/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.6063615]

I know this probably gets asked a lot, but since there isn't a FAQ or anything, please excuse my faggotry.


I'm a directionless college student, and have been thinking about going into culinary arts.

Is it a bad idea?

How hard is it to get a job?

Will people not take me seriously?

Is it possible to make a decent living without getting super lucky or being great?

[Anonymous No.6063641]

http://zaneheemi.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/never-ever-become-a-chef-advice-from-a-chef/

This is a decent article. That said, the "you're a piece of shit" section varies greatly depending on where you work. I have worked in places where that is the case, but everyone is extremely friendly with eachother at my current job. When shit gets stressful and people make mistakes everyone else just makes fun of them sarcastically, like middle schoolers would.

Anyway, it pays like shit and you need to put in a lot of years in order to be able to get to a position that won't pay like shit. And you need to be competent in order to get to that point. I think a lot of people romanticize being a chef because they like cooking at home, but would run screaming on their first day of working in a commercial kitchen because they didn't know what they were in for.

Like that dude in the article says, if the downsides of the career don't dissuade you then you are probably passionate enough to do it. You need to truly love cooking and to have strong ambition in order to be satisfied.

That said, I've been in the industry for 6 years and am currently a sous chef. Yes it's hard, yes the hours are long and what not, but if you really have the drive then you will be fine. I fucking love it and have no regrets.

Anyway, if you want to try to get a job then you might have to start as a dishwasher. If you interview well (ask for a working interview, where they essentially throw you onto the line to see if you're a tard), you might be able to start as a prep chef. That's really what you want to do. For me, I could not get a job because I did not have experience in a commercial kitchen, until I asked for a working interview. I got the job after about 4 days.

People will take you seriously if you prove yourself to them, aside from some fucking douchebags who take themselves too seriously.

Good luck dude.

[Anonymous No.6063648]

>>6063615
>Is it a bad idea?
Yes
>How hard is it to get a job?
Not hard
>Will people not take me seriously?
They wont take you seriously until you prove yourself, it's almost like a fraternity
>Is it possible to make a decent living without getting super lucky or being great?
No. It's regularly ranked among the lowest paid industries

I've done it for 12 years and would encourage you to do just about anything else unless you have an insane passion for food.

[Anonymous No.6063660]

there's a reason the vast majority of cooks are mexican; whitey doesn't want to work that hard for shit pay

and that's what it is; hard work for shit pay

if you have the passion for it and you aren't a lazy shit who just dreams of being on the food network or something, then give it a try. like the other dude said get a job as a prep chef, if you're decent and they like you then they'll throw you on the line to see how you do, and if you do well you're work your way up quickly

if you don't have an insane passion for cooking then don't do it, but if you do then, if you're anything like me, you will still love it even in the early years

[Anonymous No.6063665]

If you are posting on this website you probably don't have the work ethic to be a cook. Shits not easy.

[Anonymous No.6063670]

>>6063665

There are plenty of cooks on here. Granted they are by far the minority.

[Anonymous No.6063675]

>>6063660
>whitey doesn't want to work that hard for shit pay
White people already do. They prefer employing illegals since they can pay them even less without complaint.

[Anonymous No.6063686]

>>6063675

that's more or less what I said, that they'll work like hell for shit pay

we have this youngish white girl (looks around 25) who works grill/fry/saute at my work who is very talented and hard working. she's very pretty too, surprised she didn't just become a waitress like the rest of the retards who work for us and complain constantly even though they sit around half the time and still make $30/hr. sometimes there are exceptions, usually the young people who are caucasian that we have had end up quitting or getting fired quickly because they are very lazy and whiny.

[Anonymous No.6063697]

>>6063686
>we don't like whites so we fire them except pretty females

[Anonymous No.6063705]

>>6063697
Honestly, a pretty girl in the kitchen is so good for morale that even if they just stood around doing nothing it would be worth keeping them on.

[Anonymous No.6063712]

>>6063705

he's a profiling cunt, but he's right

[Anonymous No.6063720]

>>6063697

no, we have one other white male who is a dishwasher and is a very hard worker. I am also white. we would have fired her if she was not very competent and hard working, i have been at this restaurant for 8 years and we have hired and fired attractive women before. i do not work in a shithole, we do not tolerate ineptitude. it is just refreshing to see that some young people are not so entitled and will still work hard, as we have had many issues with that in the past.

