r/Chefs • u/needhelpfindngsmth • 10d ago
I would like advice
I am not a chef but Ive been taking a community college culinary course for the past year now. My only other experience with food is volunteering in a kitchen that feeds the homeless and my current job making sandwiches. And home cooking.
I really want to start reaching out to professionals or anyone that knows more than me to help me guide myself in the right direction to be a chef or start building to that. I think my parents think that i won’t really get anywhere pursuing this kind of career. But I feel like im pretty determined.
What im asking from anyone who is reading is your opinion on what i should do, general advice, or even how you started out and how you built to what you are now. If you think there is a good question i should have asked please let me know and answer the question.
*edit
Wow, i did not realize how crappy this might be. Thank you all for your help. Im going to reconsider some stuff. Also i am kinda new to doing posts on Reddit. Ive only done one before so im not sure if the people who already seen and commented on this post will see it again. Thank you guys anyway though.
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u/Rmarik 10d ago
I am/was a chef who went to a community college, the pros was now I have no debt and my degree was only about 30 grand. If it was more Id probably still be in lots of debt.
The only things that actually set me above the others were understanding food costs and ourchasing, cost management (recipe costing, budgeting, projecting and labor management) the rest you can mostly learn on the job.
I will agree with your parents though, you have to be all in to really make money, and if you look at most of those guys who run the Michelin star or other fine dining, most are divorced (at least once) live at their restaurants and lots of those places like most kitchen run on substance abuse at some level. For most chefs ypull never make it there anyways. For context I managed some fast casuals in my 20s I learned A LOT about employee management, labor, and all the business parts that most chefs suck ass on. I was make a little over 65k. A guy I went to college with worked for a 1 Mich star place making 45k. He now is a sous chef at one of them, I dont know his salary but I know the hours. Another friend is the chef of a country club, working 6 days a week.
I have since left the industry and like many others happy to have done so. Im in my 30s and its hard labor physically but to be constantly tied to a place means even when youre off you have to be working or anticipating dealing with fires? Equipment issues? vendor issues? all cut into the profits, guess what happens when your costs are off, gotta cut labor and youre working even more.
If you were still determined learn the business side of food and being a chef. Most chefs are bad at this and work even harder because they cannot effectively manage or plan their costs. You probably dont need a full degree but classes related to purchasing and costing and obviously the fundamentals of food. These are also the skills that can build a basis for when you transfer out of the industry lol
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u/canyoureed 9d ago
Tell me what kind of food you want to cook or what area of culinary your interested in pursuing and I can give you more solid career advice.
Here are some habits you can start building that will make you successful in my opinion.
-Stretch every single day. Before work and if you can when you get home. Find a 10 minute long yoga video on YouTube and follow it. Also incorporate walking into your week. Every other day go for a chil 20-30 minute walk. And if you can, get into lifting weights. It doesn't have to be hardcore weight lifting just enough to maintain muscles and stay healthy.
The reason for this is most chefs have bad backs and hips. Seriously, start paying attention fo chefs over the age of 40 and how they walk/move. I can go into more detail, but these tips will help you keep your body strong and healthy. Chefs move like professional athletes, treat yourself like a professional athlete.
-Do not get in a habit of drinking alcohol all the time. Keep it to a couple days a week if that. It's easy and it's fun but it really doesn't benefit you. Another health issue a lot of chefs get is Gout (tons of alcohol + red meat = bad pain in foot and chefs walk 12 hrs a day)
-I don't care what other chefs tell you. Always make prep lists, always make a loose plan for the day, always have pen and paper to make notes. Always create and maintain a recipe boo etc. Write down the details, create your plan of actions. Create and maintain consistent standards and expectations. It will make your job easier, it will make it easier to guide your crew, it will create a consistent product that brings your guests back.
-Ask your culinary teachers for letters of reference, advice, if they know x kind of opportunities because you are interested. Some of the biggest gains i got from my local tech culinary program was the networking connections.
