or catering company, this part can also guide you on that path. Chapter 18 tells you what you need to know to go it on your own.
Part VI: The Part of Tens
The Part of Tens is a standard element of For Dummies books. Chapter 19 gives you ten reasons to work in the culinary industry, and Chapter 20 gives you ten tips to thrive in the culinary industry.
Icons Used in This Book
To make this book easier to read and simpler to use, we include some icons that can help you find key ideas and information. Keep an eye out for them.
This icon appears next to interesting information about the culinary industry. The information marked by this icon is not essential but can help you better understand the world of culinary arts.
Text next to this icon details little tricks you can use in any arena of the culinary field. We use this icon to draw attention to skills that are important for certain positions and approaches that work better for some jobs.
When you see this icon, you know the information that follows is especially important in landing a culinary job or succeeding on the job.
This icon highlights information that may pose a threat to you while on the job. It gives you the not-so-good news about the culinary industry.
Where to Go from Here
The great thing about For Dummies books is that you can start wherever you want and still find complete information. You don’t have to read this book from cover to cover; you can start wherever you think you need the most help. Want to know what you need to do to become a pastry chef? Turn ahead to Chapter 8. Are you certain that you will one day open your own catering company? Read about caterers in Chapter 7 and running your business in Chapter 18.
If you’re not sure where to start, we suggest Part I, which gives you basic information about the culinary industry such as the typical duties of culinary jobs and the job outlook over the next decade.
Wherever you decide to start, we wish you well on your culinary search. As Julia Child once said, “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”
Part I
An Introduction to the World of Culinary Arts
In this part . . .
Culinary arts is the art of preparing and cooking food. If you have a love of food and want to learn everything you can about preparing it, then working toward a certificate or degree in culinary arts may be just right for you. When it comes to a culinary education, you have many avenues to choose from. You can obtain a bachelor’s degree in the culinary arts, an associate’s degree in baking or pastry, or even a certification in molecular gastronomy. Taking business, design, photography, marketing, and various other courses will also help you succeed in this industry. With the proper education and experience, you can easily attain many culinary positions.
In this part, we give an overview of the culinary arts profession, explaining what culinary professionals do, examining where they work, comparing on-the-job training with culinary school, and, finally, choosing a school. We also weigh the pros and cons of obtaining a culinary degree versus jumping right into the culinary industry.
Chapter 1
A Snapshot of the Culinary Arts Profession
In This Chapter
Understanding what culinary professionals do
Considering whether school or work is better preparation for a culinary career
Finding work in a culinary field
Exploring the outlook for cooking jobs
If you’re reading this book, you must be considering a career in culinary arts. Entering a new career field can be exciting and a little scary, so congratulations on taking the first step! Culinary arts is a challenging, rewarding, and creative field, and the future job outlook is favorable. That’s the good news. The bad news? Succeeding in the culinary world takes skill, knowledge, determination, and experience. Depending on the position you hope to land, you may have to go to culinary school. And even if you go to school, restaurant experience may be a requirement. (Think server, dishwasher, or fast-food cook.)
More good news: Culinary professionals enjoy their work. Most can’t imagine earning a living any other way. Why? It’s all about the food! Culinary professionals eat, sleep, and dream about food. They enjoy preparing it, cooking it, plating it, serving it, and, of course, eating it. If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re among the food obsessed, and a career in culinary arts may be a good choice for you.
What Does It Mean to Work in the Culinary Arts?
Think about the words culinary and arts. What do these words mean? Anything related to food is referred to as being culinary. Anyone associated with food, from chefs to dishwashers, work in the culinary field. Arts is a whole different matter. Everyone who works in a creative field is an artist. Painter Leonardo da Vinci and poet Emily Dickinson were artists. An executive chef, a pastry chef, and baker are also artists, but of a different kind. Their canvas is a plate and their medium is food.
Culinary arts, then, is the art of food, and culinary artists are people who do creative things with food. Their work goes beyond cooking a tuna casserole for dinner. They create dishes that are a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. And they do this in many different places in many different capacities.
