greyeyes

I am a second year college student and I have come to that crossroads that everyone of us has to come to durring this lifespan. I have been considering many things to do with my life and I am really considering going to cullinary school (it is actually number one on my list). I was hoping some of the good people that regular or even just visit this part of the TFP might have involved themselves (or know someone who has involved themselves) in the cullinary arts though a school that specialized in this area. If there is anyone who knows anything about this please tell me everything you think I should know before committing my life to this. Anything is appreiciated, thanks.

(P.S. I am hoping to end up at a high end restraunt maybe in some large city, this would be my goal if I were to commit myself to the cullinary arts; anyone know how hard doing this is?)

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JadziaDax

There are some incredible schools out there for culinary arts. Johnson & Wales is a name that most everyone in the business knows. Finding a school of culinary arts does depend on your location, so try About Top Culinary Schools to help find one right for you.

Just keep in mind, like any art, the culinary world is competitive. I think the world of a chef who is involved in his/her art, as do most people.

Macheath

From all I've read and the Chefs who I've known, the kitchen of any decent restaurant is a VERY intense, high pressure place. There can be a lot of loyalty there too. When I was working as a waiter (the enemy), if I had fucked with the kitchen staff, the Head Chef would have slit my throat without a second thought to save his beloved platoon.

If you can find someone to give you a truly honest sense of what a real working high end kitchen is like on any given night, you'll be well on the way to knowing whether it's the thing for you.

I love cooking at home, but I know a real kitchen wouldn't suit who I am. Things might very well be different for you.

Unfortunately I don't know much about the different culinary schools.

PayUp

I might suggest a school that offers Le Cordon Bleu diplomas. THere are several acrross the united states. CIA, Culinary Institute of America is in Hyde Park NY. The Le Cordon Bleu diploma is highly recognized as its origins stem from the school in France. They are 15 month programs and are very accelerated, upon finishing you receive an associates.

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nirol

I have a lot of experience in this area, I and I wish you a lot of luck.
I am head French Fry cook at Winky Dinky Dog. The position demands a lot of attention, you have to start a new batch every 10 minutes or so, and god forbid you over cook them. The hours are erratic and you never know when a large bus of 5th graders will invade. Some of the fringes are great though, all the fries you can eat, and the greasy steam does wonders for your complexion. Oh, and the popping grease will help get rid of that tattoo on your forearm that your mom has been nagging about.

The preceeding is a joke, and yes, I am aware it is rather lame. I am a victim of the public education system.

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rockzilla

Have you worked in a kitchen before? As has been mentioned here, it's very intense, demanding, sweaty, stressful, and generally thankless. There are no excuses for failiure, and if you have a hard time keeping up, you'll be fired in the blink of an eye. The pay isn't that great unless you have a lot of experience, and you'll be working lots of really early mornings, really late evenings and weekends. But if you really love cooking, you wouldn't want it any other way (well I wouldn't, at least).

Keep in mind that getting a diploma (no matter how prestigious the school is) is only a small step towards a successful culinary career. It takes years to build the practical skills that you'll need to succeed. And no diploma can give you a passion for food.

There are lots of other culinary jobs worth considering as well. Private catering, working in an upscale hotel or convention center, institutional food services (hospitals, schools, etc) to name a couple.

I hope this hasn't scared you off of what I've found to be an exceptionally rewarding career. If you haven't before, get a kitchen job (even as a dishwasher if you have to) and see what it's like first hand.

Chingal0

Oh man. Like as has been said above, foodservice is a demanding job. But there are jobs, like the one that I have now , that make it worth the struggle to learn how to perform.

I graduated from Western Culinary Institute in Portland, opting for WCI over CIA due to housing and social issues, and I was highly impressed. It is a Le Cordon Bleu program, and I personally learned alot from it.

Johnson & Wales is also a great school, I toured their Colorado campus prior to attending WCI, and it was really nice. I am not sure if all J&W are the same, but I was impressed with the facilities, not so much the curriculum.

I would say, just get some information on a few different schools, and see what you are most interested in. That is basically what I did, and even tho I would have liked to goto CIA in NewYork, I feel that the education I received was suffificent.

Have fun, and good luck!