[Anonymous No.6063738]

>>6063720
some people are just unwilling to bust their ass as hard as you need to to work in a kitchen

you can pretty much tell who isn't going to make it in the first 30 minutes of their first shift

[Anonymous No.6063753]

>>6063738

yes, that is very true

we just threw shit work at her when she did her trial before she was hired. she spent 90% of the shift peeling and chopping shit, and when our executive chef said to her something like "don't worry, it's just because it's a trial it won't always be like this" she just replied "that's ok, I can do this as much as you need". she's always positive and willing to do anything, that's a good worker.

this is an industry where you have to put a lot of work in if you want to get somewhere. if that's ok with you then go for it.

[Anonymous No.6063760]

Dat ass

[Anonymous No.6063776]

>>6063720
>>6063738
>>6063753

Why are you talking to yourself?

[Anonymous No.6063783]

>>6063776

[Anonymous No.6063795]

>>6063753
Positivity has nothing to do with work ethic unless one is in customer service. She is positive since she hasn't had real adversity in her life or you can't see through the facade since you are dreaming too much about making her your gf.

[Anonymous No.6063813]

>>6063760

what ass? she's just rotated her ass forward dramatically, if she was standing neutral there wouldn't really be much to see

[Anonymous No.6063822]

>>6063776

not talking to myself, I was the 1st and 3rd post

>>6063795

from what i know she was in foster care as a kid because her mom was a drug addict and she had no dad, she didn't get into it too much but it doesn't seem like she had an easy life

also i don't want to make her my gf, i'd feel weird because i look at her as someone i want to mentor, more like a daughter figure than anything. i'm married and have 2 kids, i'm an oldfag

[Anonymous No.6063831]

>>6063795
>She is positive since she hasn't had real adversity in her life

Lol wut? Usually the people who have had shit lives are the ones who actually have no problem with working their asses off, unlike the narcissistic cunts who think they're entitled to having money thrown at them while they do nothing.

[Anonymous No.6063839]

>>6063813
>rotated her ass forward dramatically
LOL

[Anonymous No.6063842]

>>6063839

He probably meant backward, in which case he'd be correct

[Anonymous No.6063864]

>>6063831
You are confusing work ethic with positivity/negativity.

[Anonymous No.6063867]

>>6063822
so your daughterfu then which is just a daughter you want to fuck.

[Anonymous No.6064037]

>>6063615
>possible to make a decent living without getting super lucky or being great?

See:
>>6063648
>regularly ranked among the lowest paid industries

There was a huge U.S. salary survey released a few months ago; all of the lowest-paid jobs were in the "culinary arts" as you put it.

So, no, you cannot make a decent living at it without an insane amount of luck and/or being exceptionally skilled.

[Anonymous No.6064056]

>>6063615
Please, please, please don't become a chef. I have been one for 10 years and it's the only thing I'm good at. I'm pretty much married to the job as I have no other job skills. love my job and I love cooking, but my biggest regret in life was dropping out of a mechanical engineering course to become a chef.

Low wages, treated like shit, stressed, work like a madman, long hours, few people respect what you do.

You will give your heart and soul to the job and wind up dreading showing up to work some days. Most chefs end up alcoholics and drug addicts. It is the definition of stress, likely more stressful than being a lawyer, a stock broker, or a commissioned salesman. You will get called every name in the book by other chefs, and when you tell people you're a chef, people will assume you are a crackhead or an invalid. All for (up to) 12 bucks an hour.

>being a chef is not a choice, it's the result of a series of bad choices

TL;DR: Don't.

(also if you're dumb enough to ignore our advice, don't bother with cooking school, experience>theory)

[Anonymous No.6064068]

>>6064056
I concur with your post other than;
>don't bother with cooking school, experience>theory)

Going to cooking school can get you starting positions in high end restaurants and it shows people you are serious about cooking as a career. By the time I attended cooking school I had been working in kitchens for 5 years and teaching myself, to the point that I learned very close to nothing from it. But it opened up some doors for me, and that is what it's actually about.

[Anonymous No.6064228]

>>6064056
I'd like to add, if chefs appear snobbish and arrogant, it is a defense mechanism. They know that the college kid doing prep is going to get his masters and probably buy a restaurant one day and the chef is lucky to save enough to switch to working part time when he turns 65, and all he has is a drinking problem and a michelin star.

[Anonymous No.6066254]

>>6064068
>By the time I attended cooking school I had been working in kitchens for 5 years and teaching myself, to the point that I learned very close to nothing from it. But it opened up some doors for me, and that is what it's actually about.
Yes, it opened those doors because you were already experienced. If you hadn't been, the doors most likely would have remained closed, because you'd be just another culinary school graduate.