Hi, I am thinking about getting in the Culinary Arts as a career and was wondering if the pay is good. I would love to become a chef after I am done with school. What are your opinons on Pastery Chefs? Is it hard to move ahead in that job, I am mainly concern with the financial aspect of it..will I be able to make atleast 30-40k out of college? Also where do you guys recommend me starting out, since I have little to no experience? Thanks in advance!
Career as a chef?
- Thread starter j-spec
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j-spec said:
Welcome to Discuss cooking. I think the pay rate would depend on where you live. If you live in a large city, you will be paid more, however your living expenses will be higher. My best advice would be to try out some cooking courses first, before you commit to culinary arts as your major in college (since you said you have no experience). Make sure cooking is something you truly love to do, because if it is to be a career, you must enjoy it to be satisfied in the long run. If you love it, you will become good at it, then will be able to work your way up the ladder to a pastry chef. If your good, the money will come. I'm sure many others on here can tell you more. Good luck! Hope you achieve your goals.
auntdot
Head Chef
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2004
- Messages
- 2,418
Great advice Amber.
Also I would work in a restaurant in your spare time, as an unpaid volunteer if need be.
Cooking is a tough way to make a living and you, j-spec, did not seem to express any real love for the profession.
I would suggest before you make a decision, you find out what being a cook/chef is all about.
Also I would work in a restaurant in your spare time, as an unpaid volunteer if need be.
Cooking is a tough way to make a living and you, j-spec, did not seem to express any real love for the profession.
I would suggest before you make a decision, you find out what being a cook/chef is all about.
marmalady
Executive Chef
The pay scale in restaurants is notoriously low, unless you gain one of the top spots at a very high end restaurant.
The down sides to a career in the culinary arts, especially in the kitchen, are that it's backbreaking, stressful work (you've just gotten an order for oh, 50 desserts, each of which it usually takes 5 minutes to assemble!), long, weird hours, and having to deal with many types of 'dispositions' and personalities in the kitchen.
Having said that - if it's a passion, if it's truly in your heart, then you'll do anything to achieve that goal. There is nothing more satisfying than feeding people, making them happy, and the pride achieved in a job you've done well.
I don't know where you live - I'd check out food programs in your local tech colleges; or if you live close to a major culinary school, go and check them out. Get some experience in a restaurant, even if it's washing dishes. You can see a whole lot of what goes on in the kitchen from the dischwasher!
There are a huge array of culinary-oriented jobs outside of 'cheffing' in a restaurant kitchen; catering is a pretty profitable business; private cheffing also; there's food and beverage sales, restaurant management, and tons of 'ancillary' positions that are interesting and fun.
The down sides to a career in the culinary arts, especially in the kitchen, are that it's backbreaking, stressful work (you've just gotten an order for oh, 50 desserts, each of which it usually takes 5 minutes to assemble!), long, weird hours, and having to deal with many types of 'dispositions' and personalities in the kitchen.
Having said that - if it's a passion, if it's truly in your heart, then you'll do anything to achieve that goal. There is nothing more satisfying than feeding people, making them happy, and the pride achieved in a job you've done well.
I don't know where you live - I'd check out food programs in your local tech colleges; or if you live close to a major culinary school, go and check them out. Get some experience in a restaurant, even if it's washing dishes. You can see a whole lot of what goes on in the kitchen from the dischwasher!
There are a huge array of culinary-oriented jobs outside of 'cheffing' in a restaurant kitchen; catering is a pretty profitable business; private cheffing also; there's food and beverage sales, restaurant management, and tons of 'ancillary' positions that are interesting and fun.
masteraznchefjr
Sous Chef
stress sounds about correct. Pay depends on your experience and skill. I think i wouldn't mind stress and work if i become a chef
DampCharcoal
Executive Chef
Has anyone seen the show "Chef!" on BBC? Funny, but a bit more realistic than some would believe. I admire anyone who can endure that type of environment! 8)
Catseye
Senior Cook
marmalady said:
Emphatically ditto this. Your status as underdog will garner you much hideous abuse from what marmalady diplomatically describes as 'many types of dispositions' in the kitchen. As she advises, get some experience in a restaurant kitchen before you plunk down any tuition money. Chain restaurants are always hiring. Scrambling eggs for the before-and-after-church crowd in a Cracker Barrel for a couple of months will educate you in many ways.
