How to Become a Chef30 Oct
Chefs are often now big names and are employed the world over now. A chef has many responsibilities, not just cooking.
A chef is much more than a cook, since he not only devises recipes, but may also be in charge of menu planning and if he runs his own restaurant also the interiors, ambience, etc. Depending on the type of place he is working at he may be turning out fast foods or cordon bleu cuisine. The status of a chef today is big and there are many celebrity chefs now
The Work
The work of a chef has come a long way, though cooks have been around for eons. The chef is responsible for the working of the whole kitchen whether he or she is working in a small restaurant or café, a take-out place, or in a star hotel. If he is working in a small place the chef may have to do all the work from buying the groceries or item needed for the food, to food handling and preparation and getting dish ready to be served.
If the chef is working in a large hotel, he will have many people working under him, often different chefs heading special departments like patisserie, desserts, or even different categories of foods. He will have to do a great deal of administrative work and delegate responsibilities, but in the end he will be the person in charge.
Personal Qualities
While many chefs are known to be temperamental, when you are starting out you have to learn to handle criticism and failures. As it is a service industry and a customer oriented business, you may have to adapt your cooking styles to what actually sells.
However, you have to have talent and skill and be willing to experiment and be extremely creative. You will have to work with your hands and in the beginning at least, there is a fair amount of hard physical labor, because you have to cook in large quantities. You have to learn to think on your feet and deal with emergencies as they arise. You will also have to forego weekends and holidays, because that is the time business is the best and your may have to work at unearthly hours from early mornings to late in the nights.
Academic Qualifications
Try and take cooking classes or culinary courses if your school offers them. You should ideally do an accredited full time course in culinary arts which may range from two to four years. You may want to go in for a degree in hotel management, specializing in cooking in the later stages. This will give you good grounding in case you want to run your own restaurant because it will teach you the nitty-gritty of the business management.
You could either or also do a course in bakery or patisserie which is a related business in itself. There are many avenues of employment in this line of work, too. Ideally you should spend some time as an apprentice in a restaurant or food related place, even if you start at the bottom of the ladder and even if you are not paid or paid very little.
Sometimes big hotels run their own training programs, but you have to pass their tests and interviews to get in.
Jobs
Apart from restaurants, hotels, inns, cafes, bake houses, there are jobs available in cruise lines or big ships which are floating hotels, resorts or spas, clubs, retirement homes, hospitals, catering (for parties, weddings, special occasions) or contract food services (such as airlines’ kitchens or centralized kitchens which supply certain items to certain places).
There are manufacturers of food products which can be found on supermarket and grocery shelves which also employ chefs. These may range from ready to eat foods, frozen foods, dehydrated food products, cooking pastes and the like. Even the armed forces employ chefs.
Earnings
Chefs can expect to earn between $20,000 at the lowest rung and $100,000 and upwards as a head chef. However, earnings vary a great deal and depend on the establishment you are working for, your specialization and the experience you bring to the job.
If you work for a big company, you will be entitled to perquisites and benefits which the corporation gives. It stands to reason that if you are working for a cruise liner, you will also get accommodation and most big hotels, too, will provide accommodation. You will also be entitled to eat in whether it is food prepared for the customers or for the staff!
And if you become a celebrity chef like Jamie Oliver, who dropped out of school because he was dyslexic but then went to catering college, you can have your own television shows and writes books which sell millions of copies.
Other Resource:
http://www.allfoodbusiness.com/becoming_a_chef.php
http://www.finestchef.com/how_to_become_a_chef.htm
http://www.howtobeachef.com/#
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-facts/food-careers/how-to-become-a-chef.htm
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