Dilip Shaw

Restaurant Reality

Preface: Get information on career as a chef. Read this article to know whether you are fit to be a chef.

While you can break into the kitchen for an entry-level position and learn on the job, if you have aspirations to be a chef, advanced training is a must.

The American Culinary Federation accredits over 100 formal training programs and sponsors apprenticeship programs around the country. Typical apprenticeships last three years and combine classroom training and work experience. The ACF also certifies pastry professionals and culinary educators in addition to various levels of chefs.

Vocational or trade-school programs typically offer more basic training in preparing food, such as food handling and sanitation procedures, nutrition, slicing and dicing methods for various kinds of meats and vegetables, and basic cooking methods, such as baking, broiling and grilling.

To determine if you are cut out for a cooking career, consider these important characteristics: chefs, cooks and food preparation workers need to be able to work well as part of a team, have a keen sense of taste and smell, and work efficiently to turn out meals as quickly as possible. Knowledge of a foreign language may improve communication with other restaurant staff, vendors, and the restaurant's clientele.

Advancement is common in the field. For example, many food preparation workers move easily into assistant or line cook positions. Chefs and cooks who demonstrate an eagerness to learn new cooking skills and to accept greater responsibility may move up within the kitchen and take on responsibility for training or supervising newer or lesser-skilled kitchen staff. And there are always opportunities to move from one kitchen or restaurant to another.

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