# Different careers of a chef



## jjacob32 (Jun 6, 2011)

Hey everyone! I am a 20 year old from the Midwest just trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. Culinary school never really crossed my mind until I was cooking for my roommates one night (well, I cook every night but there was one night where I had an epiphany). I wondered, “I absolutely love cooking. I love feeding people and making them happy. Why don’t I just do that?!” So I’m looking into some schools and trying to get a handle on what the career is actually like and whether or not it really is something for me to pursue. I don’t care how much money I’ll be making as long as I can get by. I can handle stressful situations without a problem but I was wondering, what other careers are there? I would love to work in a restaurant, but what about catering? Or food writing? Are those possibilities as well or do most people right out of culinary school get stuck in a restaurant kitchen?

In other (shorter) words: what are my options?


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## spring morin (Jun 11, 2011)

I love that you love to cook and thinking of joining school for cooking. I know form exp. that your need some sort of cooking back ground to wright about food or even work in the kitchen.Having more exper.. will show people that if you do know about and know how to back it up and cook it to you will be more welled respected. Good luck with what ever you decide.


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## rgm2 (May 28, 2011)

You can go anyplace that is food related. Alton Brown graduated and basically started his show on food network. You can work as a private chef. You can teach classes. You can sell cooking equipment. You can be a rep for a food sales company. There are many many possibilities for you.

If you are interested in working in a kitchen I would recommend 2 books that you should read. I would then try and stage in a restaurant you think you would like to work in. If you still want to be a chef, then I would go to school and also work in a kitchen while you are in school. Or even try and get a job in a kitchen for a year before you even go to school.

Here are the books and a link to them on amazon.com.

Being a Chef

Making of a Chef

Good luck Buddy!


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## moranp (May 31, 2011)

hey if your really interested in working in a kitchen or learning about food get a job as a prep cook/dishwasher first. it's a low job and it don't pay well but it will get your foot in the door and show you what a kitchen is all about. Also if you tell the head chef your really interested in food then most will help teach you about food and cooking. it's a good way to tell if you really want to become a chef it also gets you used to the kind of hours you will have as a chef espcially being a dishwasher your the last to go considering you have to clean up. but also if you do this for about a year you can apply to C.I.A which is one of the top culinary school. now that aside if you want to just go to school you can do a lot of things. me i went to culinary school got my associates now I'm in my bachlors program at Johnson and wales for culinary nutrition. Meaning when i graduate i can become a food scientist or a dietitian so believe me when i say their are a lot of options but i highly suggest getting your foot in the door because that's free some culinary school can cost 20,000 a year and you shouldnt spend that money inless your sure about what you want.


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## jedimind (Jul 9, 2011)

i agree with moranP, you should wash some dishes, peel potatoes, and see how you'll spend 14-16 hours a day as a professional chef, then decide if that's something you want to pay money to learn how to do.


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