Thinking about becoming a chef

[OS]

I have a couple of friends who became chefs and they seem to be getting by ok as opposed to the rest of the white collar world and they get benefits and stuff. Anyone ever been a chef before?

 

[Storm]

Did your friends go to a cooking school? Or did they cook on their own and then apprectice themselves to a restaurant?

 

[IGBT]

Gona wear one of those tall white hats??............

 

[NutBucket]

Man, you're really exploring every avenue aren't you?

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Storm
Did your friends go to a cooking school? Or did they cook on their own and then apprectice themselves to a restaurant?

yeah they pretty much started working at restaurants as apprentices and then worked their way up. Too late for me, but you don't need anything beyond HS. One of them was a sushi chef for a while and made the equivalent of 40s within a year. Plus atleast as a chef your job can never be exported.

 

[addragyn]

Top chefs can do much more than ok. It can also be a pretty cool lifestyle. You are part artist and part business man. If you're good you'll have fans. You'll be treated like family at other places in town. You'll have a huge extened family of people who like to talk shop, and eat and drink at the end of the day.

OS if you have the passion and good ideas it's never too late if you're humble.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Oops. I thought the title said thief.

 

[Daniel]

I owned/ran a restaurant for about 5 years before we sold it. I got pulled into the kitchen early on and ended up being the 2nd chef next to the head. The business in most instances is total chaos. The pay is decent when you are at the top of the scale but it takes a long time to get there and you surely have to pay your dues in the interiem.

It is something you really have to love to do, if you think you just want to do it for job security you will want to kill someone inside of a few years. Imagine mostly working with men, in a room with no windows most of the time, where the temps can routinely hit 120-130+, you stand all day long, under high stress... unless you really love the business you won't last all that long.

 

[Lyfer]

I'd say become a porn star. I dunno anyone who'd wanna miss work.

 

[guapo337]

Originally posted by: Daniel
I owned/ran a restaurant for about 5 years before we sold it. I got pulled into the kitchen early on and ended up being the 2nd chef next to the head. The business in most instances is total chaos. The pay is decent when you are at the top of the scale but it takes a long time to get there and you surely have to pay your dues in the interiem.

It is something you really have to love to do, if you think you just want to do it for job security you will want to kill someone inside of a few years. Imagine mostly working with men, in a room with no windows most of the time, where the temps can routinely hit 120-130+, you stand all day long, under high stress... unless you really love the business you won't last all that long.

Yeah, it gets hot quick. Say goodbye to your social life if you're gonna be working at night at all. If it's gonna be a full time job, you'll probably come in at anywhere from 10am-2pm and begin prep. You'll stop cooking between 8-10pm, and get out of work between 9-midnight, because of clean up. Long hours, it's hot in there, but if you like it, it's a very nice job.

I speak from experience, I am a sous chef, and I worked all summer doing so.

 

[Wipeout667]

OS, I suggest you read "Kitchen Confidental" by Anthony Bourdain before you proceed.

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Lyfer
I'd say become a porn star. I dunno anyone who'd wanna miss work.

Being a porn star has to be the dirtiest occupation right after being a straight prostitute. Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if a prostitute in nevada is cleaner than a porn star since prostitution actually has regulation and mandatory condom use in nevada. I remember reading an article that found most people involved in the porn industry carry some kind of bacterial STD. They don't even bother testing for viral ones like herpes and genital warts since those are already rampant in the general population, let alone the porn industry. And from time to time, people also get AIDS. Seriously, I have no clue how the pop culture idea that's it's cool to be a porn star got so far. It's so freaking dirty.



At anyrate, thanks for the comments on the chef stuff guys. One of my friends is going to France soon to apprentice some more for the experience.

 

[spidey07]

As with any career if its something you really enjoy then by all means do it.

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Wipeout667
OS, I suggest you read "Kitchen Confidental" by Anthony Bourdain before you proceed.

