You're comfortable in the kitchen and you like the restaurant scene, but how do you get to be a restaurant chef? From the outside, it's hard to know where to start. Do you take a course? Network your way in? How can you get a toehold in this sought-after profession? In fact, there are many approaches. Here are some case studies.
Cooking consultant Angie Tso remembers how her officially sanctioned study-and-work program worked: "It was nine months of theory and three to six months of practicum. Each month during the nine months, students study for two weeks, then work in the school kitchen for two weeks."
The advantage of apprenticing was that the paid work into which the school placed its students "helped to pay for part of the course."
When she is hiring assistants, Angie considers how much training — and what kind — the applicants have: "Participation in a traditionally approved apprentice program is an important factor when I consider a new hire, because the person would have some sort of hands-on experience in the job he or she is to be hired to do, which translates to less investment in training for me as the employer."
Sue Singer of the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts says that the high vacancy rate for kitchen staff and a lack of qualified applicants means that the school is called daily by chefs seeking acceptable candidates. "Obtaining good, trained staff is tough," she says, "and the government statistics on shortages in the industry indicate this will continue well past 2010." By attending a culinary institute, she says, you can put yourself at the front of the line.
Andrew Court, executive chef at Vancouver's Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel, would agree. He followed the traditional route of attending Birmingham College of Food in England and then participated in its mandated practicum, working in an approved establishment. Court sums up the benefits of this approach: "I've lived in six countries, met some great chefs. I've been very lucky to be in the right place at the right time — but you also have to be willing to put up with a lot of sacrifices to get what you want. For me it's been worth every minute."
However, Karen Barnaby, executive chef for the Fish House in Stanley Park, didn't go to culinary school. "Going to school is great," she says, "but you don't learn how to work in a kitchen until you work in a kitchen. I learned on the job at every place I worked at." Her advice for moving up in the kitchen hierarchy is straightforward: "Chefs love people who are on the ball. If you're on the ball, you'll get the attention." With the chef on your side, you will have found yourself a mentor.
Food writer and chef Stephen Wong was a cooking hobbyist who stepped in for a vacationing chef and liked the work enough to turn pro. "I think some work experience before getting formal training will help to get a sense of the reality of restaurant work," he says. "One has to like to cook, have good taste buds, not mind hard work, and like the adrenaline rush and the stress of service."
For details on how each of these people became a professional chef and their different approaches to the challenge, please follow the links below.