Working in culinary arts is not easy or glamorous, and only the strong survive. Culinary professionals work long hours, often when the rest of us are at home relaxing or asleep. They work weekends and holidays and spend the majority of their time on their feet. They work under pressure in crowded, hot kitchens where tempers fly. The noise in a commercial kitchen may be nerve-wracking. Chefs and cooks shout out orders, shout at the staff, and may even cuss. Working in a culinary kitchen is no day at the beach. The thin-skinned need not apply.
Where cooking professionals work
Many culinary professionals work in restaurants, but you find them in other places as well. We give you the lowdown on the variety of establishments that employ culinary pros in Chapter 2, but for now, here’s a brief list. You’re certain to find culinary professionals that cook in these places:
Restaurants, large and small (see Chapter 5)
Hotel restaurants and kitchens, which may include banquet halls (see Chapter 6)
Resorts and spas (see Chapter 6)
Pastry shops and bakeries (see Chapter 8)
Catering companies (see Chapter 7)
Institutions such as hospitals, airlines, cruise ships, schools, and correctional centers (see Chapter 7)
Kitchens in homes as personal and private chefs (see Chapter 9); as artisans (see Chapter 10); or as culinary entrepreneurs (see Chapter 18)
Culinary schools (see Chapter 14)
Test kitchens (see Chapters 10 and 12)
Commissary kitchens (see Chapters 3, 5, 6, and 8)
What non-cooking culinary professionals do
Lots of culinary jobs are available even if you’re not interested in actually cooking for a living. Check out these non-cooking culinary professional roles:
Food writers, cookbook editors, and television and radio hosts (see Chapter 12)
Food photographers and stylists (see Chapters 12 and 14)
Food scientists (see Chapter 10)
Retail salespeople and purchasers (see Chapter 15)
Beverage and wine experts (see Chapter 11)
Food-related public relations and marketing professionals (see Chapter 13)
Looking Beyond Food Prep: What Culinary Professionals Do
If you enter a culinary profession that involves cooking, you’ll perform other tasks in addition to cooking food for customers. Your specific job duties depend on the place where you work and the position you hold. For example, the executive chef is typically the top dog in a kitchen, and a line cook is much lower in the chain of command, so the duties of those two jobs are different. (To learn more about the kitchen brigade, turn ahead to Chapter 5.)
Most culinary professionals involved in cooking have some or all of these job duties:
Prepping food (washing, cutting, chopping, peeling, and pounding)
Preparing ingredients (mixing, weighing, and measuring)
Lifting heavy items (such as pots and sacks of flour and potatoes)
Purchasing supplies and ingredients
Baking, roasting, broiling, and steaming meats and fish
Baking, steaming, roasting, and sautéing vegetables
Frying potatoes and other foods
Baking breads, cakes, and pastries
Arranging, plating, and garnishing food
Estimating costs and maintaining budgets
Cleaning and organizing the kitchen
Developing recipes and menus
Hiring and training new staff
Determining production schedules
Communicating with other members of the kitchen brigade and front-of-the-house staff
But not all culinary professionals cook. These professionals may have duties similar to those in other non-culinary professions. For example, the duties of a food writer are similar to those of other writers, except that the subject matter and publication they write for are likely different. The same goes for food photographers, restaurant supply salespeople, food scientists, and others. People in these professions are tied together by their love of food and the fact that they work with food — even if they don’t cook or work directly with food. For more information on non-cooking professions, as well as their duties, check out the chapters in Part IV.
Asking the Age-Old Question: School or Work?
You may have heard of chefs who began their career as a dishwasher or server and climbed the culinary ladder to earn fame and fortune as an executive chef or the owner of a three-star restaurant. Is this possible? Sure. Is it likely? Nope. Many chefs who have never attended culinary school will not hire you unless you’ve done so. Deciding whether to go to culinary school or to earn your stripes working is a tough one. A culinary degree or diploma is often a must these days and may give you the edge that you need to land a job. On the other hand, the experience you garner from working in real-life situations is invaluable. Often, the decision depends on what your career goals are and what your circumstances are. Check out Chapter 3 for more on choosing the right path for you.
