# Why did you become a chef?



## _chef_ (Jan 3, 2008)

The title say's it all!!
I wanted to become a chef because of the respect that was shown, and the mysterious image of the person cooking your food while you was in a resteraunt.
What about you?
:bounce:


----------



## the_seraphim (Dec 25, 2006)

this page left intentionally blank


tbh i dunno...


----------



## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Notice people here still trying to figure that out.


----------



## headless chicken (Apr 28, 2003)

I couldn't find a job as a baker so I went back to school for chef training. In a nut shell, thats why I went down this road...but why I wanted to go into the pastry arts?

...

...

...

[5 years later]

...

um...

...


----------



## nolachef (Jan 31, 2008)

My parents were terrible cooks growing up.

I love food!

It keeps me semi-sane 

It keeps me out of trouble (most of the time)


----------



## montelago (Nov 19, 2007)

The waitresses.

Kidding. I love food, I love entertaining, and I feel that food is the only art form or medium that impacts all of the senses. Plus, there are few things more personal than feeding people. I feel that you can really connect with them.

Plus the waitresses.


----------



## oldschool1982 (Jun 27, 2006)

I believe I would be better off answering how many licks it takes to get to the toosie roll center of a tootsie pop. The wise old owl said it was 3. That's a much easier answer.


----------



## ras1187 (Oct 3, 2006)

My mom taught me how to cook for the family when I was 7 because she worked the night shifts.

It started with ramen noodle soups, graduated to Kraft Mac & Cheese, then went to making tacos with rice & beans.

I originally was planning to go into a computer/technology oriented field as I work well with them, but cooking just stood out as something I really enjoy doing.


----------



## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

I think a lot of people kinda accidently found their passion. For me I kinda fell into it when was delivering pizzas. I asked to make some pizzas and from there wanted to do more and more.


----------



## cacook (Jan 18, 2006)

I agree with Kuan.


----------



## sleepy_dragon (Aug 30, 2005)

I'm not a chef yet, but I'm on the path, definitely.

As for why, it runs in the family. One grandfather was a European trained French chef, grandmother was a cook on a private estate, both parents involved in the service/private estate caretaking industry, and growing up eating Chinese and French food.

I love that I cook for a living. Love it!

But I also have to admit one of the initial draws for me ended up being a naive assumption: I thought the industry was some kind of ultimate meritocracy, but I'm finding it's no less free of politicking than any other workplace. Shame that. Guess I'm going to have to learn how to play this stuff after all, and that bums me out.

Pat


----------



## katbalou (Nov 21, 2001)

because they told me girls weren't allowed in the kitchen. yup. seriously.
kathee


----------



## picook (Dec 1, 2007)

:lips: i just love it !!!

it's make you feel happy to make other people happy.
and the best part is : you don't have to say anything...
when they will take a bite from what you make for them, the smile on there face will do it all...

when you cook with love the magic is working...


----------



## salliem (Nov 3, 2006)

As with many others, it was purely by accident, helped out a friend one summer and thought; hmm, I could do this for awhile..30 years later I still am...no culinary school, just on the job training..so far it has been a blast!


----------



## oldschool1982 (Jun 27, 2006)

To offer a more serious answer......

I believe I am one of those people who was meant to do exactly what I did. Even with all the poking and prodding by my family to choose another path I stayed on track. Well most of the time. 

Most here have already said "I just love it". Well that is and was only part of things for me. Especially since there are many things I love to do but very few of them would I have made a career out of given the chance. That's because so few of those things could keep me in a challenged state for as long as cooking has. 

Although I hadn't really learned this until later in my career....For the most part it didn't matter what type of food I was asked to prepare as a Chef. Yes I did enjoy the fancey schmacey stuff in fact who out there doesn't? But there was something about trying to and being told by the guest that they just had the best Reuben, plate of wings, burger, or even slice of pizza they ever had. The simplest was also the most fun especially since that's how we eat around here. As long as I could set a high level of standards, execute things according to what the guests enjoyed and desired as well as be given the opportunity to create menus and interact with the guests I was always happy to ( and would still today be happy to) remain a Chef. :bounce:


----------



## bughut (Aug 18, 2007)

Dad dragged me out of school at 15 to work in his cafe. (I was rubbish anyway) He was a good, if odd chef himself.
Spent the next 10 years blagging it as a chef. Always wanted to do my own thing though and reckoned qualifications would give me the confidence with the credentials. 4 years at college and 20 years later i acheived my goal. Woo hoo!
Seems no-one cares if i'm a qualified chef, so long as i keep providing the service we offer. But It means a whole lot to me and it does help with the confidence when meeting new clients.


