Culinary school or get a job?

[pete84]

School not necessary.
Get a job at the best restaurant in the area.
While working, read:

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee
The Professional Chef (CIA textbook)
Flavor Bible by Page & Dornenburg
Kitchen Confidential by Bourdain

Then apply for jobs working for the best in NYC/Paris/Tokyo/San Sebastián/Mexico City/Etc. (depending on the desired culinary direction)

There are certain chefs who are "kingmakers" and working for them will help the cook forge a pathway to career success. Find them and get in their good graces (sacrifice).

Take fastidious & clearly written notes on everything.

Network.

And avoid pitfalls (alcohol/drugs/burnout/alienation)

 

[stringer]

Here are jobs I had in the industry I wouldn't have been able to have without some official culinary training:

Director of a non-profit
Department head of a grocery store
Executive Sous Chef of a hotel
Culinary instructor

It helped that I already had a bachelor degree.

I have tons of friends and acquaintances working as
Director of Culinary Services for senior living, University dining, corporate cafeterias, Hospitals, etc.
Sales reps for restaurant food and equipment supply companies
Exec chefs of resorts, hotels, clubs, etc.
Sales reps for catering/conferences/hotels
Food scientists
R&D Chefs
Food journalists

All of these jobs are much easier to get if you have at least an associates (2 year degree) in something. Might as well be culinary.

Like I said in my first post. If you are chasing Michelin stars then waste of time. But there's so much more to the industry than just the top 1% of restaurants in the top 1% of restaurant markets. Not as sexy, but I'm many ways much more stable and healthier career paths for a lot of people.

 

[Taurahe]

Do him a favor..... Figure out how to convince him to do anything but ...... Go to college for medical , become a tradesman, something, anything. Make sure he is aware it is an incredibly toxic environment , he will have no life outside of the kitchen, he will be verbally abused , underpaid , perpetually poor , and probably job hop for the first 5 years.......

There is a reason I am in school full time and not working in kitchens anymore ...... It's all the above things, and many more.

 

[Tim Rowland]

My two cents.

He should absolutely go work in a professional kitchen for a minimum of 1 year before deciding to go to culinary school.
I worked mom/pop restaurants and high end hotels/resorts for 3 years before deciding culinary school was the direction I needed to go in order to move up the chain in high end hotels/resorts/country clubs because of their structure.
While in culinary school I took 16 credit hours every semester while working 50+ hours/week............If he can not handle this then the stresses of the industry will get to him and it will be a short lived career and a waste of big money tuition.

I stayed in the industry for a total of 24 years and held the position of Executive chef at many prestigious winery/resorts, convention hotels, and beach front hotels.
As someone who has trained 100's of culinarians hired with little to no experience and have hired/fired 100's fresh culinary art students fresh from school this is how it broke down over my career.

Freshly graduated culinary arts student with no experience : 80% failure/quit rate, 20% who had the mental/physical fortitude to succeed, and were able to utilize the skills they learned from a slow paced classroom/stage kitchen setting into a fast paced and ever changing pro kitchen.

Person fresh with no experience but a will to learn and a passion for food/hospitality: 49% failure/burn out, 49% stick with it, love the daily challenges and grow to make it a career.....some decide to go to culinary school/some do not and can still be successful. 2% end up fulfilling their dream of making the best food, at the best restaurant/resort/hotel, etc. making a great wage, working with other amazing individuals, and earning titles/accolades.

Again my best advice is for him to go work in a professional kitchen for at least 1 year before deciding on culinary school. If he does decide that the culinary world is his jam and wants to peruse it for a career, he needs to work for that 2%. He needs to become a man who can be depended on as a reliable, eager, and passionate man on the team. Ride the coat tails, ask questions, learn, demonstrate proficiency in all areas, and most important speak up when he wants to take on more/advance/grow.

I wish him good luck in his journey.

 

[KeithR]

I consider myself lucky and successful in this industry, but it takes a lot of patience and persistence. I went to a name brand 2 year culinary program that costed about 17k. Had to take forbearances on the loans when I was first in kitchens because the money wasn’t great, but I’m not jaded like a lot of these posts. I just made sure to change a lot of what I didn’t love about the industry in my company when I got to the top. Looking back what I would have done differently would be-

Go to a good technical colleges culinary program. Here you will learn the basics while not amassing a ton in student loans. It’ll save you tons over a CIA or Johnson and Wales, and in a technical colleges setting a lot of what you will learn will be business based as well. Work at a good enough restaurant while you are in culinary school to make some mistakes, get comfortable in kitchens and save all of your money.

I am a Culinary director over 6 restaurants. Half on Michelin lists / stars, ect ect. I could give a **** where someone went to culinary school. It’s all the same, it’s a base knowledge, and you will learn the most in actual professional kitchens, the pedigree of kitchens you work in resonates far more than what school you went to. If someone applies that staged around at great restaurants, that’s the top of my list.

Once you graduate go nomadic for a year and stage all around at the best restaurants that will have you in the country. Learn from the best while living minimally and then after a year find which city you visited that you would like to settle down in and start putting in roots. (Consider this your apprenticeship post schooling)

A lot of people aren’t successful in this industry because they hop around too much. The grass is greenest where you water it, the French tops are cleanest where you scrub them.

 

[Genghis_F]

Do him a favor..... Figure out how to convince him to do anything but ...... Go to college for medical , become a tradesman, something, anything. Make sure he is aware it is an incredibly toxic environment , he will have no life outside of the kitchen, he will be verbally abused , underpaid , perpetually poor , and probably job hop for the first 5 years.......

There is a reason I am in school full time and not working in kitchens anymore ...... It's all the above things, and many more.

lol
I'm in healthcare and give the exact same advice to those looking at a medical career- if there's anything else you could see yourself doing, go do that instead!

 

[YumYumSauce]

My dad cooks for a living. Sometimes I wish I listened to him when he suggested a different career path

I think Culinary School is worth it as long as your heart is in the industry and you dont go in debt for it. I went to the local community college and most of it was paid by grants and scholarships and graduated with no debt. It introduces you to some basic skills/knowledge/techniques/kitchen equipment. It opens your mind to the bigger picture of the industry and different career paths. Also, many networking opportunities.

But I guess you never know until you actually spend some time in the kitchen.

 

[panda]

almost all of my cooks I've inhereted with culinary degrees have been sh1te. at the same time, I've hired quite a few fresh untainted blood through externships.