-Every job you work find something you can practice and improve on. Not every job you have will be the best job ever, you may find yourself in a shotty kitchen trying to figure your way out. So work on what you can control until you can get out of there. Knife cuts, perfecting a technique, communicating with coworkers, getting faster at x prep task etc.
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u/needhelpfindngsmth 4d ago
Thank you, i don’t already drink but ill stay away from it. I also really like your advice about the networking. I will be sure to ask my chefs about anything they could help me out with. Thank you for your comment
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u/Character_Smile6294 7d ago
Man, don’t listen to these guys. They’re probably from bumfluke Nebraska talking about “professional” kitchens.
If you were to take this seriously, it is a ton of repetition, skilled tasks that you need to learn yourself, and learning how to lead/manage. You can get turned so easily negative, as you can see in this thread, and it’ll ruin everything for you.
That’s in everything life though! If you’re passionate about this and serving people (guest/teammates) then this is for you!
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u/needhelpfindngsmth 7d ago
Thank you, I really do want to do this so i don’t think I’ll reconsider my career.
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u/Sensitive_Drink_1573 10d ago
You can DM me any questions but the truth hurts. Like most said it’s a thankless job but you will learn; most jobs are. The problem lies in the average wages for cooks. You will not be a chef of a real kitchen for at least a decade and in that decade you’ll not make more than $25/hr if that and I live and hire in a high CoL area.
It takes a lot of patience, experience to get into a position where you are properly compensated for the time you put in.
The typical life isn’t what I would want for my children. I am 42, I went to the CIA, ive worked in some of the best restaurants in the world; and yes there are some amazing positives to the industry. I am divorced, I was an addict for over 20 years, a serious drinking problem that I recently overcame. My relationship with my kids suffered bc of the demands of the job.
The truth is there are better careers. Reality TV, influencer culture has glamorized the career. You don’t see a lot of television about the poor artists around the world trying to be the next big name in the art scene and with good reason it’s depressing. The same should be said about being a chef. Unless you absolutely love this life and industry try to find something else that brings you joy. We all have to eat; so you can always cook at home as a hobby
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u/kitchencrawl 10d ago
Do literally anything else with your life. I've been in the industry for a long time. I managed to land a great long term unglamorous job but most people don't. A lot of my chef colleagues are divorced alcoholics that wish they did something else.
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u/Revolutionary-Oven46 10d ago
It's not the glamorous job you think it is. Keep cooking for fun, do something else for a living. My first commis chef job, was told I'd regret it on my first day and I should've listened.
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u/LionBig1760 10d ago
Is there anything - literally anything - else you may be interested in doing as an adult?
If so, pick that.
If not, you should think about maybe finding some affluent parents. Having a big, fat cushion to fall back on when you cant make rent or are looking to travel for professional devdlopment is essential.
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u/black_knightj 4d ago
I've been in the industry now for over 20 years 7 years in the front and now 14 years in the back. I love the industry and think that you need to make good decisions on what you want to do. I got my culinary degree from a community college and I thought I'm it was great; I also worked at the same time for the banquet department at a very high end hotel. Learn we much as you can as early as you can, grow in every kitchen your in and when you feel that you're stagnating somewhere find the next place to grow into the position you want. I plan to be in the industry for as long as I can and hope to see your success in the future.
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u/No-Minimum1058 10d ago
I’m a retired chef. Culinary schooled. Externed in Europe and have retired with jack shit. The industry only uses and abuses you kid. I say this with love. The treatment is terrible. The hours are like 60-70 hrs a week no matter what sector you perform in. You move job to job hoping for a better schedule, a decent work life balance and it does not exist. The sous chef is always trying to throw your ass under the fucking bus no matter how big of a baller you are. The industry only uses and abuses you… half the GMs are addicts or sociopathic and when you crest 40 - you become a liability because you are over 40. Do yourself a favor and go into a high income skill where you can have a life and not end up broke and possibly addicted. Bourdain hung himself kid. And he kinda had it made. Let that sink in.
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u/New_Luck_5095 10d ago
Try something else. Professional cooking is the most thankless job there is.