Don't focus on the pastry part at first, focus on the working-in-a-restaurant part. If you're lucky enough to hook up with a kitchen staffer who doesn't actively hate being there, make known your ambition; maybe you'll get lucky and s/he will throw you a tip or two between the madhouse rushes. If they don't kill you or laugh you out of the house first.
Get strong. You'll have to lift heavy things, like beef sides and BIG stockpots. If someone offers to teach you something and it doesn't have to do with pastry, accept the offer anyway.
Think about all the celebrity chefs you know of. Think how few of them are pastry chefs. Think about why.
If you want it badly enough, you'll do it. You won't let yourself be discouraged by the advice you get here or anywhere else. But the best thing you can do for yourself is know the reality of what it is you want, or think you want. And as luck would have it, the profession of chef offers many opportunities to learn the reality in a way that other professions don't. You can't practice at being a lawyer. You can practice at being a chef, get an idea of what you're buying into ... and they'll even pay you, even if it's wages that wouldn't keep a dog alive.
But hey, good luck!
I have a relative who works for one of the best hotels in the world. It took him 20 years to reach a point where he was making real money. He loves the work, but you should have heard him when he was starting out. You would never guess that he was doing what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.
BTW, just so you know. You can forget about being with your family on holidays unless the restaurant you're working at closes on those days. I never saw my cousin during the holidays because he was always working. Now that he's moved up high enough, he can take off on those days, but usually doesn't.
BTW, just so you know. You can forget about being with your family on holidays unless the restaurant you're working at closes on those days. I never saw my cousin during the holidays because he was always working. Now that he's moved up high enough, he can take off on those days, but usually doesn't.
DampCharcoal
Executive Chef
Deleted
LEFSElover
Executive Chef
I just typed you the longest message. It dissappeared. Can't do it all again. Good luck on your quest!
Erik
Sous Chef
I've been cooking professionally for 16 years...best I can do is for you to think about it.
You've been given a lot of good advice.
You just don't jump into a high paying job, straight out of culinary school. I never went to school, and I've seen a lot of grads that couldn't handle a dinner rush.
Try working in a small restaurant first to see if you can handle it.
Keep your focus!!!!!
You've been given a lot of good advice.
You just don't jump into a high paying job, straight out of culinary school. I never went to school, and I've seen a lot of grads that couldn't handle a dinner rush.
Try working in a small restaurant first to see if you can handle it.
Keep your focus!!!!!
Sorry...but please advise the list of "meaningful jobs or careers" that pay 30-40K to what, again, I'm sorry, a "recent college graduate"...without significant experience in the field, or transitioning through "post graduate" training with some sort of "mentor"...
The posts above are entirely "correct"...you have to evolve some sort of "passion" in what you are doing, careerwise, and pursue it...often without monetary "compensation" (ie a good deal of "sacrifice"!), while perhaps exploring the concepts outside your "original" (hobby?) aim...
And the "evolution" will have some "pains" as well as "costs", and the "creativity" that you want to get to will have a "bill" to be paid for as well...
And many others (some of whom you will be "measurably" better than!) will be making a ton more than you, along the way, or at the end...and you better get used to that, because at the end of the day, it hardly about money...its about givig "service and contentment" to the people you serve (so sorry I'm phrasing this so poorly!) and extracting some sort of job/career contentment from doing so...
Its not "hard" to get to being worth a "million dollars", given you are prepared to give up a "life" or "family"...its "easy" to get a "life", if you lose the "goal" of a million dollars...a "family" might (but not neccessarily!) cost you both...decide what your "real goals" are, before you fire any shots...
