How To Become A Chef?

How to become a Chef? This is probably one of the most important questions that you need to find the answer before you choose to become a Chef. Becoming a Chef now is not easy, but it’s not difficult though. All you need is perseverance and patience which mean going through extensive culinary training and the ability to endure the work environment in a hot and steamy kitchen 365 days per year, every year! Well, that’s maybe a bit exaggerated for a 365 work days but the part of where you need to undertake extensive culinary training is a must. Anyway, you could probably take a few days off in a year, but definitely not during Christmas and New Year since these days are the periods where restaurants and hotels make the most money and they are operated 24/7 during these days!

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Back to the question of how to become a Chef, if you asked me, I will say there are two basic ways in which you can pursue your career to become a Chef. The first and the easiest (probably) way to become a Chef is through education. By education, I mean the formal one. You need to go to a culinary school or college to register yourself in a culinary program. Professional culinary courses are available at high schools, culinary schools, two-year colleges, four-year colleges and university.

In the past, some people were able to become a Chef through long-term apprenticeships. However, this is no longer the case in today competitive food industry. You can’t just rely on apprenticeship alone to learn the trade and advance your career. Today’ professional culinary programs teach a lot more than just cooking and baking. You not only learn the basic culinary skills but you also need to learn the way of doing and managing businesses, either yours or your boss. Business skills such as financial management, marketing as well as computer skills are indispensable and important in the current and future food industries to better prepare Chef to assume leadership and managerial roles and to manage large, complex food service operations. Therefore, I would say going through a formal and professional culinary programs is necessary and a must and a formal culinary education should be part of your plan in pursuing your career as a Chef.

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In addition to getting a formal culinary education, the second way of becoming a Chef is through an apprenticeship program. This method of becoming a Chef is suitable for people who like hands-on experience and getting their hands dirty. The American Culinary Federation (ACF) sponsors more than 80 culinary apprenticeship programs in the United States. ACF apprentices are required to work for three years under the supervision of a Chef and to attend school part-time throughout the apprenticeship. Apprentices gain work experience in all the kitchen stations and learn about recipe and menu development, purchasing, financial management, sanitation, and safety. Information about ACF apprenticeships is on their websites (www.acfchefs.org).

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Become a Chef. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.