/ck/ - Food & Cooking

if you have the money and want to be a chef, i guess it's a good investment. I don't want to be a chef or work in food, and i'm just an amateur cook so I wouldn't go.

just finished Le Cordon Bleu. its where i'm starting my career to chefdom. cost about 20k. i personally think it was worth it. one of the students i met has been in the industry for 25 years self taught been all over the world worked in france 5 years for a world famous chef and came back to the states for family reasons. asked his opinion. said he learned more tricks here then anywhere else he's been in his 25 years. personal note: don't think going to a cooking school automatically boosts you to chef or sous chef. its a nice starting point thought and it helps alot.

Kind of seems like a waste of money. I know a lot of people who are much better chefs than those who went to culinary school. That being said, in culinary school you learn a lot of useful techniques, ideas, and advanced food science, which sounds weird.
I live in the US and culinary schools are fucking expensive for not much return, maybe it's better in Europe or elsewhere, but here in the US I'd say you should just work in as good of a restaurant as you can find and you'll learn plenty while saving a buck and gaining another.

captcha: persist; results

It's not worth it. You can spend the same amount of time doing something else. You can learn those same things from experience, while making money instead of spending it. Get larousse gastronomique. If you aren't in college yet, then it's not so bad - but if you've already gone and/or can't, then don't bother. Le Cordon Blue is only good for networking, as is the CIA.

I'm against the idea of school, period.

In my opinion, if you want to learn, you should pick up a book that speaks your language and devour it.

Teachers are usually failures in their domains, often people with a God complex and who will force a standard set of skills and knowledge upon you because that's the way it was decided, often not even by themselves.

School descends from apprenticeships, where a master became overwhelmed with apostles (or apprentices) that teaching them became his primary occupation. This, in itself, led to people learning the craft simply to teach it to others and it's a fucking mess.

Wipe it. Wipe Earth of all life.

I enjoyed it, but cooking really is my passion. School just gave me the edge to make it really happen. And you're gonna work some shitty places regardless; Fact.

>>3913728
Poorfag who has a shit job detected

Down with the system bra

>>3913755

You know what? I sort of wish I made a billion dollars an hour to discuss nothing at all with people who don't understand a word of English in one of the world's finest restaurant to go back to my twenty-star hotel room that's all paid for by someone else than me.

But you know what? It's all a lie. An illusion. All it does it sustain itself not in resources but in reason. It's the life industry and I'm vegan.

Fuck you too.

A diploma in cocksucking won't get me where I want to be: sucking cock.

And you can be sure I'll die for what I believe in.

>>3913740
OP here. Yeah I absolutely love cooking and working in kitchens. I would love to be in a place where I have actual, dedicated time to put into learning more and doing more with food. Just dont know if it is worth it in the end.

Was your school good at helping you network and giving you good references for employment after you got out?

>>3913728
>read a book to learn about physical techniques

are you going to read a book about karate, then try to take on someone with a knife?

no, you're not going to. just like you're never going to be hired if you've not been trained by professionals

>>3913775

I live in a socialist country. I don't care!

My goal isn't to be hired. I don't even care if I get a job or not. I can spend my life wondering about the wonders of life if I want to.

I wasn't born in slavery like you.

I'm free.

I skipped culinary school. I love cooking very, very much. It's a genuine passion of mine. I instead opted for paramedic school. I really enjoy being the man who could be a person's link between life and death. You could be dead if I wasn't there. You could suffer permamnenet brain damage had I not arrived. You could have lost a limb if I didn't occlude the artery.

It's pure adrenaline. Who wouldn't get off on that? Sure there are severely grotesque scenes but it's been quite easily managable.

>>3913728
We've all seen your food. You desperately need a teacher.

>>3913793

I desperately need a husband is what you mean.

>>3913793

You see.../ck/ is different things for different people.

For me, it's like a housewife's club. For you, it might be like a cordon bleu convention. For others, it's like the loft scenes in Hell's Kitchen.

The food I post here is never plated, never even meant to look good as a photograph, I wouldn't even serve it to anyone else that way. It's what I eat in the privacy of my own place, alone.

They're experiments and /ck/ is just company. I'm not here to show off or anything.

4fun
4friends
4chan

dot net fo' shizzle, nigger.

Graduate? Yes
Worth it? Yes

Granted I went to a much shorter program and could never justify going to somewhere like Le Cordon Bleu (I work with and run circles around Bleufags) or Johnson and Wales. It allowed me to get some basics down as well as a large level of understanding, so your Chefs don't have to show you stuff. My knife skills are nothing special, but I am worlds ahead of some of our recent hires. I had to show this kid how to cut an onion. A fucking onion! He had it all badly diced on the board and was just mincing and chopping at it.

School will teach you all the basic crap that we'd really rather not waste our time showing you. But on that note don't think you'll come out of school as some bad ass. You're still shit, and you don't know shit. Schools get a bad rep for putting out students who think they know stuff. Learn the schools way, but learn other ways, learn you're Chef's way, and stay humble! I'd recommend it only if you srs about being a cook. Cause its a lot of suck. Oh, went to Scottsdale Community College for culinary.
>inb4 hurr durr Community College, its an ACF certified program

any of you guys actually work in a professional kitchen? I get the feel that most people here on /ck/ are amateur cooks (ranging from total shit food to pro food).