----------



## grillguy6288 (Nov 26, 2007)

It's a very simple question for me. I was born and bread to be in the industry. Father used to manage kitchen's before I was born, Grandfather was a food critic, and my uncle's all run or own their own. I started dish washing in my uncle's kitchen at the age of 12 (under the table of course). Just watching the way the Chef and the cooks worked seemed so savy and cool to me. Then after I read Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" I was hooked, and have been cooking ever since. Wouldn't do anything else even if I had the chance.


----------



## damack (Feb 21, 2007)

i grew up my dad working out of the house and my mom working the normal 9-5 ( my mom was the better cook) so when my dad made mac N cheese and frozen pizzas every night i had to learn how to cook. so i learned how to cook and i started knowing what good food is. and now i have working in in the kitchen for 7 years and i love in and I'm in culinary school and i cant see my self doing any thing else


----------



## mick (Jan 29, 2008)

i ask myself that question every day but 13 years down the track im still loving it and learning.


----------



## bazza (Apr 2, 2007)

First off I am not a trained chef, I have my own restaurant, I cook all the food and everyone calls me chef. Having cleared that one up I feel qualified to respond to this thread. 

Ever since I was a kid I knew when I was eating good food. Anyone can cook, people cook every day at home but to prepare something special, something that will make you close your eyes and make that "Mmmm" sound, that is what it is all about for me. There are those who live to eat, and those who eat to live. The former are an absolute pleasure to cook for and worth going the extra mile for, as for the latter...well forget it, they won't appreciate it anyway.

I have a big square window in my kitchen door which looks out onto the restaurant. Most of the time I am so busy that I dont see the window but sometimes, I will watch a waitress take food to a table. The diners look up and smile, the food is placed in front of them as the visual impact is taking place, almost immediately the aromas are reaching their senses and their anticipation builds. The smiles are now in abundance as they are asked if they would like any condiments, and although they reply...smiling, they don't appear to be listening. Now they examine their food with exaggerated neck craning, a finger points, first to their own plate and then their partner's, I see a mimed explanation of what it is on their plates. Then finally, the first mouthful, yes! the closed eyes and the all telling "Mmmm" sound, the exchanging of forks and the nodding of heads. That is what its all about for me.


----------



## jackbutler (Jan 11, 2007)

If you run the kitchen and do all the cooking and make the menu decisions, you're a chef. Congratulations! You might not have formal training, but chef you remain. Welcome to the fraternity.

BTW, are you the Bazza from the Hero Boards?


----------



## brooklynchef (Nov 26, 2007)

The cool answer - So I could start my own catering company and eat for "free"

The not-sp-cool but real answer - 9/11 happened and the job market dropped out just when I graduated from college with a BA in the very useful field of Sociology/Anthropology. I always liked to cook so... 

It worked out beautifully. I really was lucky to find my passion!


----------



## jackbutler (Jan 11, 2007)

Just realized I never answered. I became a chef because it was time to stop being a lawyer.


----------



## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

rotfl.....Jack you are a funny guy.

cooking is an art form to me, a tactile way to express myself.....almost always exciting, as challenging as I want to make it.....there are so many different aspects of cooking....such as today, got to the pc kitchen at 10:45 am with groceries in tow, the housekeeper showed up at 11 saying I had until 1 to finish the week's cooking.....so it was figure out what dishes to make and slam um out. Normally I have a pretty good idea of what I'm making when i shop, but occasionally I'll reconfigure the ingredients and rift. 
Speed cooking. Wouldn't want to do it every day or even every week, but it sure keeps you on your toes.....pots, pans going on all the burners, both ovens baking, micro in use.....

Chef...there is nothing nicer than hearring a firm, loud, "yes chef"......gotta love it.


----------



## jackbutler (Jan 11, 2007)

Thank you.

The truth is, my grandmother (that is, my father's mom) was a self-taught chef who ran her own restaurant from 1947 to 1984 (when she retired at age 79). She taught me everything I ever knew about cooking. I worked in kitchens through high school, then for some reason decided I didn't want to cook for a living. My grandfather (that is, my mother's dad) paid my way through law school. He was a lawyer, and I guess he was envisioning some sort of "family tradition thing", because a lot of my cousins on that side are lawyers.

So I got my degree. Got my license. Worked as a lawyer for about two years. Then got tired of it and went back to working in a kitchen. Never looked back, and now, decades later, I'm comfortable that I'm where I was supposed to be all along.


----------



## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

bonus, you can write your own contracts! 
How'd your grandpa take you switching to the other family business?


----------



## lecuisson (Jan 8, 2008)

I got into cooking because of a job my stepdad got me when I was 17. I had loved to cook at home since I was a little boy, I was the one who stayed and cooked with mom and grandma when all the other guys were out playing football and having their good time. I was in the kitchen having my good time.

