The pay is shit.
Hours are shit.
You have to deal with people that are shit.
You will never achieve anything worth remembering in the long run.
You will never invent something new.
Etc.
So, why is so popular? I'm a chef and I don't get it, and I am seriously thinking of changing the profession.
What does chefs of /ck/ think?
>>7303163
i dont know. i think maybe for some people they see the passion it takes to commit yourself to cooking and think "im a good cook. i am an passionate artist. i'll be a chef."
but the job is way more redundant, simple, and back breaking than these pussy hipsters can take in a given day let alone 14 hours a day.
it is a meme. a dying meme that takes soul crushing discipline to get anything out of it. ever.
Most of the chefs I know are too weird and dysfunctional and sperg to get any other job in between wrestling with alcoholism and insanity.
A few are just the common hard workers who just want a job and a paycheck, but they can't handle the 9-5 for whatever reason.
A handful are obsessed with food and work fanatically toward making their work excellent.
One or two do it because they like it.
>>7303163
>>7303560
>>7303574
Yea that's one thing that is troubling to me about being a cook. It's relatively skilled but it seems like unless you are in managment or the head chef of a really expensive independent place the pay is really low, even though it is fairly skilled work. It also seems like this is almost unavoidable given how thin the profit margins are.
Is a professional chefs entire day just prepping and making the same plates day in day out and coming up with new dishes as needed?
Being a chef can be a satisfying career if you actually like being creative and inventive with food and have the freedom to be. If you just like cooking, don't be a chef because you'll end up hating it.
>>7304933
I like having my creative output coopted by large corporations who then undercut my business as to eliminate the originator and superior product.
That way they can buy the original for pennies on the dollar and shut it down. Thus the world becomes a better place.
facts
being a chef isnt about
>supreme skill and dominion over all things culinary
>constantly pushing the envelope of complexity and innovation in cuisine
>care, attention, and love in everything you make
being a chef IS about
>knowing a handful of dishes and practicing the hell out of them until you can do them blind folded
>being very fast at cooking said dishes
>being able to organize a kitchen
it's a lot like karate where people think once you have a blackbelt you will be an all powerful ninja that can kill a bull with you bare hands, have awareness of all things happening within a 200 meter radius in all directions at all times, and bend steel with your 6 pack
but in reality, when you get your black belt, just like when you become a chef, you still get stressed out and nervous under pressure, get stuck in the weeds, and have to practice all the time to continue learning new things
>>7303163
dude its a worm pig
I was in the business for almost 10 years. Thank fuck I got out before I became a lifer.
Miserable hours and pay, and if you complain you get wannabe tough guys yelling "IF YOU CANT HANDLE THE HEAT GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN!!". Then those same guys end up being 55 year old alcoholics who have to work themselves until their death because cooking is all they know, and booze and coke is the only thing that numbs the pain.
The only time you should EVER have anything to do with working in a restaraunt is if you are the owner. They are the only ones who make money for all their hard work. And even then there are so many restaraunts everywhere these days your shit had better be good unless you dont mind going bankrupt in a year.
>>7305178
>>7303589
>It's relatively skilled but it seems like unless you are in managment or the head chef of a really expensive independent place the pay is really low, even though it is fairly skilled work. It also seems like this is almost unavoidable given how thin the profit margins are.
Low profit margins, and every restaraunt on earth can easily grab some random nobody off the street and teach them how to cook basic shit, or look their their stack of 50 resumes from dipshits who watch the cooking network and are willing to work for min wage to be the NEXT TOP CHEF!!!!
Cooking isnt hard. Its a stressful miserable job, but it isnt hard. Its doing the same task over, and over, and over, and over, and over. You may as well work in a car assembly plant. Youll be doing the same type of repetitive as fuck work but at least get decent pay and benefits.
Cooking is the ultimate form of self-gratification. Chefs frankly don't have time to worry about all the shit OP mentioned because they're took busy jacking themselves off over their roast or flambé.
Chefs are abusive and psychopathic. Kitchens are very hostile and stressful places to work.