Even famous chefs must start at the bottom and work their way up the culinary ladder. Emeril Lagasse once worked as a part-time bread baker in a Portuguese bakery and was paid only $50 for each episode of Essence of Emeril, his first television show. Chef and restaurateur Mario Batali worked as a dishwasher in a New Jersey restaurant called Stuff Yer Face. Batali was quickly promoted to pizza maker. TV personality Rachael Ray never attended culinary school and instead honed her skills in her Italian family’s kitchen.
Choosing to go to culinary school
Culinary school gives you a broad foundation on which to build your skills. Culinary students work in actual kitchens under the supervision of a chef. Different chefs teach different classes, so students learn many skills. Expect to learn about the following subjects and skills in culinary school:
Applying cooking techniques (roasting, baking, grilling, frying, sautéing)
Learning knife skills (chopping, slicing, dicing, cutting, julienning —yes, there is a difference!)
Operating kitchen equipment (stoves, fryers, mixers, grills, scales)
Measuring and weighing ingredients
Using kitchen tools (spatulas, whisks, tongs, thermometer)
Following food safety procedures (keeping conditions sanitary, avoiding cross contamination, dealing with waste, controlling temperature)
Managing (accounting, budgeting, hiring, purchasing)
Preparing and planning menus
Following nutrition guidelines
Do you think you’re too old to carry a book bag and head back to class? Many culinary schools report that the average age of their students is now 30 or older. And culinary students are as diverse as the meals they prepare. They range in age from 18 to more than 60, and more than half are career-changers.
You have many options when choosing a culinary school, from earning a certificate from a community college or technical school to earning a four-year degree from a top-notch establishment such as the Culinary Institute of America or the International Culinary Schools at the Art Institutes. Of course, in a perfect world, everyone could attend the school of his or her choosing, even to study abroad, but our world is far from perfect. Reality demands that you consider these factors when choosing a culinary school:
Your location: Think about how far you can travel and whether moving is a feasible option.
The time you can devote: If you’re like most people, you’re planning to work while attending school, so a part-time program at a community college may be the most flexible option for you.
The amount of money you can spend: Smaller, local programs cost only a fraction of the tuition charged at major culinary institutes.
You have the following options in terms of the degree you earn at a culinary school:
Diploma or a certificate: These programs run from several months to a year.
Associate’s degree: Earning an associate’s degree takes two years as a full-time student.
Bachelor’s degree: You’ll need to be a full-time student for four years to earn a bachelor’s degree.
To learn more about culinary schools, flip ahead to Chapter 4.
Landing an apprenticeship
An apprenticeship is a great way to gain practical, hands-on experience. What is an apprenticeship, you ask? It’s an arrangement in which you volunteer your services without pay, usually, in exchange for instruction. An apprenticeship is a great go-between school and actually working. In the past, many culinary professionals completed an apprenticeship instead of going to culinary school, but it’s no longer the norm. Most culinary professionals go to school and may serve an apprenticeship as part of their schooling. In this case, they work for school credit. However, if the culinary school you attend does not include an apprenticeship as part of its curriculum, or if you’re opting out of culinary school, you may be able to land one on your own.
Some culinary students or graduates choose to do a stagiaire, or stage, to gain employment. A stagiaire is nothing more than volunteering your time to prove to a restaurant that you have what it takes to work there. You typically set up a time with an establishment to come in and work. You can also use a stagiaire as an opportunity to learn more culinary skills from people already in the profession.
Convincing professionals in any field to give you an apprenticeship is not easy. They may not have the time or the energy to teach you how to do their job. However, if you can devote a significant amount of time, they may find the idea of free labor appealing. Be persistent and humble.
When a chef does agree to give you an apprenticeship, realize that you’re at the bottom in terms of experience in the kitchen. Expect to perform bottom-of-the-barrel duties, such as slicing vegetables or even washing dishes. Be grateful for any instruction you’re given. Say please and thank you and work hard. Keep in mind that if you prove yourself, your apprenticeship may lead to a job in that same kitchen.