Sounds like one of those "the Jungle" style books. :Q

My friend admits they do some moderately scandalous stuff sometimes, but that it's not really so horrible. For example, one of his coworkers dropped a block of butter on a typically dirty restaurant kitchen floor, and it broke into several pieces.

Butter is actually a pretty expensive ingredient so they just picked up all the chunk and used it. :Q But they melted/cooked all of it first and did their best to distill out all the dirt and crap that was picked up. My friend says it's not so bad after that and he'd still eat stuff cooked with it after that.

I'm fine with cooking for myself, it's can be fun and artistic in a way. But same story with computers, working on your own computer is usually ok, but working on someone elses can really suck.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: OS

Originally posted by: Lyfer
I'd say become a porn star. I dunno anyone who'd wanna miss work.

Being a porn star has to be the dirtiest occupation right after being a straight prostitute. Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if a prostitute in nevada is cleaner than a porn star since prostitution actually has regulation and mandatory condom use in nevada. I remember reading an article that found most people involved in the porn industry carry some kind of bacterial STD. They don't even bother testing for viral ones like herpes and genital warts since those are already rampant in the general population, let alone the porn industry. And from time to time, people also get AIDS. Seriously, I have no clue how the pop culture idea that's it's cool to be a porn star got so far. It's so freaking dirty.



At anyrate, thanks for the comments on the chef stuff guys. One of my friends is going to France soon to apprentice some more for the experience.

How can you say that?

Most porn companies require testing on a monthly basis. Well the bigger productions do. Can you say that the people you slept with or your gf (no offence intended, just an example) is tested EVERY month. I sure as hell know I'm not tested every month or my friends. If everyone you work with is tested every month that limits the risks some what. I know they can screw around in their social lives but it still limits the risks more then Mr Joe who NEVER gets tested anywhere near the same freqeuncy.

Koing

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Koing

How can you say that?

Most porn companies require testing on a monthly basis. Well the bigger productions do. Can you say that the people you slept with or your gf (no offence intended, just an example) is tested EVERY month. I sure as hell know I'm not tested every month or my friends. If everyone you work with is tested every month that limits the risks some what. I know they can screw around in their social lives but it still limits the risks more then Mr Joe who NEVER gets tested anywhere near the same freqeuncy.

Koing

Because people also lie and bring in fake results. And self regulation (IE the porn industry), is never as stringent as government regulation. Testing is not 100% accurate and for many STDs there is an incubation period for tests to detect anything while at the same time transmission can occur. Hell, for STDs like HPV there isn't even a standard test for asymptomatic men. More on STDs and porn industry

 

[manly]

What's wrong with M.S. E.E.? Those Bush tax cuts should kick in by 2006.

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: OS

Originally posted by: Koing

How can you say that?

Most porn companies require testing on a monthly basis. Well the bigger productions do. Can you say that the people you slept with or your gf (no offence intended, just an example) is tested EVERY month. I sure as hell know I'm not tested every month or my friends. If everyone you work with is tested every month that limits the risks some what. I know they can screw around in their social lives but it still limits the risks more then Mr Joe who NEVER gets tested anywhere near the same freqeuncy.

Koing

Because people also lie and bring in fake results. And self regulation (IE the porn industry), is never as stringent as government regulation. Testing is not 100% accurate and for many STDs there is an incubation period for tests to detect anything while at the same time transmission can occur. Hell, for STDs like HPV there isn't even a standard test for asymptomatic men. More on STDs and porn industry

Interesting read.

But I think the times have changed. The focus of that article was on that women who got HIV. That was in 1998 now it is 2003 and some of the comapanies are more strigent with things. Some aren't but thats what you choose to work for.........

I still think it is safer to with a porn star then a girl you meet at a club bare backing. The club girl would well be dodgy to say the least bare backing. At least with the pornstar she at least gets texted once a month. No woman in her right mind would get a text once a month......it is all dodgy but well thats what you can choose oryou can be a chef.

What sort of foods do you cook now and would you say you are good?

Koing