Restaurants should be small family affairs, serving only one or two different dishes each night.
I will never return to a commercial kitchen.
Cooking has been glamorized because of Food Network which leads to unrealistic expectations of what the job is really like. I've worked as a cook and I'm in Culinary school and I have no intention of going back on the line. I've been in school for these two years to learn more than I would have just working at one or two mediocre places and because a degree will make it easier to get a loan from a bank one day to open up my own place. I don't want to be a cook or a chef, I want to be an owner.
Yeah idk honestly
I was seriously nieve and got a degree in FASHION DESIGN... could not find any job at all. I ended up being a the head chef at a high end restaurant in Austin after being unemployed for over a year
Now I want to go get a degree in something actually useful and can't because I am not allowed to have a life outside my shit job
>>7305276
>nieve
wa la
Serious question. I am 18. got a 2.6 gpa in school didn't go to college and work at a subway right now living at home. The only thing I am decent at and like is cooking. Is it a bad idea to try and do this as a career. I honestly can't see myself working anywhere so a kitchen seems like an ok place. I just dont know other jobs where someone like me can make decent money with a very limited skillset. The only skill I have is hard work
>>7303163
>The pay is shit.
you knew what you were getting yourself into, what did you expect?
>Hours are shit.
you knew what you were getting yourself into, what did you expect?
>You have to deal with people that are shit.
customers? your employees? maybe you're the one who is shit
>You will never achieve anything worth remembering in the long run.
that's relative and depends on how you define those words and, again, you knew what you were getting yourself into, what did you expect?
>You will never invent something new.
who gives a fuck?
holy shit OP >>>/b/
>>7303163
True chefs don't care about those things. You only care about providing hungry people with tasty meals. You don't do it for thanks, you don't do it for big pay, you do it to make sure your customers leave satisfied and full.
>>7306243
>The only skill I have is hard work
nigga this is all you need to work in a kitchen. the way I look at any job is to just fucking do it, thats why they pay me. If you're one of the few who doesn't complain and is actually working all the time your employers and coworkers will like you being there because you're working. Don't backtalk, don't complain, ask for help when you need it so you don't get overwhelmed and fucked (VERY important), and work hard.
>>7306243
Become a cook in the military and make a lot more money than in the civilian world.
>>7304933
>Being a chef can be a satisfying career if you actually like being creative and inventive with food and have the freedom to be
And the meme lives. Most of the people working kitchens do not have any freedom to use their creativity.
>>7306249
>>7306249
There there buudy
>>7303163
>You will never invent something new.
All the rest is objectively true, but my cousin has worked at The French Laundry, and they do indeed come up with brand new stuff on a regular basis. I know there aren't many restaurants like that, but there are people who manage to spend their days doing almost as much R&D as prep work.
>>7306463
>being a chef IS about
>knowing a handful of dishes and practicing the hell out of them until you can do them blind folded
>being very fast at cooking said dishes
>being able to organize a kitchen
Not really. It's paperwork, deskjob. You're describing a lead line or sous chef.
"handful of dishes"? I need you to be able to extrapolate cooking different meats and sauces.
>>7306463
That is fun as fuck. It's what keeps me in the game. Oldfag who is learning every day.
When I was a noob, I thought I knew it all. Wish I could go back and not be so close minded. Started in '87. Started learning in '92. Thought I knew it all in '98.
>>7303589
>skilled work
lol tell that to miguel
>>7303574
>A handful are obsessed with food and work fanatically toward making their work excellent.
This is how I am with it. I love it. But I also hate it at the same time. I am fanatical about work, so I really enjoy something skilled and fast-paced. Being a cook fulfills this, and I am able to constantly strive for excellence.
Yet I've also become a borderline alcoholic, and my body hates me for what I do.
I think it's because we don't fit in anywhere else and possibly a little masochistic
>>7303163
>You will never invent something new.
Inventing something new requires you to do research and making something new.
The Japanese, for example, basically took Western bakery techniques and created their own desserts from it.
That said, to reach the level of being able to make new things from nothing require you to own your own restaurant and stuff.
