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How do you know your worth?

2K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  stormrider 
#1 ·
As a cook or chef, how do you know your worth? I was talking with someone and pay came up. He basically laughed in my face at how much I was making and said I shouldn't be working for anything under $15. Granted, he doesn't work in the field but has some chef friends.
 
#2 ·
If you ask for "X-$" and you get "X-$" ... You can say you're worth that much. If you ask for "X-$" and you don't get any work ... You know you're not worth that much.

"We work in kitchens ... It ain'te rocket surgery.".
 
#3 ·
In aus

A chef is classified as a trade like sparky etc

A sparky or plumber in Aus is on approx 45 ph m-f more on Saturday stupid money on Sunday's
A chef pretty much is salary based and you work sat and sun for free
Chef commis in Aus is on 22 ph

The hours for chefs in Aus is pretty much min 10hr shift mostly 13 hrs


Funny thing better the restaurant the less the coin
But work in a club or pub slightly better coin


As mentioned in another post chefs are leaving this industry because the coin is not there vs the hours
 
#4 ·
Whoa there cdp...

Don't know anything about Oz, but in N. A. Cooking is not a trade like for plumbing or electricians.

Point one is that there are no trade qualifactions like there are for plumbers, etc.. Here on N.America salary for trades is based on qualifications firstly and experience secondly. Which is why I can't a plumber for less than $70/ hr or an hvac guy gor less than $120/hr. Union rates are enforced. Because there is no national qualification for cooks in the U.S., there can be no standard minimum salary . The hospitality unions have had all the time (and union dues..) possible, but are unable or just don't give a sh*t to figure things out and actually do domething.

Point two is because there are no national qualifications, every culinary school does what it wants.

Point three is that like in Oz the money is not there for most cooks. The money is there for servers though. Which is why virtually every restaurant over here has trouble getting not only cooks, but dining room managers--no tips for either.
 
#10 ·
wow,
how do you learn all the fundamentals of product
ie butchery, sauces, understanding what certain products do to other products,
simple things like why you don't just add flour to a sauce to thicken it use a beurmanie

methods of cookery holding a knife properly...????? no training and you get paid the same as us.

wow
 
#12 ·
Just to clarify, cdp, there are many private culinary schools in the U.S. and Canada, some with excellent reputatation. The thing is, how do you design a curriculum for a course when there is no national qualification to base it on?

But to address the the o.p.'s queston...

The next time somone asks you how much you earn, you smile and nod and say something like "you don't need to know that."
The question is WHY the dude wants to know. Usually its to gloat or to compare, but the dude doesn't work in our industry. Then again, some people aren't capable of holding a real conversation, so instead they ask how much did you pay for this or that?
 
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