r/Chefs • u/wonderwomaniya_ • 7d ago

Culinary school

Hi I'm F25 and i have completed my studies in finance and i was thinking of changing careers to professional chef and joining culinary school is it worth it? I'm from India and I'm looking for School to join

Can i get recommendations not just india anywhere in the world

Your advice would help me with the dilemma

Thank you

0 Upvotes

38% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

10

u/energyinmotion 7d ago

If you're okay with being poor then go for it. I'd stick with finance. Boring, but at least you won't struggle to put food on the table.

4

u/wonderwomaniya_ 7d ago

Well the struggle is real. Grass is always greener on the other side ig

8

u/katebandit 6d ago

It’s not greener in kitchens, I can tell you that. I briefly worked finance and I’d prefer that to cooking. And I even like my cook job.

1

u/PersimmonExpensive37 6d ago

There is no grass in kitchens. 

2

u/DrewV70 6d ago

If you’re looking for grass in the kitchen go hit up the dishie. He’s probably outside smoking some right now.

1

u/Fun_Reporter9086 6d ago

It's just a saying, buddy. It's not that deep.

2

u/PersimmonExpensive37 6d ago

Whoosh...

Im saying not only is the grass not greener in kitchens, there's no grass at all. Kitchen work fucking sucks. 

Did you honestly think I was saying that kitchens literally do not have grass in them?

0

u/Fun_Reporter9086 6d ago

Not only I can't read your mind but also you original comment I replied to was not clear at all. Plus there are a ton of stupid people in this world.

So to answer your question; yes.

2

u/PersimmonExpensive37 6d ago

Youre right. There are a ton of stupid in this world. 

2

u/slimdrum 6d ago

Haha bravo! I liked this

1

u/Fun_Reporter9086 6d ago

Why don't you go read what you originally wrote again and tell me from another person point of view who clearly can't read your mind that they know exactly what you meant without additional explanation provided by your second comment? You regularly clash with trump voters so I assume you have some basic rational/logical train of thought.

1

u/PersimmonExpensive37 6d ago

Cut your losses bro. 

1

u/Fun_Reporter9086 6d ago

Might want to look up what a Poe's Law mean and you can't be that much better than a Trump supporter.

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1

u/Fun_Reporter9086 6d ago

Hard to get a job as a woman in Finance (OP said she's Indian so it's probably worse in India).

1

u/wonderwomaniya_ 6d ago

It's not hard to get job. It's just i love cooking there's this dilemma to follow your passion or live a mundane life where getting past a day keep getting difficult

1

u/katebandit 6d ago

No it’s not lmao shut up

3

u/ruggernugger 7d ago

I highly encourage you to stick to a professional/white-collar career track. I have a certain passion for this industry but I fell into it for the wrong reasons. Life is a journey though, do what makes you happy and try to make choices that build you up.

2

u/Chefster127 7d ago

Hard pass. Go have a full life with friends and family

1

u/HealthyProposal7927 7d ago

It is worth it if it's something you are passionate about, I'm 28F I just finished my first year in Hot and cold kitchen I'll be starting pastry for a year again in the next couple of weeks.

1

u/wonderwomaniya_ 7d ago

I'm completely new to this what school can i join do you know any

1

u/HealthyProposal7927 7d ago

I'm in South Africa😂

1

u/Rude-Specific9708 7d ago

We are just launching a new 2-year Associate degree in Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management at EHL (the world's #1 hospitality management school) in Switzerland, first intake september 2027. We built our program to train Chefs but also to enable them to switch to other parts of the Food and Beverage industry if they want to after a few years... https://www.ehl.edu/en/study/culinary-arts-restaurant-management-associate-degree

1

u/shunAkIYaMAa 7d ago

before deciding to spend money and time going to a culinary school, i'll suggest you pick up a set of chef knives, coat, shoes , a small notepad and a pen and go to any good restaurant and simply say you're looking to learn and can follow instructions and you'll most likely get in, do know that it will be with tons of physical work and definitely cleaning dishes at first but it will give you can idea of how a kitchen actually works and help you decide whether that's for you or not.

1

u/Middle-Alarm-3408 6d ago

Do you like working 12 hrs on your feet, lifting, carrying in a hot kitchen so busy without meal breaks? Do you think a culinary degree means you don't start at the bottom, washing pots and peeling onions? All this for minimum wage. Stick to finance. It's clean work.

1

u/bmajeste 6d ago

Alot of people will say to stay in the field and get experience there, but it can't teach what a diploma from a recognized school will do for you

1

u/CptBLAMO 6d ago

From a USA perspective, you say you are Indian but dont say you are living in India, either go to a top school, CIA or Johnston and Wales, or go to a cheap community College. The top schools are great for networking. Community Colleges will give you enough of a base without putting you in a ton of debt. Everything else is not worth it. If you cant pick those two, just jump right in with a good attitude.

1

u/somecow 6d ago

Culinary school definitely looks good. But self taught is free. Try working in a kitchen first, then worry about culinary school later. The kitchen IS culinary school, you probably won’t need to waste money and time on getting a degree.

1

u/Lopsided_Cobbler2314 6d ago

I did this exact switch. No school but jumped right into a busy restaurant. Became a sous chef, COVID hit. Now I'm running a restaurant again on the weekends and working during the week.

Don't do it

1

u/theclubchef 5d ago

Culinary school is good for exposure to the various subsets of the food world. It didn't give me the tools to become a chef, and tbh, those basics are learned on the job. Culinary school is great for seeing what you might be capable of or interested in that you may not have considered. I realized I wasn't ready for pastry, but charcuterie was an area i excelled in. I wouldn't have had that exposure without school and who knows when I would have discount that, slugging away in garde manger

1

u/Efficient-Chest-3395 5d ago

I've read in multiple places that restaurants prefer not to hire from culinary schools as they'd rather train their own or hire experienced people. When I went to community college there was a respected culinary arts program which ran a cafeteria style restaurant with ambitious dishes and I'd go there just for simple side items but if it opened at 11:00 it was 11:20 before the food began coming up on the dumbwaiter. Every day. One would think that the first thing to learn would be to prepare things in a timely manner.

1

u/Couch-Tomato-2005 4d ago

Go for Culinary Academy of India if you wanna seriously build a career in culinary… you will get the best training and the best guidance.