kitchen work

Lono · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 1

Hi all -
I am a 27 year old who loves to cook for friends and family. I have been
thinking about getting into professional cooking. I have no kitchen
experience, but I know much of the theory behind cooking. I read a lot and
cook a lot at home. What I want to ask is this: What should I expect to
start out doing in a kitchen? That is, what should I say when I show up at
someone's kitchen and ask for a shot. Do they care about my interests or
what I think I know or do they just want someone who will show up and if I'm
any good they'll teach me as we go? I have an offer to work in a
catering/gourmet food kitchen, but as this is more things to be sold at a
fancy deli (i.e.. salads, risotto cakes, potato galletes, etc.) I don't know
if it will be helpful to me to get work in a restaurant. Should I take this
job and get some commercial cooking experience or should I hold out for a
shot at a job in a cool restaurant? Also, what is a reasonable starting
wage for someone like me? I would appreciate your thoughts and any ideas
you might have for me.

Archived from group: alt>cooking>chefs

Tenzo · Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 6

"Lono" wrote in message@berkshire.net...
> Hi all -
> I am a 27 year old who loves to cook for friends and family. I have been
> thinking about getting into professional cooking. I have no kitchen
> experience, but I know much of the theory behind cooking. I read a lot
and
> cook a lot at home. What I want to ask is this: What should I expect to
> start out doing in a kitchen?

Dishes. Find a place you want to work as a chef and take a dishwasher job
to get to know the place.

>That is, what should I say when I show up at
> someone's kitchen and ask for a shot. Do they care about my interests or
> what I think I know or do they just want someone who will show up and if
I'm
> any good they'll teach me as we go?

Research the resturaunt and the Executive Chefs. Executive Chefs have ego
problems. If you have studied up on their past and can weave it into your
interview you will do well.

> I have an offer to work in a
> catering/gourmet food kitchen, but as this is more things to be sold at a
> fancy deli (i.e.. salads, risotto cakes, potato galletes, etc.) I don't
know
> if it will be helpful to me to get work in a restaurant. Should I take
this
> job and get some commercial cooking experience or should I hold out for a
> shot at a job in a cool restaurant?

Practial experiance is VERY important in getting a job. Take the catering
job for a while, build up callouses and experiance.

>Also, what is a reasonable starting
> wage for someone like me?

Heh. $6.50. But with the free time you put in, you will be making less
than miniumum wage.

>I would appreciate your thoughts and any ideas
> you might have for me.
>
As a famous Chef told me when I told him I was interested in his profession;
"Better to put a bullet in your head".

It was good advice

dzajac · Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 1

Lono wrote:
> Hi all -
> I am a 27 year old who loves to cook for friends and family. I have been
> thinking about getting into professional cooking. I have no kitchen
> experience, but I know much of the theory behind cooking. I read a lot and
> cook a lot at home. What I want to ask is this: What should I expect to
> start out doing in a kitchen? That is, what should I say when I show up at
> someone's kitchen and ask for a shot. Do they care about my interests or
> what I think I know or do they just want someone who will show up and if I'm
> any good they'll teach me as we go? I have an offer to work in a
> catering/gourmet food kitchen, but as this is more things to be sold at a
> fancy deli (i.e.. salads, risotto cakes, potato galletes, etc.) I don't know
> if it will be helpful to me to get work in a restaurant. Should I take this
> job and get some commercial cooking experience or should I hold out for a
> shot at a job in a cool restaurant? Also, what is a reasonable starting
> wage for someone like me? I would appreciate your thoughts and any ideas
> you might have for me.
>
>
I will pass this advice to you, read the follow book for a great insight;

Letters to a Young Chef by Daniel Boulud

http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Young-Chef-Art-Mentoring/dp/046500735X

Amazon.com
In Letters to a Young Chef, Daniel Boulud, cookbook author, chef, and
Owner of Daniel, Café Boulud, and DB Bistro Moderne in New York City,
briefly covers what he believes are the most important building blocks
to becoming a great chef. Boulud grew up on his family's farm in a tiny
town near Lyons, France. Like most of today's great European chefs, he
took his first kitchen job at the tender age of 14. But his lengthy,
successful career in New York City has made him very aware that the path
he took to get where he is is very different from the one young American
chefs take today. His advice is wise, and could apply to other careers
as well: find a mentor, use your connections, work hard, learn how
something is done by a successful chef before you try out your own
creativity, travel, explore, be loyal to your employer, develop your
sense of taste, and learn all aspects of the restaurant business before
attempting to go out on your own. Boulud's excellent advice comes from
years of experience, and some of the most enjoyable parts of this little
book are his anecdotes about the time he spent learning and paying his
dues in legendary kitchens, and about the fascinating culinary icons he
mixes with today. A quick read by a most fascinating culinary celebrity,
you'll wish he shared even more, and that next time he puts pen to
paper, it will be for a full-length memoir. --Leora Y. Bloom

From Publishers Weekly
You can say one thing for Boulud, owner of top-flight New York
restaurants Daniel, Caf‚ Boulud and DB Bistro Moderne: he's not one for
coddling. In this rather skimpy collection of advice to recent culinary
school grads, he shoots straight from the hip. Working as a chef in
someone else's restaurant wouldn't be his choice, he explains, or the
choice of anyone with true passion, he implies. "Still, it is a life."
Instead, these brief chapters on topics like finding a mentor and
controlling one's ego and ambition ("I have a healthy dose of both," he
confesses) are aimed at a very specific audience: those who want to open
their own restaurants, and they'd better be young (over 30 is
over-the-hill) and hungry-and not just for a perfect coq au vin. The
book is long on generalities, but rather short on specifics. One
exception is the chapter on wine and dessert, which explains that 10% to
15% of an average check is generated by the latter, and one-third by the
former. Boulud can also be maddeningly contradictory, as when he lauds
all things seasonal, then broadens the definition to include
chanterelles from Oregon, because they reach New York in two days. A
final chapter listing the 10 commandments of a chef (including keep
knives sharp and learn the world of food) restates much of the previous
information in pithier form. This book is the Monsieur Hyde to the Dr.
Jekyll version of culinary training presented in Jacques Pepin's The
Apprentice. Recipes not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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