The posts above are entirely "correct"...you have to evolve some sort of "passion" in what you are doing, careerwise, and pursue it...often without monetary "compensation" (ie a good deal of "sacrifice"!), while perhaps exploring the concepts outside your "original" (hobby?) aim...
And the "evolution" will have some "pains" as well as "costs", and the "creativity" that you want to get to will have a "bill" to be paid for as well...
And many others (some of whom you will be "measurably" better than!) will be making a ton more than you, along the way, or at the end...and you better get used to that, because at the end of the day, it hardly about money...its about givig "service and contentment" to the people you serve (so sorry I'm phrasing this so poorly!) and extracting some sort of job/career contentment from doing so...
Its not "hard" to get to being worth a "million dollars", given you are prepared to give up a "life" or "family"...its "easy" to get a "life", if you lose the "goal" of a million dollars...a "family" might (but not neccessarily!) cost you both...decide what your "real goals" are, before you fire any shots...
Claire
Master Chef
Definitely agree with everyone who says to take a kitchen job on the low end of the scale first. You won't have to be an unpaid volunteer, trust me. Those minimum wage jobs in the kitchen go begging for employees everywhere in the country (and I've been everywhere). The main thing is you need to find out if you can stand the pressure and the heat. These are not minor considerations. I've always loved to cook, and quickly found out that I cannot see with steamed up glasses (I'm blind without them), and don't want to spend my life with people screaming and yelling at me and everyone around me constantly. Don't just say to yourself, oh, that's no big deal. DO IT first. No matter how good your education is, you are NOT going to start out as the head chef in any kitchen, anywhere, unless your folks are so rich they can buy you a restaurant as a graduation present. So find out if you can handle life in the kitchen before wasting your time & money.
Bangbang
Executive Chef
I often said if I could do it over again I would have gone to Culinary School and become a Chef until I got to know a chef and a restaurant owner. The hours are way to long for me.
DampCharcoal
Executive Chef
Same here. You'd have to put a gun to my head before I'd get myself into that line of work. I admire anyone who can do it, though!
Bangbang
Executive Chef
DampCharcoal said:
I still would not do it.
DampCharcoal
Executive Chef
Can't say that I blame ya.
Claire
Master Chef
Yeah, I missed saying that the hours are hell, especially on family life, if you can actually make a romance work that far. And this is something that gets worse with time, not better. Once you get a following in the community, people will want you to be there, or they might not go to the restaurant (I'm speaking as a customer). There are certain restaurants I will not go to unless XXXX is cooking, because the food is appreciably better. Good for me, has to be hell on the spouse and kids. AND don't forget split shifts. That's lots of fun. I'm sure there's lots of job satisfaction if you truly love doing it, but it is very hard work. A must read is Tony Bourlain's "Kitchen Confidential". I lasted a month in a restaurant and decided the old nine-to-five was for me. Steady pay, no one screaming at me, weekends off. Had I gone into the food biz, I'm sure I'd hate cooking by now.
DampCharcoal
Executive Chef
I was a server at Friday's for about a year and a half and that was enough to drive me batty! The money was great but we were constantly short staffed and serving 6 tables during a rush is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. The jury is still out on whether I quit or got fired. The general manager despised me because I didn't prance around yelling "Go Team!" and I refused to wear those dumb*ss suspenders! I have a couple buddies who still work in the kitchen there and it should come to no one's surprise that they drink themselves blind every night! :roll:
wow! thanks for all the replies! I understand, with anything you do if you don't have the heart and drive you'll never suceed or be happy! The resturant business is no joke, I understand that. After talking with some chef's to gain some perspective on this caeer, I feel like I may have some second thoughts..mainly because of the LONG hours, I don't think I can have a career where I rarely see my loved ones. Besides the resturant industry, is there anything you can do with having a AS or BS in Culinary Arts besides manage a resturant.. like maybe work in a office dealing with food of some sort?
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