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LordEden

I've often wondered about the road to the cullinary school, I'd like to become a master chef myself. I cook in a kitchen at my local LoneStar resturant and love cooking at home. But working in any kitchen, especially at a fine dinning or upscale resturant, you have to be good and freaking fast. It's like haveing one fast paced task one after another and it never ends. Everything has to be perfect the first time.
If you want to try for a cullinary school, get a job at a local resturant doing dish or prep, learn what it's like at that pase before you try for cullinary school.
Or just wash dishes, it ain't that bad .

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Average-Joe

I agree with most here. Get your feet wet, even if it’s washing dishes, it may seem degrading at first but you have to start somewhere. Fine chefs all over the world are scrubbing dishes every day,its part of the job. You will also get to see hands on how a kitchen works.

Chingal0

Dishes isnt that bad really. When you are washing those dishes, take a look at the line on a friday night. Be thankful that it is just you and possibly 1 or 2 others spraying and feeding into the washer instead of being yelled at by the point man for not having his -insert anything here- done 5 minutes before it is safe to serve. Also, I work at a 4star 4diamond restaurant/hotel deal, and it is the best job I have ever had. Totally laid back and only get about 10-40 covers during the winter. Freakin dream job, altho I hate the beach...

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absorbentishe

My friend is a chef, and he has had several receipies published. One that I gave him, and he just added a little to. He hates it now, and is trying to get out. All the restaurants he worked at, wouldn't really let him create, that's why he wants out. He once tried to buy a place, but the funding fell through. I love to cook, but to be a chef, after the stories my friend has told me, no way. Good luck on your decision.

hotdogg

I owned a restaurant for twelve years and "sponsered" a half dozen students to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) at Hyde Park in upstate NY...I also took classes at the New School in NYC which back in the late 80'S had a great cooking school. As many of the other posts suggest get in there and do it...It is demanding work, when the rest of the world is off for holidays, restaurants are busy...The CIA used to have two year and four year programs...Baking was another whole area...

Students needed to be "sponsered", that is they needed to have worked in a restaurant for a year or so (not McDonalds) so that they understood basic skills (saute, grill, cleanliness, basic pans and knives, dishwashing, bussing). Many of the students that I sponsered would work for six months and then go back and take class for six months...You learn by doing, and by working for many different types of chefs and restaurants until you find your "style"...it is truly an apprentiship, but it is hard work...Most either love it or hate it.

Good Luck to You

greyeyes

wow guys, thanks for all of this info, I knew I could count on the TFP. You guys really gave me some great opinions and experiences that I will definately take into consideration durring "Decision Time". Also, could any of you tell me from a student's standpoint while also taking into consideration that I am and forever will be a red blooded american male. For example, does being a chef help with picking up/ entertaining females, ect. thanks again guys

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rockzilla

From my experience, hell yes. Cooking is a good way to impress just about anyone. Impressing girls was one of the reasons I started getting into cooking in the first place.

Average-Joe

Absolutely! I have worked in various restaurants in the past twelve years, been a chef for three.
While meeting new people the response is always the same. “WOW! You’re a chef, you have to cook for me sometime”
Defiantly an icebreaker. I met my wife this way.

yabobo

The biggest draw back is this.

No dinner with your family.
You will work all holidays
and weekends.
If you can handle this it can be a rewarding life.

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Rodney

I just contribute one thing: chef's school is still a school, and there'll always be some slackers. Don't be one of them.

I used to dine at the California Culinary Academy in SF on Friday nights, when they'd have their weekly grand buffet; expensive, but still an incredibly good deal when you consider you had about 1/4 acre of fine Continental cuisine to choose from. You were essentially eating their weekly assignments. It wasn't only about cooking, it was about presentation, and the student chefs minded the various tables and were expected to converse intelligently about the various dishes with diners, even if they hadn't cooked them all themselves. I remember wondering why the student chefs kept flipping their hands over when I asked them questions (it was dark). Finally realized they had cheat sheets written on the undersides of their wrists!

chef001_2003

it depends on your learning style

i am a very hands on learner so i chose the 7-1 student to teacher ratio of the new england culinary institute in essex vt. they also have a campus in montpellier, vt. almost entirly hands on and the majority is in actual restaurants for paying customers

c.i.a- from what i saw the majority is book learning in large auditoriums by demo only. as it has been said at school many time a c.i.a grad my know how to do something but knowing how and actually doing is two very different things.

find the fit that is right and visit the schools and talk to students alone (more likely to get straight answers)

this is my opinion

splck

I worked in a very nice restaurant for three years during highschool. I started as a dishwasher, showed some interest in what was happening in the kitchen and before I knew I was out of the dish pit and helping the lineup of cooks. Friday or Saturday nights were so busy and stressful that I sometimes wonder how we all held it together.
I never worked in a kitchen again, but I sure look back on it in a good way.

