So I just lost my job, been working in the motor industry for a while but it's starting to bug me a bit. I like food and I like cooking, and I also hate having nothing to do, so being a chef (or at least trying working in a kitchen) seems like a good idea.

I was just wondering how to go about doing it. Do you suggest just walking into restaurants or trying to get on a college course or something like that? Should I start out as a dishwasher?

You could become an Apprentice/Trainee chef, at a restaurant.

It'd be a perfect job for you man.

You get to play with sharp things, do lines and bang waitresses.

It'd be a perfect job for you man.

You get to play with sharp things, do lines and bang waitresses.

No wonder Gordon gets so pissed off when people can't get it right :p.

So I just lost my job, been working in the motor industry for a while but it's starting to bug me a bit. I like food and I like cooking, and I also hate having nothing to do, so being a chef (or at least trying working in a kitchen) seems like a good idea.

I was just wondering how to go about doing it. Do you suggest just walking into restaurants or trying to get on a college course or something like that? Should I start out as a dishwasher?

You either:
1) Get ANY job at a restaurant. Even washing dishes or bussing tables. Eventually there will be an opening cooking, and you tell your boss that you're willing to learn and work very hard if he or she will give you a chance. If you start off being a dish washer, waiter, busser, whatever - make sure you work very hard and do a good job so your boss will be more inclined to give you a chance at cooking. You may get lucky though, and be able to start off cooking. I went to a restaurant to try to get a job as a cook, and not knowing there was an opening for a cook I just tried to get hired doing one of the things I already mentioned. When I told the owner that I eventually wanted to cook, he liked that I didn't go in there saying "I want a job as a cook", but instead was prepared to work my way up. So I got a job doing salads, appetizers and soups. Being the least experienced, and lowest paid cook in the kitchen means you will probably end up doing more prep and clean up work than the rest of the kitchen. You won't just clean your station, you'll probably clean anything else that needs cleaning, and probably sweep and mop the whole kitchen, do trash, etc etc. And as for prep... sheesh. I didn't just do prep for my station. If there was an ingredient that I had to prep for my station, that was also used in ANY other station around the kitchen - I prepped there's too. Being an Italian restaurant... well lets just say, I got there are 8:00 am to start prep for a 6:00 PM service that ended at 11:00 PM. COOL!

Anyway. I kind of got off track there, sorry.

2) Some kind of culinary school. You can go to a big name school like CIA, sure, but there are plenty of other options. A lot of community colleges, vocational/tech. schools, and other similar schools have culinary programs. These programs aren't as prestigious as a big name culinary school, but they have their advantages. While you work at them, you will also get actual restaurant experience as most of these schools have a restaurant of sorts that the students cook for. When you get done with school (Which will take much less time than a traditional culinary school), you will be back to looking for a job. But instead of having to start off with front of house/dishwashing or something entry level in terms of cooking (like salads), you will have both the experience working in a restaurant, and the expertise to get work as a sous chef, or if you're not in the brigade system (Which is less common in the USA, or just doesn't really apply if its a small restaurant), you could be doing something a variety of cool things in the kitchen.

If you go to a big name school, you will probably still end up as a sous chef (Though maybe at a better restaurant) for some time, and then if you're lucky or bold enough you could be an executive chef.

That being said... people get jobs as head chefs (in small of course) straight out of BOTH types of school. Someone with a decent amount of kitchen experience either before or during school could handle this if they have a good set of balls and are very serious about their work - and also not afraid to admit they need help. Still.. I don't advise it. A lot of small restaurants start up with an owner that doesn't know much about the restaurant business, and they hire a young kid straight out of culinary school. They hire the kid cause they don't know any better, and the kid takes the job because he's inexperienced and before he knows it he's in over his head. He's in a situation in the kitchen where he can't do the work properly, but he's too embarrassed to admit that he can't handle the responsibility and shouldn't have been hired in the first place. The restaurant eventually fails because of this.

You don't want to be in that kind of situation.

I think if I was just getting out of a culinary program like that, I would either want to work in a very small kitchen where its just me and the head chef (and a dish washer to be my bitch) that would leave in a few years so I could take over... or a big restaurant with a great chef with a good reputation to cook under. This would allow me to learn more and more, and eventually get my own job as an executive chef. The first option gets me to a decent career fairly quickly, though the second option takes longer and allows me to have a much bigger career.

Anyway... I sort of lost where I was going with all of this. Hope some of it was helpful.

Sambob pretty much said what I was going to say. You can either start as a dish pig, pay your dues and work your way up in ranks, or go to culinary school and go straight to being a chef somewhere.

One thing I've noticed a lot more of in schools around here at least is that the culinary programs are branching out.

At the college I attend there are three programs that deal with Culinary arts.

One is just pure culinary without any of the other knowledge such as how to run a kitchen etc.

The second is Culinary Management, which seems to be a very good course. It obviously deals not only with cooking and preparing food but running a kitchen as well as the finances and marketing, which makes someone a huge asset to any restaurant.

And the third it's included as a side note almost, hotel and restaurant management but it still gives a few details as to what you need to do to run a kitchen successfully.

It seems that there has been a huge rise in interest in the past few years or so with food and preparation and all that which is awesome, but it is narrowing the amount of jobs you can get, so being versatile and knowing how to not only cook but run a kitchen or restaurant as well will give you a huge edge on others.

'course I don't think anything can beat getting an apprenticeship from a chef.