I haven't looked back since that moment I stepped into that job, which was a lunch prep cook/dishwasher. I love food, and I love how tactile our work is. I love the visual beauty, smells, and sounds of food. I'm huge into how things physically feel. When I turned my first potato, when I touch tomatoes to see if they are ripe or not, when I see beautiful products. Cooking and food is the biggest anti-depressant, no matter what goes on in my life, it's instantly alleviated when I set food into a kitchen, when I go to work.

I also love the people, the hours, and the kind of work that goes into being in a restaurant kitchen. And no matter how much the day can suck, it always ends, and you always are able return the next day and do it all over again. It's finite, and it's beautiful.

I don't consider myself a Chef though. I still have a long way to go before I could refer to myself as a Chef and be at peace with that statement. I'll go with good cook, for now!


----------



## jackbutler (Jan 11, 2007)

Not very well. Not very well indeed. He finally acknowledged that I made the right choice about a year before he died. By that time, I'd been a chef for close to 12 years.


----------



## bazza (Apr 2, 2007)

Nope not me, is there an imposter out there??


----------



## jackbutler (Jan 11, 2007)

Apparently. Turns out he's from New Zealand.


----------



## guilty (Aug 20, 2007)

i was a lazy boy at school who didn't really know what to do, so i started a one-week-look-at-the-job-training as a chef and decided that this is a job that could be funny 

after finishing school i started a 3 year apprentice (if you want to learn a job in germany you have to learn it for 3 years!), felt in love with pastry and that weekends when you got ****ed by your job... in my opinion getting a chef was the best thing that happend to me 


greetings from germany and sorry for my bad english *gg*


----------



## chefinfrance (Dec 16, 2007)

From the age of 7 just wanted to be a chef dont know why perhaps gran but i have been doing it now for 35 years and still loving every day. Just wish I could find a job that would allow me to pass on all this knowledge.
Steve www.masterchefinfrance.com


----------



## nathanielshane (Jan 31, 2017)

For me it was the lights of the night life after playing pool w/ the homies & bringing the girls home from the bar. I washed night service dishes for 5 years & just promoted from there on out. It's the only profitable job I ever had besides selling drugs & I was brought up to be legit so here I am.


----------



## chefdwilliams (Jan 15, 2017)

I will never forget the first time I worked in a restaurant. I was 14 years old. My neighbor at the time was a manager for the famous "Gladstones for fish" in Malibu. The dishwasher had not been showing up and the manager came over and asked if I could help. Assured my mom I would be safe and she would take me there and bring me back home.

My first night it felt like I found my calling. The best way for me to describe what I saw and felt was "controlled chaos". Everyone running around in every direction but with a purpose. I ended up working there over the summer for 3 years. Dishes, busboy, host, chef assistant. I learned a lot there.

I had always loved cooking. I started cooking with my grandmother when I was 4. She was the best cook i have ever tasted. So when I had my love of cooking and then the love of the controlled chaos, it was a match made in heaven.

I worked in many places in LA and by the time I was 18, I was a kitchen manager for 2 seafood restaurants. At 21 I was a general manager and at age 23 i decided i wanted to be back in the kitchen but wanted formal training. I went to the Culinary Academy in San Francisco for 2 years. Then opened my own placed as Chef/owner for 20 yard and now a private chef for a high profile athlete. 

Honestly, after almost 30 years  (I don't know where the time went) of cooking, restaurants and catering, Its all I know. I still love cooking, creating and watching people enjoy things that I created. Its like being an artist except we eat the art. I never get tired of making people happy. I also love the fact that I was able to pass my knowledge to my kids like my grandmother did for me.

As they say, when you do something you truly love, you never work a day in your life.


----------



## chefdwilliams (Jan 15, 2017)

Where in germany?

I spend a lot of time working there for an Athelete. also work a lot in Going Austria. 1.5 hours from Munich.

really have enjoyed Germany over the last 12 years


----------



## chefross (May 5, 2010)

47 years of cooking has gone by for me.

3 times during that time I was a Chef in charge of my own kitchen.

I enjoyed the organized chaos. 

For me, feeding 3,000 people on a Saturday night, in 4 different rooms, with 4 different menus,was a great challenge. When the last desserts went out, and the last of the wedding cakes sliced and boxed, it was a great feeling of accomplishment. 

I always thanked my crews and bought them beer

I took off my Chef coat and went into the dish room to help the guys, so they could get out early.

That's what I loved about being a Chef.

The paperwork, ordering, and inventory were all done by hand because the computer was still in its infancy.

But we did it anyway.

As for me.....?  I too grew up watching my mom cook. She was an adequate cook but a better baker.

She worked the afternoon shift as a sales lady while I was in high school.

She was still at work when I got home from school so, I made dinner. Usually Rice a Roni with added stuff. Made my own version of Hamburger Helper even before it came out on the store shelves.