Sizzling hot cooking shows
Today’s cooking television shows are a far cry from those of the past, such as Julia Child’s The French Chef, which attracted millions of viewers in the 1960s. Modern viewers care more about being entertained than being instructed, and reality-cooking shows such as Hell’s Kitchen and Top Chef do not disappoint. Hell’s Kitchen is a cooking competition hosted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay in which the final two contestants must design and run their own restaurants. With a goal of winning money to open their own restaurant, the culinary pros on Top Chef must make gourmet creations on a shoestring budget while living in the same house. The personality clashes are as much fun as the competition. Top Chef Masters is a spin-off of the Top Chef series. In this reality competition, 24 chefs compete in various challenges, with the top chef winning $100,000 for his or her favorite charity. On Iron Chef America, chefs use the same ingredients to see who can create the most delicious gourmet dishes. Worst Cooks in America takes 12 of the worst cooks and puts them through culinary boot camp. Whoever can prove that they’ve learned the most culinary skills receives a cash prize.
Cooking shows have surged in popularity, and TV stations such as the Food Network, Bravo, and the Travel Channel can’t create them fast enough, which is why many now say that we are now living in the “age of food TV.”
Working from the start
School isn’t for everyone. Many people learn better by doing rather than listening or watching. If you’re one of those people who feels they’d be better off diving right into the industry — without going to culinary school — you should be prepared to work hard. As long as you’re willing to start at the bottom and work your way up the ladder, you may not need to attend culinary school to achieve success. Many famous and renowned chefs, such as Rick Bayless and Mario Batali, never received culinary degrees.
Don’t expect to walk into a restaurant and be granted the position of executive chef with no experience or education. Gaining the experience needed to run a kitchen and create menus takes years. If you’re willing to take a lower position such as dishwasher and show that you’re hard working, you may be able to quickly advance to other kitchen positions, and, with even more hard work, dedication, and perseverance, eventually advance to higher roles such as sous chef, kitchen manager, or executive chef.
You can gain a food education as well as experience in ways other than sitting in a classroom. You can secure an apprenticeship that will teach you skills similar to what you’d learn in a culinary school (see “Landing an apprenticeship” earlier in this chapter). Maybe you come from a family that owns a restaurant and can teach you everything they know about food and cooking. Or perhaps your family just loves to cook, and you can learn recipes and cooking skills that have been passed from generation to generation. You can (and should) also simply self-teach. If you have an interest in food and cooking, be sure to work on your self-education by reading a ton of cookbooks and manuals and watch numerous cooking programs or instructional videos. And don’t be shy about trying new things in the kitchen. Keeping up on the latest food and cooking trends can give you a leg up when you’re looking to land a job in the culinary field.
Some cooking jobs don’t require education or even experience. Many family-style restaurants and institutions hire new employees with no experience and give them on-the-job training, but others may require at least some experience. It depends on the establishment and their hiring practices. The same goes for non-cooking culinary jobs. Positions such as food writers may not require a culinary degree (although one may be helpful), but they do require degrees in other fields, such as English or communications, as well as excellent writing skills.
Finding the Right Culinary Career
Think about the type of culinary job you would most like to land. Maybe the idea of working in a restaurant that offers customers a fine-dining experience most appeals to you. Perhaps your goal is to one day become head chef in such an establishment, creating menus and overseeing the cooks. The type of food an establishment serves might factor into your decision. If you’re fond of Italian or Japanese cuisine, you may see yourself working in such a kitchen. If you bake desserts in your spare time, you may strive to become a pastry chef. Or perhaps you want to take the road less traveled and become a caterer or specialize in volume cooking at a hospital or school. Maybe cooking isn’t your thing and you’d rather write about it at a newspaper or online magazine, or perhaps you enjoy photographing food. Whatever type of culinary career you decide you would most like to have, you’ll need to try to land a job that will prepare for this career. (And you must realize that wherever you work, you’ll start at the bottom.)
In this section, we provide a questionnaire and answer explanations that can help you find your fit in the culinary field.
Culinary career questionnaire
Jot down an answer to each of the following questions. There are no right or wrong answers, but your answers will help you determine what type of culinary job is right for you. Be sure to read the answer explanations in the next section.
