Is It Tough Being A Chef?

You may think the work of a chef is tough. But the fact is it really depends on the type of establishment that a chef works at and also the level of your rank in the kitchen. All in all, it’s always better to be at the top of the hierarchy such as being an Executive Chef as the higher you get to the top the less dirty work you will be doing.

Some establishments offer a safer and more comfortable working environment while others are ass-busting where you are basically in a close-to hazardous or even life threatening situation. Therefore, no matter which establishment you work at; make sure your employers provide you with adequate medical as well as life insurance coverage.

Find Chefs and Cooks Openings Here!

Most of the restaurants and institutional kitchens now have modern equipment, convenient work areas, and air conditioning. As a result, the work environment at these modern establishments is pretty much comfortable to work at. However there are still some kitchens in older and smaller eating places which are not well designed and equipped. In these small quarters, you can often see kitchen staffs working against hot stoves and ovens. Well, working with hot stoves and ovens may be part of the daily routine for some chefs but the thing is some of these kitchens are not well ventilated and this makes the environment extremely hot as if you were at a living hell. What makes it worst is there are literally no air-conditioning at these restaurants. Can you imagine how you would feel busting your butt 8 hours daily at these places?

Aside from the harsh working environment, the tough part of being a chef is they are constantly under pressure to prepare meals quickly and at the same time ensuring quality is maintained and safety and sanitation guidelines are observed. The work pace can be especially hectic during peak dining time as workers must be able to communicate clearly so that food orders are completed correctly.

Moreover, chefs are always physically challenged at their work place. You may think that the only work in the kitchen for a chef is cooking and preparing meals. Well, I can tell you that there is actually more to that. Aside from all the culinary work at the kitchen such as ingredient preparation and cooking, a chef or a cook usually must stand for hours at a time, lifting heavy pots and kettles, and working near hot ovens and grills. In addition, a chef must also deal with job hazards such as slips and falls, cuts, and burns, but injuries are seldom serious unless the cut is so serious that one of your fingers are separated from your hands.

Find Chefs and Cooks Openings Here!

In addition, chef also needs to endure long or even abnormal working hours such as the work hours in restaurants may include early mornings, late evenings, holidays, and weekends. Work schedules of chefs, cooks and other kitchen workers in factory and school cafeterias may be more regular. Statistic has it that in 2006, about 29 percent of cooks and 44 percent of food preparation workers had part-time schedules, compared to 15 percent of workers throughout the economy. Work schedules in fine-dining restaurants, however, tend to be longer because of the time required to prepare ingredients in advance. Many executive chefs regularly work 12-hour days because they oversee the delivery of foodstuffs early in the day, plan the menu, and prepare those menu items that take the most skill.

Simply put, being a Chef is tough. Therefore, my advice for people who aspire to become chef is work hard when you are young and get as much education as you can so that when you reach 40s, you are at the top of the rank and all the kitchen duties are left for the younger workers. With that, you will only be dealing with management work while enjoying at your air-conditioned room. You don’t want to be lifting heavy pots and grilling steak when you are in your 40s, do you?

Custom Search

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 4:47 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.