I want to be a chef

Q: I want to be a chef. Any words of wisdom?
(Paul from St. Petersburg, FL)

A: Oh, sure… I’m not sure you’ll like the wisdom of my wisdom, but I’ll gladly give it to you. And please listen to me. Over the years, those who didn’t regret it. I’m not saying I know it all, but in terms of cooking career choices, I know I know more than you do, otherwise we wouldn’t be here discussing this.

Look, all I can really say, is think about it real well. Remember what your mom told you about becoming a lawyer or a doctor. She may have been up to something. Remember too that when your friends and family are working, you’re off, and when they’re off, you’re working. Make sure you do an unpaid, 2-week internship at a local restaurant before you go to culinary school.

Professional chefs, those working  the line in actual restaurants and not so much the buffoons you may admire on the Food Network, know how hard the profession really is, and commonly exchange inside jokes about career changers and other would-be chefs in chi-chi outfits. Home cooks with such ambitions imagine they’ll never be out of work, will have job opportunities around the world and a stomach always full of delicious food. They want to unleash their creativity on something we all appreciate: food.

Alas, the realities of being a professional chef are grimmer. Forget about the rosy movie and book Chocolat; Kitchen Confidential is the required reading. Chef Anthony Bourdain tells it like it is, relating the brutal life of haute cuisine.

The hours are long. I can still remember the puzzled look on my wife’s face when I set the alarm for 6 a.m. the night before my first dinner shift at Bistro St. Tropez, one of Philadelphia’s best restaurants. Sixteen-hour days are common.

And hey, have you ever shaken a chef’s hand? They are are cut, cracked and burnt, sometimes dirty beyond the power of soap or detergent. They are rugged and rough, and our spouses don’t love us any better for that. On each of our inner forearms, for example, there is a seemingly permanent cross-shaped scar, made by taking hot half-sheet pans out of the oven.

As much as you like food, you might hate working in commercial kitchens, which are hot, busy, cramped, dangerous, sometimes dirty and stinky. Forget about being creative, you’ll need to be productive.

After your shift, you’ll crave natural light and sunsets, comfy couches and massage chairs, some quiet and maybe a Band-Aid. You may not want a burger, though, mainly because working with so much food around, tasting it, will disgust you.

Culinary school is boot camp with stoves. Programs, internships and older French chefs (watch those!) are demanding and require serious commitment. The Culinary Institute of America demands a six-month restaurant work experience for admission. By working in a restaurant, you might get a better clue about what you’re getting into.

Culinary school is demanding on your finances, too. A month course at Le Cordon Bleu costs about $7,000. These schools don’t come cheap. And that brings me to another point: Is being a chef worthwhile?

Yes, Emeril Lagasse is a millionaire, but the Food Network has made only a handful of stars. The average executive chef salary is $40,000 to $70,000 a year. Don’t expect to be an executive chef right out of school, though. Prep cook is the entry level, and for that you’ll make $25,000. Several years of cuts and burns will elevate you to a more comfortable position.

Perhaps I am tempering your initial enthusiasm. But once you know what you are getting into, life is good in this artistic profession. If you’re still enthusiastic about it, go for it; it’s a lot of fun.

What is this blog about? Read the first post here.