1. Do you enjoy cooking? Why or why not?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. Do you prefer to rise early in the morning or work late at night? Or would you rather have normal working hours?
4. Do you like baking and eating desserts?
5. How do you feel about working under pressure?
6. Are you comfortable standing on your feet for hours at a time?
7. Do you like to cook for large groups of people, or do you prefer to cook for only a few people?
8. Do you enjoy preparing healthy meals, and are you concerned with nutrition when you cook?
9. Do you like teaching people new things?
10. Do you like to be in charge, or do you prefer to follow orders?
11. Are you a good writer?
12. Are you a good photographer?
13. Do you enjoy learning about wine or other beverages?
14. Do you dream of owning your own business one day?
15. Would you like to earn a commission instead of earning a flat salary?
16. Do you make a particular recipe that everyone goes crazy for?
Answer explanations
After responding to the questionnaire in the last section, read the following explanations and consider the answers you wrote down.
1. This question is a no-brainer: If you enjoy cooking, then a culinary career may be right for you. Not all culinary careers require cooking, however, so don’t rule out a culinary career if you don’t like to cook. A career in the culinary field requires a strong interest and knowledge in food, not just cooking skills. For more information on non-cooking professions, check out the chapters in Part IV.
2. Your favorite food may help you determine what type of restaurant you would like to work in. For example, if you wrote down that your favorite food was tacos, you may enjoy working in a Mexican restaurant, or if you wrote down fettuccine Alfredo, you may try to land a job in an Italian restaurant. If you wrote down something more vague, such as chicken, don’t be discouraged. Think about some of the other foods and cuisines you enjoy. Many different restaurants exist that serve all types of cuisines to suit any taste.
3. If you prefer to begin your workday in the wee hours of the morning before the rooster crows, consider working as a pastry chef or a baker. These culinary professionals have very early hours. (Read Chapter 8 to learn more about these culinary jobs.) If you’re a night owl, you’re probably best suited to employment in a restaurant. (Turn ahead to Chapter 5 to learn more.) If you prefer to work typical 9-to-5 hours, consider a career in institutional cooking, such as in a school or hospital cafeteria. (To learn more about volume cooking, read Chapter 7.) Many nontraditional food jobs don’t fit into any of these categories and allow you to set your own hours or work a variety of different shifts. For example, a caterer may only work on the weekends during a large event or a food writer may work only a few days a week. (See Chapters 7 and 12 for more information on these professions.)
4. If you like baking and eating desserts, you may enjoy working as a pastry chef or a baker. (To find out the difference between these two professions, see Chapter 8.)
5. Commercial kitchens, such as those in restaurants, are stressful places. If you thrive under pressure, then consider working in a restaurant or hotel. (See Chapters 5 and 6.) If working under pressure is not your thing, consider working in institutions, where the pace is usually slower. (See Chapter 7.) Because some nontraditional food positions allow you to work for yourself, such as food bloggers or food stylists, these positions tend to be less stressful. Not all non-cooking jobs are stress-free, though. Jobs such as those in restaurant supply sales or marketing positions may be just as stressful as working in a fast-paced kitchen.
6. Standing on your feet for many hours at a time is a drawback of many culinary careers — but a few options exist that let you sit down now and then. Turn to Chapter 12 for info on media jobs, Chapter 13 to find out about PR and marketing jobs, Chapter 14 to read about becoming a culinary instructor, food photographer, or food stylist, and Chapter 15 to read up on retail sales jobs.
7. If you like to cook for large groups of people, consider volume cooking such as catering. (Turn to Chapter 7.) If you prefer cooking only for a few people, you may enjoy life as a private or personal chef. (See Chapter 9.)
8. Culinary professionals who work in resorts and spas prepare healthy meals for guests. If you like considering nutrition and making tasty, but healthy meals, you can find out more about your options in Chapter 6.
9. If you like to cook and have the patience to show others, then you may one day choose to become a culinary instructor. (To learn about this career, turn to Chapter 14.)