As others have said, you need to be able to handle stress in order to work in a kitchen.

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thingstodo

I live in the Detroit area and hear that a Jr. college called Schollcraft College in Livonia has a great cullinary school. Their students cook for a restaurant they run when school is in session. I've eaten there several times and man, is the food good! I don't get the impression that it is that terribly expensive a school.

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PoteMatic

How hard is it to make it into a big resuraunt in a big city? I think that would be an awsome job also and have been looking for the same information.

rockzilla

That depends.... are you a good cook? Have you worked in a kitchen before? Can you handle the near-inhuman stress of a friday night rush? I've seen people literally reduced to tears because the job was too hard... and this was at Red Lobster, the opposite of quality dining.

Without any schooling and experience, getting into a halfway decent restaurant is impossible. Like I and a few others have said, if you're intersted in pursuing a career in cooking, take any kitchen job you can get and see how you like it.

Up here in Ontario, you have to work 6000 hours (about 3 years, full time) in a kitchen before you can write an exam to get your chef's papers. No self-respecting high-quality establishment would even look at your resume until you have those papers. I don't know how things work elsewhere, but I'd assume they're similar.

jabackes

i am a graduate of the CCA, (california culinary academy) and i dont remember ever having to have a cheat sheet.... but anyway... school is a great start if you havnt ever been in the restaurant industry, or if you are switching careers. However, its usually a huge step in the debt side of life, and if you dont plan it carefully you will in fact go insane before you finish your first three months in a job afterward... i am happy to say that i do in-fact have holidays off, and i get to see family, i also have weekends too.. i am a corporate chef for Apple Computer Inc. in Cupertino California. its a great experience to be a chef, but you also have to take all the bull-shit that comes with the "sides" in the kitchen.. there is always a fast paced underbelly there, and you can usually hold on.. if you still want to go, go for it... CIA campuses in New York and California are the best in the world, CCA is ranked 2nd Best in the Nation, and most places these days are offering The Le Cordon Bleu Degrees.

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pchef33

If you have to ask, it probably aint for you, sorry. I worked full time in kitchens while going to culinary school. I worked as an executive pastry chef for four years, and cooked in hot food for a few more. Once you fight your way to the top, it only gets harder. You can count on 60 hours a week, more if you are salaried. Every weekend when your friends are having fun? You will be working. Every holiday that your family is enjoying? You will be busting your hump. Hope to have a relationship outside of the restaurant? It wont be easy. Hope to stay married? Very hard with waitress/hostess coming around all the time. It's hard, dirty work. What do you do when you get off of work at midnight? There's not much else to do but drink, so watch our for the bottle. Did cooking shows lure you into this idea? Go work in a kitchen for at least a year. Make it up to at least a sauté cook and work a few Saturday nights. You wont need to ask anyone if cooking is the right career path for you. I wish someone would have bitch slapped me and made me stay in college. Eight years of cooking, I ended up in debt, divorced, and depressed. I switched careers to high tech/ network geek. I work regular hours, and make literally twice what I did on my best year cooking. If you factored in the hours, I make three times what I did cooking. Yeah, now I can still cook my ass off, impress people with fancy cooking, and that is the best thing I came away with. People always ask me if I miss cooking; Hell no! I can cook what I want, for whomever I want, whenever I want, and I really enjoy it. It's the business that sucks. If you have to ask, it really isn't for you. I swear. Sorry if that sounds harsh.

rockzilla

I thought I'd drag this thread back up to suggest that anyone interested in cooking as a career should pick up a book called "Becoming a Chef" by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. It's loaded with interviews and advice from world-renouned chefs. It talks about the history of the profession, how to get started, and what to expect when you get your first kitchen job. Of course, no book can make up for first hand knowledge, but it's better than spending a fortune getting into culinary school only to find out that the reality of kitchen work is far less glamourous than what you see.

Chingal0

Going to school and getting your degree does not automatically mean that you will be spending your time as a line cook pumping out 700 covers a night on a daily basis, and spend your break time shooting heroin and crying over your tomato soup. The "Hospitality" industry has many facets to it, and having a degree in culinary will better your chances of having a career.

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rockzilla

That has to be one of the funniest images that's ever been in my brain.