Several years' experience at cooking, obviously, will be needed to become a chef; but education at a college or vocational school of 2 to 4 years is commonly required. These degrees or certificates likely have courses including:
- Chemistry: How do foods interact in a recipe, and what to avoid
- Biology: Nutrition, how the body uses food, healthy and unhealthy foods to eat, and things like food allergies
- Cultural Studies: How-and why- is food prepared differently in other countries? What foods do they never serve? Why do some countries use very little meat, and others use a lot of meat? What are religious observances regarding cooking, such as Kosher in the Jewish culture? What about regions of the United States and their commonly eaten foods?
- Experience and interest in trying the many foods available from all over the world: Have you eaten sea urchin, or falafel, or haggis, or pho, or curry dishes? How would you prepare them?
- Math: How much food to serve how many people, and what will that cost?
- Accounting
- Business Management
- Economics: Importing and exporting foods, supply and demand
- Politics/Public Relations: How would you handle, for example, a wedding reception where the guests are mostly from India?
- The Food & Drug Administration and Public Health Departments set rules as to which foods are approved for consumption. They also have strict rules of safety and cleanliness anywhere food is prepared or stored. You need to know these rules and enforce them.
- Human Relations: A chef typically is in charge of staff and will need to manage them effectively, and of course, must be able to relate to the people he cooks for, the customers
- Art: Learn how to present the food in an appetizing way.
From a practical/hands-on standpoint, you'll need to learn
- How to use knives to cut properly: Everything from raw vegetables to meats to breads
- How to operate machinery both safely and with good hygiene
- First Aid (employees may be burned, cut with knives, hurt using a machine, or have a reaction to something used in cooking or cleaning)
- General food safety
- Public Health mandates--being sure your kitchen up to code
- Planning your supplies
- Organizing the kitchen
- Using the right tools and machines for specific food prep
- Scheduling, from when supplies and food are delivered to scheduling staff
- Menu development: What to offer that is in demand, will still make a profit, and is not too time-intensive to prepare
Any kind of experience preparing and serving food can be helpful. Working at a fast-food restaurant or in another setting will show you the process of ordering, cooking, finishing, presenting, and serving the food. You will also be familiar with proper food handling practices, working with others, and appreciating the hard work it takes. Even working in a school cafeteria can show you the process of serving large numbers of people, public health policies at work, and the clean-up afterwards.
You may find training as a chef while serving in the Armed Forces. This could be great training to learn how to cook large quantities of good-quality foods.
You might be able to serve an apprenticeship under an established chef for valuable hands-on training.
Here is an innovative way for new chefs to gain experience: "Pop Up" restaurants. They rent a small and inexpensive place for one night, have their customers come and eat at long tables set end to end which encourages conversation, and then move on to another location (also called a "venue"): This one is called Dinner Lab:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pop-up-dining-company-dinner-lab-rebels-against-food-industry/
Where would you work as a chef?
Your first reaction would probably be to work at a restaurant, and this is probably the most common place to find work as a chef. You might, however, be employed in:
- A private household, where you make food for the family every day and for special occasions.
- A hotel: they employ chefs to prepare and manage their food for their own restaurants and room service delivery
- You may become a caterer, bringing your food to the customer such as at a wedding reception, awards dinner, party or dance, holiday or business event
- Occasionally, an institution such as a private school or residence for seniors will employ a chef
- A cruise ship, being responsible for food for possibly thousands of people all day, every day
Chefs typically wear a white jacket, typically made of cotton or non-flammable fabric, white to show how clean the chef and the kitchen are. It is usually double-breasted; that is, it has two sets of buttons and wraps around the front of the chest. A scarf is sometimes worn around the neck. Both the jacket and scarf are meant to protect against food splatters and spray from boiling water or oil.
The chef's hat, called a 'toque blanche' meaning white hat, is also meant to keep the chef's hair out of his/her face and out of the food. Traditionally, the higher the hat, the higher the rank of the chef. The toque is sometimes pleated with 100 pleats or folds. This is traditionally thought to be for the 100 ways one can cook an egg.
The order of seniority usually goes by these names:
#1 Chef de Cuisine, supported by the Sous Chef ('sous' meaning 'under'; this person has a lot of responsibility in being the lead chef's first assistant.
#2 Chef de Partie
#3 Demi Chef de Partie
#4 First Cook
#5 2nd, 3rd, and Prep Cook or Line Cook
Imagine working at the White House, being in charge of food for the President, state dinners, award dinners.... Here is a clip of food being prepared for a visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping during President Obama's presidency: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=food+for+a+white+house+dinner&&view=detail&mid=482146A4DD17F2DBDE73482146A4DD17F2DBDE73&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dfood%2Bfor%2Ba%2Bwhite%2Bhouse%2Bdinner%26FORM%3DHDRSC3
...and other facts about the history of cooking at the White House:
Keep in mind that often, a chef does not begin his or her workday until later in the day and will be making food until after midnight. After that, there is cleanup and prep for the next day to be done. It is true that if you are the chef or head cook, you may not have these responsibilities personally, but it still means you have to insist high standards.
You should be healthy and have a lot of endurance. You will be on your feet your whole shift and probably longer, every day. Some equipment you need to work with will be physically demanding and might be dangerous, such as a meat slicer, large mixers, or deep fryers.
The kitchen is a cooperative place, you work as part of a team to get food out to your customers, and so being able to work well with others is essential.
Income expectations for an experienced chef were about $43,000 in 2012, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Plenty of chefs and head cooks make less, and a small number make more.
Maybe being a professional cook is your career path. It never hurts to explore, if you love to make food.
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