10. Perhaps your past coworkers always turned to you for advice on how to solve work-related problems. If so, you may be the kind of person who prefers giving orders rather than taking them. Born leaders should strive to one day become executive chefs or managers or open businesses of their own. If you’re more comfortable taking orders, you may prefer to be a sous chef, cook, or work in another type of non-cooking profession such as in restaurant supply sales. (To learn about the hierarchy of positions in a restaurant, read Chapter 5; to learn about culinary entrepreneurs, see Chapter 18; and for more information about jobs in sales, flip to Chapter 15.)
11. Great writers and food lovers may choose to write about food instead of cooking it. (Find out about the different food writing jobs in Chapter 12.)
12. Maybe you’d like to take pictures of food for advertisements, product labels, or magazine covers. If this sounds like fun to you, flip ahead to Chapters 12 and 14.
13. Some culinary professionals specialize solely in beverages, such as wine and beer, but these aren’t the only beverages someone in this position may work with. Establishments serve an array of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages to suit everyone’s tastes, from cocktails to milkshakes to herbal teas. If a career in beverages interests you, turn to Chapter 11.
14. If you dream of owning your own business one day, you may want to think about getting on track to open a restaurant or start a different type of culinary business. (Turn to Chapter 10 to learn more about the role of artisans or see Chapter 18 for more information about culinary careers.)
15. If you’re the kind of person who is motivated by money and also loves food, consider a career in culinary sales. (Read Chapter 13 for information about PR and marketing, see Chapter 11 to find out more about beverage jobs, and see Chapter 15 for the details on retail purchasing and sales jobs.)
16. If you’re known for making the best chutney around, maybe you should consider bottling and selling it. Food artisans make and distribute their own hand-crafted products to specialty shops and grocery stores, who in turn sell their products. (For more information about artisans, see Chapter 10.)
Grabbing the Job You Want
A love of food, a culinary degree, and terrific experience don’t do you a whole lot of good if you don’t have a job in which to strut your hard-earned skills. Part V details how to land a job (maybe even your dream job!), move up the culinary ladder, and perhaps even own your own business one day. Here, we discuss some of the basics of getting you to the job you want.
Seeking out the right job
Thanks to the questionnaire in the previous section, you know what you want to do, right? Well, it should at least have given you an idea. After you know what you want to do, start looking for a job that meets your needs and interests. You may ask yourself, “How do I even begin?” Start with what you know. Visit places that you frequent, such as the sandwich shop around the corner you grab lunch from each day or the bakery where you ordered that heavenly birthday cake last month. Consider whether you’d like to work at these types of places.
If you find that you don’t want to work in any establishments where you live, you may want to consider moving. You should consider factors such as salary and cost of living when determining where you’d like to move, live, and work.
When you’ve determined the location of where you’d like to work, start the job search. Following are some ways to carry out your job hunt:
Fill out an applications at establishments you’d like to work.
Check the want ads in local publications and websites.
Ask family or friends if they know of any opportunities, and tell them to look out for open positions that may suit you.
Talk to past instructors about any job connections they may have.
Use your school’s career services.
Attend a job fair.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket when looking for a job. The more applications you fill out at more establishments, the better your odds will be of landing a job.
Some jobs may require a cover letter and résumé as part of the application process. We take a more detailed look at writing these documents as well as the interview process in Chapter 16. After you submit this information to a potential employer, start preparing for an interview, which we touch on in the next section.
Preparing for an interview
Imagine that a prospective employer is interviewing you. Which do you think you should stress most: experience, education, or attitude? Most chefs confess that they consider applicants’ attitudes more important than their experience and education. Be sure to convey a positive image during a job interview. Be upbeat, humble, and professional. Although discussing your experience and education is fine (and indeed recommended) if you’re asked to do so, don’t pretend to know more than the person interviewing you. Stress that you really want to work there and that you’re willing to work hard to learn the needed skills. Before you leave, shake the interviewer’s hand and thank him or her for taking the time to meet with you.
At any interview, be prepared to answer this question: “Why do you want to work here in particular?” Hint: Find out all you can about the restaurant (or store, or catering operation, and so on) beforehand. And eat there (if applicable).
What the heck is a toque, anyway?
