Career Changers

[snousle]

Very interesting article in the Chronicle about people who switch to a culinary career late in life.

The comments are particularly interesting. I have to endorse just about everything the most severe naysayers say about this; the celebrity chef phenomenon has greatly distorted the perception of the trade. Long hours and low pay indeed. I had to laugh over comments about 14 hour days at a third the pay - sometimes I work 16 hours at one tenth the pay. LOL. There are paths to this that work - chefxh is a good example - but you have to be very committed.

Nothing in the article or the comments was anything I didn't know going into this. It's a real tough line of work no matter how you do it.

Comments

[gloeden.livejournal.com]

It's shocking the number of people out there incurring student loans and other debt thinking they will make decent money in culinary careers.
From what I read awhile back, one is lucky to get $25,0000 a year and minimal if any health benefits. And apparently, those kinds of jobs have all but disappeared lately.

[chefxh.livejournal.com]

*blink* Thank you.

[bbearseviltwin.livejournal.com]

There can only be three reasons why one makes a complete career change. Desperation, boredom and love of the new career. No one does it for the money, not if they are sane. In some ways it is like all those kids trying for a professional sports career. Only a few will end up as celebrity sport stars, most of the rest will end up as high school gym teachers, or working at Footlocker.

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

All the TV hype and the crap fed to people about being a chef skews the reality of what a cooking job is all about. The reality is that for every "chef" there are ten or more grunts doing the actual work and producing the actual food.

When service is on your on stage and there is no cigarette break, piss break, and not even time to break air... The stress is phenomenal. Its not surprising that so many workers in the field use drugs or alcohol.

But fortunately there are many facets to cooking and not all of it is high stress... one has to find the niche that suits one the best.

I could never do what Jeff does. I had one year of it in Chicago, and decided back then that I wanted a real life and not one where I worked and slept, worked and slept, etc. I decided that I never wanted my own restaurant after seeing what Varoujan went through... 15 hour days. 7 days a week. I often wondered if Varoujan worked like he did, not only to produce superb food, but to stay away from his bitch of a mother-in-law.

Had I gone into the field I probably would have done pastry rather than savory, without a doubt.

The Culinary school from which Jeff graduated is know for pushing the hype and signing the ignorant up for a $70K school debt in a world that starts out at minimum wage with few, if any benefits. They are telling prospective students that getting into the Food Network is a real possibility. What they are doing isn't exactly lying, but its far from the reality of truth.

Making a livelihood in the cooking world is a lot of back breaking labour whose only reward is the one that one perceives, and isn't often offered by the chef...

Its a job that you must love above all else.

[theotherqpc.livejournal.com]

ahh, the pay issue. it's laughable.

i typically work two hours off the clock every day. so does everyone else in my kitchen. so does every other cook who wants to get anywhere in the industry. there's just too much fucking prepwork to get done and not enough money to cover labor costs if we don't all donate our time. why, yes, working off the clock and not taking breaks and lying about having a 30-minute meal period away from your work station is all rather illegal. it's also all common practice, the unspoken rules that quickly ween out any bright-eyed bushy-tailed younguns or career changers who don't belong.

if you like making enough money to live comfortably, if you like having a boss who treats you with respect, if you like working eight hour shifts and getting time-and-a-half if you go over, if you like having a job that doesn't follow you home...then you belong on the floor waiting tables.
if you're stupid enough to essentially work below minimum wage with hardly any benefits for a boss who will constantly yell at you just because food is that important to you...well, then welcome to the fold.