----------



## chefjess606 (Oct 29, 2016)

Newbie to the business here. My brother used to bribe me with grilled cheese sandwiches not to tell on him. It worked. I have never once doubted what my passion in life is. I love the long hours and the sweat and the feeling of satisfaction when the board is finally clear. There is just no feeling in the world like creating something delicious.


----------



## chef brah (Oct 10, 2016)

been a misfit in corporate office environment all my life even though i was good at my job and got appreciation from bosses....i would just lose motivation and then quit those jobs..would stop pushing.

just used to get massive existential crisis trying to find meaning of the work 

but as i have been cooking since i was 20 (volunteering, staging, supperclubs, home cooking)...i always had the option to transition into a chef just didnt have balls to go through low paying early years...eventually i garnered courage, saved money and made the move.

quit job, moved to new york..staged at a 1 star michelin restaurant and got it turned into internship with some pay. learnt that i thrive in environment of total chaos, noise, shouting, fire & knives....when i am cooking i forget all the worries and political troubles of the world and purely focussed...its the same feeling i get when riding my motorbike...all problems in the world seem to vanish.

surprisingly people look upto chefs in todays world..and whenever i tell people i am a chef..i get more respect as opposed to stating some complicated job title from my previous corporate jobs.

also..dont know why but girls dig chefs..even though we dont earn a lot of money as compared to bankers or IT professionals (the perks  )

long way to go with this new life.


----------



## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

Not sure why I became a chef but I remember it seemed like a good idea at the time.../img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif


----------



## peachcreek (Sep 21, 2001)

True story? It was because I showed up a day late to get the job in the  Hotel Laundry working for my friend. So he said 'Go talk to the Chef. I think they need a dishwasher'.


----------



## chef brah (Oct 10, 2016)

lot of great stories here.

i had a question..how do you guys deal with living in 'normal' peoples shadow? ..while most 9-6 population is out enjoying, and we are working till midnight, its fun at first but in long run does it bother u?

most of my 9-6 friends are late night creatures anyway so i dont mind meeting them around 12.30-2 am for a drink etc...but i miss those after work happy hour drinking sometimes


----------



## phaedrus (Dec 23, 2004)

Chef Brah said:


> lot of great stories here.
> 
> i had a question..how do you guys deal with living in 'normal' peoples shadow? ..while most 9-6 population is out enjoying, and we are working till midnight, its fun at first but in long run does it bother u?
> 
> most of my 9-6 friends are late night creatures anyway so i dont mind meeting them around 12.30-2 am for a drink etc...but i miss those after work happy hour drinking sometimes


To be honest that's the best part of the job to me! We're closed on Mondays so that's my weekend, and it's great. I can see a movie and the theater is empty. I go to the indoor range to shoot and I'm the only one there. The easiest time for me to take off is early in the week which is nice for almost everything I like to do (eg camping, hiking, movies, etc). Much easier to go shopping, get the DMV, make an eye appointment, etc. I'm not sure if I'm an introvert or an extrovert or if that even means anything when you're my age. Overall I enjoy the company of the crew that works for me but the 50-60 hours that I'm in the restaurant is plenty of social time for me. The rest of the time I'm fine without having much human contact. Frankly I enjoy the peace and quiet and a chance to decompress.

My drinking days are long behind me and I'm much better for it, so happy hour is just another hour to me.


----------



## chefross (May 5, 2010)

Chef Brah....At the beginning of my career I was angry and selfish and did not understand the way things went. Having to work 60+ hours a week while all my friends partied. My only day off was Monday and that was sometimes subject to the business. As the years went by I adapted to the chaos and enjoyed my time off when it happened.

I had always worked all the major holidays and weekends, so I never knew life outside of the kitchen.


----------



## chef brah (Oct 10, 2016)

Chefross said:


> Chef Brah....At the beginning of my career I was angry and selfish and did not understand the way things went. Having to work 60+ hours a week while all my friends partied. My only day off was Monday and that was sometimes subject to the business. As the years went by I adapted to the chaos and enjoyed my time off when it happened.
> 
> I had always worked all the major holidays and weekends, so I never knew life outside of the kitchen.


you are not missing out much as long as you take few days off in a year to travel to other cities/countries.

i look at most people in offices dreaming of becoming artists, photographers, chefs, musicians but while they dream, their life is passing by while they sit with their passionless and courageless friends gossiping about managers etc.

its that environment which gave me existential crisis..that is this the purpose of life? sit in a fancy bar impress fake friends while being a glorified email pusher? is this why i was born? to fulfill some board of directors bonus targets?

when i started hanging out with my chef friends and waiters for drinks after work..i enjoyed it more..people in food industry are so much more real and organic.

i feel like i got that cushy office life completely flushed out of my system but i dont mind working day shift some days and have time to meet non chef friends in the evening.


----------