>>3913807
awesome, that is really helpful. I asked someone else this but how was SCC at helping you network and aiding in finding places that will hire you?

SCC is awesome btw. I went through their film program and loved it.

>>3913812

/ck/ is mostly amateur cooks but you'll find the occasional pro posting if you lurk a bit more.

>>3913807
Agreed.
Community college is enough, nobody hires based on what cooking school you came out of.

Just pick up the basic methods, learn to time manage & your ready to start.

Have seen a lot of kids with inflated egos because they had their teachers sucking their balls in school get killed in the real world & just decide to do something else, at the end of the day the chef wants it his way & he'll teach you everything you need to know.

Basics are essential but after that you don't really want to be indoctrinated with outdated shit & end up thinking your chef is doing it wrong -

Fuck the high cost schools, you will be forced to unlearn 80% of the shit they teach.

Get a prep job first & see if it fits - I washed dishes for a year before moving up too

>>3913897
>I washed dishes for a year before moving up too

An excellent way to start in the industry.

>>3913812
>>3913812
have you seen some of the halfass recipes theyve posted before?

its not even amateur cooking, its something a redneck would do in his trailerpark

its awful

atleast take one cooking class, and be grateful you were taught to some degree how to properly cook

It's what you do with it, really. Culinary schools give an INTRODUCTION to the basics. They just scratch the surface. It could go both ways. School won't teach you ethic, drive, organization, sense of urgency, and other things of that nature. What it will do is expose you to a broad array of the fundamentals over the course of a few months. Which takes years to learn. If I could do it all over again, I would avoid going to school. And do stages in different restaurants outlining what I wanted to learn and how to achieve such. There's no right way and wrong way. I've met successful chefs from both sides of the spectrum. It's what you do with it.

>>3913812
Yeah, J&W 1999 and just hitting 20 years in kitchens. One of the things you hear at school is how, 10 years down the road, a big chunk of culinary grads aren't even working in the industry. Burnout, madness, and heart attacks, oh my.

Everyone who tells you school is a waste of time is largely correct; you cannot be taught to love what you do. But more and more, there's no way you'll get an interview for management level positions (even sous chef or union lead) if you don't have some kind of degree.

>>3913942
not true

Waste of fucking time. Too much money just to help your chances of getting a minimum wage fucking job. Good luck paying off five figures of student debt with a $10/hr job.

I graduated in 2010.

Fuck no.

Le Cordon Bleu.

Man America is fucked up. Here in Australia you have to get some certificates through TAFE and do an apprenticeship, but it's all paid for or extremely cheap and you are working at the same time.

>>3913995
ok. Hell of an argument you make there.

Maybe I just live and work in an area saturated with skilled help and I have the privilege of being choosy when we have to hire.

Love the history you get from grizzled kitchen pros, tell us a story man.

>>3914061
This
American system sucks, why should you pay for vocational training?

I work in a zagat rated 29 kitchen, 60 percent of the cooks I know graduated culinary school. 100% of them say it was a waste of time and money. and the other 40 percent of the cooks that didn't go to culinary school are just as talented. Its all in how much time you spend in a kitchen and who you are exposed to.

well to all the people that say DONT go to culinary school

how did you guys get a job at a restaurant and cook? Ive been trying to look, and every place that wants Line Chefs wants them with experience, and I have none as a line chef or anything

any tips on how to get started? or should I just apply to some chain place like Olive Garden or some shit

and for those that DO go to culinary school, what would u recommend? I live in SoCal? any place worth going?

>>3913805
>.net

>>3914223
I applied for a job at a revolving sushi bar and luckily their standards were fairly low. Another hires' only experience was at McDonalds. Mine were only a short internship I got through a high school class and some small jobs I did myself.

Experience is definitely a plus. You're better off starting out at Olive Garden or whoever will hire you with your minimal experience just to get your start. The good jobs will come later. Since working at the sushi gig, I'm now working at a full service Italian restaurant owned by a big restauranteur.

At the restaurant I work at now, a lot of the workers are coming out of the Art Institute. The price is similar to Le Cordon Bleu. According to a friend who was a graduate, it's what you make it. AI's guilty of tricking students into believing they'll be sous and head chefs, but you'll learn what you need. A former coworker of mine went to Laguna Culinary and it's very french Oriented over there. If you can, try to go to the CIA up north. It's hella expensive, but you're pretty much paying for connections at that point, and the CIA has very good connections.

>>3914262
At the AI you get what you make of it. I know someone who was going to be a pastry chef and went to AI. Quit before the quarters end, she got pissed off that she had to learn the basics. She just assumed they'd just jump right into cakes and chocolates.

>>3914223
Fucking wash dishes you little tart.

If you have 5 minutes peel some garlic.

To good to shove our hand in a grease trap are we?

I've always been terrible at schools of any kind. I learned next to nothing at culinary school, you can learn more from Youtube...
The only advantage school gave me was to allow me to start in a very good restaurant from scratch as an apprentice. Learning at the restaurant was amazing - something I will never forget. It all went downhill after the first year (5 more years at different places) so I left the industry, but I continue to cook (and learn) heaps at home.

I do love food, but only as a hobby. Not as a living.

>>3914486
Ironically, cooking got me obsessed with knife sharpening. I'm good enough now that I want to go back to culinary school and teach people how to do it.
Sharpening lessons are pretty much non-existent in schools these days.