Considering A Cooking Career? Think Twice!
It is so important to do your homework and learn all that you can before you decide to pursue a cooking career, enjoying cooking at home can lead to a false sense of enjoyment by preparing a nice dinner for yourself or loved ones, versus working in a commercial environment kitchen, preparing meals for hundreds if not thousands. Images of Hell’s Kitchen with Chef Dave Ramsey will appear in many peoples minds, and believe or not I have worked for a few chefs before that had the personality of Mr Dave Ramsey.
Chefs, cooks and food prep positions are responsible for many different kinds of foods including salads and soups to full out main dishes and desserts. Some of the primary responsibilities of chefs and cooks are creating recipes and preparing meals for large numbers of people. While other support positions take on the tasks such as preparing the ingredients for the chefs, and ensuring that the kitchen maintains it’s cleanliness and order.
Chefs and cooks normally follow recipes that have been created by the establishment that they are employed by, or by following recipes that they have created themselves. Some kitchens have a set menu plan that is never changing, while upper class restaurants give the chefs freedom to design and develop new interesting menu items, to tempt the pallets of the patrons.
An assortment of equipment is at a chefs disposal and part of the learning process of becoming a chef is how to utilize all of the tools at hand such as ovens, broilers, knifes, pots and pans. The improper use of equipment can lead to unwanted accidents, and it is the responsibility of the cooks and chefs to not only use the equipment in a safe manner, but to also instruct the other kitchen staff in kitchen safety.
There are many niche areas that chefs may specialize when entering a cooking career, such as Pastry Chefs who are responsible for desserts and doughs, A saucier is responsible for creating and making the many different kinds of sauces and gravies that accompany various dishes, such as Hollandaise, or Duck sauce. soups, entrees or desserts. A Potager is responsible for creating and cooking many differnt kinds of soups and stocks needed in a kitchen. Some positions that you will find in larger kitchens are vegetable cooks, fry cooks and grill cooks.
Executive chefs and head cooks organize and direct the kitchen that they are in charge of, so not only is a chef responsible for food management, but they must juggle the management of food along with the management of personnel. Other duties of the chef or head cook involve food inventory and time management.
There are a wide variety of positions for people who are interested in pursuing a cooking career, from Institution cooks who normally work in mass production type kitchens such as cafeterias, businesses, hospitals or schools, and you can find sub niches within the institution establishment such as hospitals, who must prepare certain meals for different health conditions, such as low salt meals.
Restaurant cooks normally prepare food for smaller groups than institution cooks, and have the luxury of attention to detail on individual orders. Short order cooks are typically cooks that work in diners, and many fast food type restaurants. Private household cooks are normally hired by a family to prepare meals for the family on a set daily basis.
The type of food service establishment will determine in what direction of the food preparation field you would like to pursue as a career. Cooking careers are a very rewarding line of work, that takes dedication and a love for cooking.
If you are interested in a cooking career, I suggest you sit down and write out on a piece of paper, your interests in cooking, try and define what sub niche in the cooking industry that you are interested in pursuing, this will make a career path easier to map out once your mind is made up.
Careers in cooking will always be a stable form of employment. we all have to eat, and we always don’t have the time to prepare meals ourselves, especially in the fast paced world that we live in today. It was not my intent to discourage those of you who are thinking of a cooking career, but rather to inform you to the true nature of this line of work versus cooking dinner for your family. A cooking career truly is a rewarding career and takes a person who is passionate about food
