You want to go to culinary school? Read this first.

The Late Night Gourmet

The Late Night Gourmet

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As I mentioned elsewhere. it's a dream of mine to retire by the time I'm 90 or so and open a restaurant. So, the thought of going to culinary school naturally occurred to me, and I looked up how much it costs. In the search results, I found this amazing article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-daily-meal/10-things-before-applying-culinary-school_b_978132.html

The great thing is that it does so from the perspective of a home cook who works in an office and dreams of a glamorous life of running a restaurant. @Ashley22: I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about this!

To summarize, here are the key points:

1. Working in a Restaurant - try working at an actual restaurant before you decide to open your own. If you can survive and you still want to pursue your dream, then maybe you have a future in the industry. You may realize you like eating at restaurants more than you like cooking in them.

2. Not Every Chef Went to Culinary School - some are quite accomplished...and they don't have a $40,000 loan to repay.

3. The Reality of Working for a Chef - Traits that would render someone unemployable in other industries are generally considered pluses in the restaurant world. Gordon Ramsay is only the most famous chef with anger management issues. There are a lot of lunatics out there who know that there's no human resources to dictate proper behavior.

4. Speed is Everything - How quickly can you clean 10 pounds of squid? If your answer is, “by tomorrow,” forget it.

5. The Pay - you didn't think you'd still be able to afford your mortgage on a chef's salary, did you?

6. Work/Life Balance - You can just forget about that!

7. Difficulty of the Restaurant Business - The 25 percent first year failure rate should raise some hairs. And in three years, that rate shoots up to 60 percent.

8. Alternatives - Not everyone goes to culinary school to be a chef. A culinary degree will help in catering jobs and other lines of work.

9. Flawed Curricula - Most topics are only reviewed once and if you don't get it, too bad. And, forget about missing a day.

10. Crazy People - Anthony Bourdain’s said it a million times over in one form or another, but to summarize, this industry is a magnet for crazy people. The chefs aren't the only ones: this is a business about people, and some of them are really weird.
 
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Not for me, thank you! I've worked in pubs and clubs at various times, either behind the bar or waitress service, but I would never want to own a restaurant.

My first ex-mother-in-law didn't have any qualifications but worked her way up from cleaning in pubs and restaurants, and waitressing to running her own restaurant. Even in the mid-1970s the hours she worked were horrendous, with only a couple of weeks' holiday and Christmas Day off. The place was open 7 days a week for breakfast through to dinner but the bar was open later. As far as I can recall, they did open later one day a week. I think that may have been Mondays. It was in a golf club, and weekends were really busy (although in those days it didn't hold international competitions like it does now). She used to do all the cooking, her partner used to run the bar and act as waiter, and they had two part-time waitresses most days. My mother-in-law and her partner also used to do the cleaning, go out to buy supplies, etc. etc. When we stayed there, my then husband and I did the cleaning to give them a bit of a break. Of course they couldn't clean while the place was open, so this took place after the bar had shut for the night. We were still cleaning at 3 o'clock in the morning, and the restaurant opened for breakfast!!! The pay wasn't brilliant either. The only consolation was that they didn't have a mortgage on the restaurant to pay - accommodation came with the job - but they did have a mortgage on the cottage they were buying for when they retired.

The only person I knew who had qualifications was a friend of my niece. Again this was in the 1970s. She chose to do cake decoration for a living, which in those days was probably thought of as rather unusual. Then it was decorating traditional birthday, Christmas and wedding cakes, not the beautiful creations you see today, although I expect she progressed to something like that over the years. Again, the pay was awful, and most of her friends thought she was mad.
 
Elawin said:
Not for me, thank you!
Click to expand...
An eloquent - and heartbreakingly real - view of life as a restaurant owner, which reminds me of what I think I already know: that I really shouldn't do it, at least not before I retire. That will be a long time from now because I believe I'm going to need a steady income to help my kids with upcoming college loans, and other expensive things. I can't afford to do that as a chef. But, maybe I can launch my culinary career when the constant need for extra money settles down. It does settle down, doesn't it?
 
@The Late Night Gourmet, let me let you down softy. By the time you reach retirement age, you might be too tired and broken down to actually have the stamina to run a restaurant.* Your only hope is that one of your progeny desire to open a restaurant and put you in charge of the fun parts of being a restaurateur. Basically the schmoozing part.