To add, the reason restaurants are high-stress and repetitive is the same way you train in boxing gyms against sparring partners in full-contact rules.
You end up refining your techniques and senses, as well as become a far more efficient chef.
IF you don't think that you're gaining something from the work and think that it's just another job, you're not going to get anything useful from being a chef.
The same thing with boxing. If you're just punching a bag for an hour every day with no purpose behind it, it really gets boring as fuck. Now if you think of punching that bag as a way to strengthen yourself and make you able to throw it efficiently with the maximum strength and speed together, and as a precursor to advanced techniques, it can lead you down to a career as a trainer or a fighter.
The same thing applies to being a chef. All the pain you endure now is so you can learn and become very efficient and able to think during the stressful moments. To either become an educator yourself, or, someone who owns his own store, or, a freelancer.
Now, just like with boxing, success isn't something that just comes by punching in your timecard. It just doesn't. Both careers are ultracompetitive and only the best come through the ranks, whether by being a truly awesome chef, or, being an above average chef that has great connections because you can socialize well with others.
>>7305166
No, that's how you act as an excellent sous chef. A GOOD chef is that plus the first three things you claim to disregard. The sad fact is that most chefs do one of the first three, and about 2 of the second three, if that.
Op here.
My biggest problem with the trade is that it takes a lot of time for not much results. For example, you decide to work your ass of in Michelin, you learn and eventualy open your own place, you do what you want and you become the new Ferran. In the mean time you have neglected family, friends and every other thing you might be interested in, and for what? Money? Fare?
Money, if you ever get to make shitloados won't make up for lost time and fame will fade if not in few years then after some decades when some other guy does something better and bigger.
So, whats smart, do it as any other job or dedicate whole life to it?
>>7306854
>So, whats smart, do it as any other job or dedicate whole life to it?
There's a romance to it. Just like people used to romanticize cowboys, and later rock musicians. It's crazy enough work that it's an alternative lifestyle, yet there are elements of autonomy and meritocracy to it that people find very romantic. You only have to look at how the celebrity chef has replaced the rockstar in the popular imagination to see this.
>>7303163
Is.. Is that a pigworm? :^O
>>7306595
damn senpai you really went full retard with that analogy
>>7303163
It's a good profession for losers.
>>7306323
>most are
>that means all are
Literally read his post again and pay attention this time.
>>7307480
If 2%percent of the kitchen workers get a chance to express their creativity you should still give it a shot right? im pretty sure you are going to fall in that 2% You just must be a misunderstood genious that hapens to be posting on 4chan. So what are you waiting go out there and show the world who you are.
You are a fucking dumbass for trying to pick on a technicality.
Decent career if you don't want to go to college.
Actually doing stuff instead of dicking around in some office.
If they bother to get business savvy they can open up their own restaurant.
>>7307511
Not necessarily. Sure, most starry-eyed kids who picked up electric guitars between 1965 and 1995 did not become rock stars. Most of the lucky ones who managed to eek out a career in music ended up in wedding/cover bands or as music teachers. They might tell you the business isn't all it's cracked up to be. But a few of them ended up as the Edge, Jack White and John Mayer. Their opinions would be very different.
Same goes for cooking. Most cooks will never be chefs, and most chefs will never have the dream gigs of running their own Michelin starred restaurants. But the next David Chang or Andy Ricker is out there somewhere. And it will be someone who didn't heed the warnings about how terrible the business can be.
That's what keeps the romance about it alive.
>>7303163
It's one of the more prestigious careers non-graduates and felons can have. Also it doesn't require a ton of smarts if you have the practical experience/muscle memory
>>7306258
spotted the college freshman
>>7305166
What you list is mainly just cook skills. Even a lot of the organizational maintenance will fall on experienced lead cooks in some places. Most chefs turn into PR and advertising machines and glorified book keepers and inventory managers once you get beyond one large or a couple smaller establishments, every now and then walking by the line and pointing out a few fuck ups on their way through.
>>7306249
>no. no. No. No. No. NO. NO. NO. NO! NO! NO! NO!
Easy there spergalert.
