If you aspire to be a chef, you can start by taking a course, or you can attempt to work up. Working from the ground up will give you a lot of practical experience when you do become a chef. If you are still in high school when you decide you want to be a chef, you should take advantage to any classes available at your school. You’ll want to take diverse classes such as math, and English, but also study business, food handling and cooking if those classes are available. High School is also a great time to get your first restaurant job and start learning skills you can use later.
Working your way up through the ranks requires you to get an entry level job at a restaurant. Usually this means you will be a dishwasher, or busboy. You’ll be responsible for cleaning up after everyone else, but you’ll also get to spend time in and around the kitchen and observe experienced chefs doing what they do best. You’ll also learn important skills that will help you interact with others in the culinary field.
If you are very good at your job, you may eventually get the chance to become a chef's assistant. This position is a small step up from dish washing, but this will give you the chance to start learning how to properly handle food. You’ll be learning knife skills as you chop and peel vegetables, and you’ll be learning how to work alongside others in the restaurant. If you get good at preparing ingredients, you may be tasked with making soups, salads, or maybe appetizers under the supervision of one of the chefs.
If you excel in your chef’s assistant position, you may eventually be offered the chance to be a line cook. Line cooks usually work in one area of the kitchen, such as the grill, though they may rotate around depending on the demand coming from the customers in the restaurant.
Experienced line cooks can eventually become sous chefs. The sous chef is second in command in the kitchen. They not only participate in the cooking, but also supervise the other chefs to some degree. They also may contribute to the menu and develop recipes.
It’s possible you will be perfectly happy as a line cook, or sous chef, but if you really want to excel in the food business, you’ll have to become an executive chef. It’s possibly restaurants seeking executive chefs will require you to have taken training from a community college or trade school. Programs like this are beneficial to almost anyone seeking employment in the culinary field because it will give you concentrated teaching on cooking, food safety, and food presentation so you’ll be able to present your customers with tasty food that is presented in an attractive format. If you aspire to be an executive chef, you should definitely consider taking part in a training program.
As an executive chef, you’ll be responsible for everything in the restaurant. You’ll plan the menu, choose the ingredients for each dish, and manage which recipes each chef should use. You’ll also be responsible for ordering supplies for the kitchen, which will require good organizational skills, and a good knowledge of what your guests order, and when. To make the best use of your ingredients, you’ll plan specials to use things in a timely fashion, and to possibly get guests to try new dishes. While your servers will be the face of the restaurant, you will be the face of the food. People come to restaurants because of the atmosphere, and the food. Making the food great will bring them back again and again.