* I made the mistake of waiting until hubby retired before we were going to get our house ready for market - you know, the fresh paint and neat garden part? By the time he retired, I had a tenant by the name of Arthur Ritis move in, and the aches that go with it. Now it seems like it's taking forever to get things done, and I'm kinda cheap and hesitant to hire help to do it now that the income is smaller. Dummy, dummy me...
 
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I'm currently 55 years old, work 60-70 hours a week. 9-10 hours a day, no breaks. If a staff member calls in sick or asks to leave early for an appointment, etc..I cover for them. I spend some of my time off in cash and carry or grocery stores picking up produce. Eating dinner with a calculator and a stack of invoices on the table, trying to cost out certain products or menu items is very common. Arguing with food distributors is a weekly occurrence because they are either short items or send you poor quality produce...trying to get credits and refunds is like pulling teeth. Then, if you are short, you have to scramble and get substitute products very quickly.

The service industry offers entry level employment opportunities so many people we get have little or no experience. It has a very high transition rate, and people don't stay long due to the demands of the high intensity environment. Subsequently, we are constantly training new people while trying to perform our own duties..basically paying people and then helping them do their jobs..I still perform many menial tasks daily like washing dishes, mopping floors, cleaning and reconditioning equipment,etc...sometimes, it is better if you do it yourself..nothing is more frustrating than paying somebody to do something, then having to go behind them and do it over again...

And, that is the good part....

I'm not one for creative writing, but, if you have any questions, feel free to ask..I'll be back home in 12 hours to answer them...

https://www.facebook.com/LakeviewDeliMeatery/
https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaura...en_Township_of_Whitewater_Region_Ontario.html

Fp0mLn7.jpg
 
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LOL..just taking a wee break. Came down to the freezers to grab some stuff..Long weekend here in Canada...the deli is located on the Trans Canada Highway. This highway runs from the Atlantic ocean, right through the country all the way to the Pacific shore. Lots of traffic...typically slows down a bit between 3 and 4 pm..but will ramp up again as we approach dinner and closing time....good day, so far...
 
@The Late Night Gourmet, firstly, thank you for the exceptional post . From my viewpoint, and the Chefs I personally know, face to face:

1) The art and preparation of excellent cuisine is as much a part of France, Spain & Italy as are its green hills, wave beaten shores, its languages and its Mediterranean folklore and all sharing an amazingly large number of culinary institutes, including Ducasse, Paul Bocuse & Le Cordón Bleu. Here one must have a Culinary Degree. However, the courses are focused on training for employment and have a wide variety of certificates, diplomas and degrees.

2) The development of the Mediterranean and in particular the French, the Basque; the Catalan and the Italian kitchens have run parallel to the long history of visitors to our lands and the monarchies. The governments of France, Spain and Italy promote our Gastro Eno Gastronomy since the Belle Epoque Era. This is what they market to the world´s travel agencies.

Le Cordón Bleu closed all its USA Culinary Institutes. The North Americans want to see their children become scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers etc. However, in the Mediterranean triangle, gastronomy has become the plenipentiary ambassador of a way of life (Lyon, Paris, Nice, Cannes, Provençe, Marseille, Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian, Bilbao, Milano, Florence to name a few). The zealousness of the Mediterranean peoples, in terms of traditions, is coupled by the immense geographic settings. We are also, enormous wine growers. Spain has close to 100 Designations of Wine Regions including the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.

3) There is no doubt that being a Chef in a kitchen is not for sprinters. It is definitely daunting at moments & hard core labor. However, there is a passion factor that most Culinary Artists possess. They love what they do. Despite the negatives.

4) Dubai and Asia are huge employment opportunities for Chefs ..

5) There are positives and negatives in all fields of employment. One must decide for themselves ..

To sum it up, as it is getting late, also due to the lack of employment in the Mediterranean in white collar corporate jobs, a vast majority of Mediterraneans have gone to culinary school and realised how much they fit into the Chef profile. It is highly respectful employment here and well paid, to those who have developed their skills & know how to work in a team which they learn in Culinary Institute.

Good luck.
Have a lovely weekend.
 
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