Thoughts on culinary school?
I'm getting on in age, 29, riding a desk in a job I would say I'm somewhat satisfied with making just slightly over $20 an hour. My real passion is in cooking, but hear the pay is meager unless you're working very upscale and even then you need to have attended some of the best schooling with near a decade of experience, or been protege to someone very well known to get one of those jobs. Anyone transition later in life like I'm considering? Obviously not going to be one of those 'go for a few months and dropout' types, I need a career transition and there's bill to still pay.
What would be in store for me if I take this musing to action?
>>7475475
$80K school debt for a minimum wage job. You decide. Quite frankly, just go to a community college with a culinary program. Or start in the restaurant right away as a dishwasher.
>>7475475
If you're really passionate about cooking and ok with the stress, shitty hours and cut in pay, I'd say it's worth considering.
I've thought about it myself. I'm 34 and got laid off from the company I worked at for 15 years last year so I decided to take some time off to just relax for a while and decide what I want to do with myself. Joining a culinary program is definitely among my considerations but I haven't made up my mind yet.
>>7475475
>What would be in store for me if I take this musing to action?
debt, shit pay, stress, and then the horrible realization that you've made a terrible mistake when you discover you hate working thanklessly long hours as a bottom tier line cook.
seriously bro, save your mid-age crisis for something better like fantasies about fucking blonde swedes. at least then it will only cost you the cost of an airplane ticket and a trip to the red light district
>>7475527
>29
>mid-age crisis
spoken like a true child
Just to shed some light, my roommate and good friend works mise en place at a 5 star restaurant here in LA. He's a great guy, but has and works with people with very addictive personalities, at ridiculous house. Mostly noon to one am five days a week. It's a labor of love but definitely a lifestyle I don't think many are ready for. Also gl finding a wimmenz
>>7475581
ridiculous hours*
>>7475475
I started working as a part time prep cook at 16 right in highschool with no starting training. I learned as a work doing recipies one at a time. I've worked on and off as a cook for years working in every single possible position and I've seen guys come out of culinary school even some of the best schools and be shit, or far worse slow to make food. When you do 850+ covers a night you can't have a guy who's fluffing a fucking Caesar salad for 2 mins each time when you make hundreds a night.
I've found many culinary people make cook and cut vegetables very well but have limited creativity and just about everyone I worked with did not cook at home if at all. Hell one guy who trained and worked at the The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise opened up cans of chef boyardee after a shift and was one of the sloppiest preps ever. This numbnuts even made a full service worth of creme brule, with exact measurements of ingredients but some insanity didn't check the jars and switch out the sugar for salt. Fucking SALT!.
With that said if you really really like cooking and like the food you make and like to make your own recipes your own way then yes go in and learn. But if you're looking at it as a job you will fail badly. I've had guys around 16-19 come from McDonalds and make food well at an amazing speed and pace. One tiny asian kid was so quick he worked a 3 man department solo. It was very impressive to see.
go to culinary school in canada. dirt cheap and some of the best hotelerie schools in montreal.
>>7475581
if anything you'll get with one of the waitresses. i read some statistic that 70% of non-single people working in the service industry are with someone from the industry, simply because they dont have time for anything else
>>7475595
>if anything you'll get with one of the waitresses
If you're a cook you're a sub-human peasant to them.
>>7475598
i guess the cooks where i've worked have crazy game then
every restaurant i've worked at has at least one front of house / back of house couple
if you're thinking prep cook tho, prepare for eternal chastity
>>7475475
go to a CC its cheaper and you basically learn the same shit.
but fuck cooking nigga it took me YEARS to even make 20 bucks an hour. I sorta want out but I aint done much boook learnin no sir, i just wield dis dum ol kitchen knife massa.
>>7475598
Its funny because its true, but to the cooks the waiters are also scum
>>7475475
Look at that picture closely OP. Those students are completely disinterested, the teaching chef is a washout with a dumb fucking hat, and the food looks like its from the 90s.
Look realllllllllllllllllly closely and see if thats what you want to do for 2 years.
Honestly your best bet if you're looking to transition is offer to work for free at a decent restaurant in your area during the weekends, saying its a hobby or w/e.
But making slightly over 20 dollars an hour will take 15 or so years experience give or take at a fucking busy restaurant, most chefs don't make that much since they're on salary, 45k a year at 60-80 hours a week ain't shit.
Culinary school is a quick way to get yourself nowhere.
You'll be in a lot of debt for a worthless education and at best have to train on the prep line for months since you don't have any experience.When I started I was a dishwasher at a brand new restaurant, there were three fresh le cordon bleu grads working prep. One washed out in a month, I took her spot, and two months later I found myself on saute and the other two were still on prep. This was a couple years ago but you get my point. A classroom does not prepare you for the bullshit in a kitchen. You probably won't be able to handle the criticism or the banter if you're coming from an office job.
Get in a kitchen part time. Suck it the fuck up and wash dishes. If you think dish dogging is shitty, stressful and has awful hours you won't last on the line and you'll know it's not for you and you'll have saved yourself a bunch of time and money. If not you'll be in a position to learn another station bit by bit (totally on you to do that) until you can fill in on a slow night or when someone nocalls/walks out
>>7475605
Chef since over 30y now.. never fucjed a waitress (i had a few occasion desu, but the others waitresses make my life a hell then)
i fuck a pastry Chef momentary but I am not working with her in the same Business..
>>7475605
I fucked a server as a prep cook. And almost fucked this amazonian milf who worked pantry while we were in the walk in.
>>7475549
Ok grandpa
>>7475968
Sex , drugs, free alcohol and rock'n roll
oh, that's the good sides of the job...
the bad are that the pay is sgit for the Hours
>>7475475
Just work your way up in some restaurants and practise all the haute cuisine techniques in your spare time, OP. It's all online for free, no need to waste money on college. Then open your mom and pop restaurant which will beat all chains and most shitty souless haute cuisine joints anyways.
Just don't lose your passion or you'll get a visit from the TV people.
>>7475475
>culinary school
Not in any way worth it. Paying university-tier (or higher) prices for an education you can get for free on the job and that won't help you start off at a higher position/pay. You'll still have to start from the very bottom.
Hell, going into cooking as a career at all is really stupid. Retardedly long hours, never having holidays or weekends off, high stress, high risk of injury (both chronic and immediate) uncomfortable hot working environment, and very low (read basically minimum) wage. Even as an executive chef you often don't vmake much more than the equivalent of 10-12 dollars an hour- you get stuck on salary to minimize your cost since you'll be working insane hours. Plus surprisingly low job security- restaurants are a high failure rate business, and staff turnover is high too, and cooks are a dime a dozen.
Tl;dr: enjoy your 50-80k student debt to pay for a useless degree in a field where you'll work assloads of backbreaking hours for very low pay, and also enjoy seeing the 18 year old servers out front going home with two or three times as much money as you- tax free of course.
>>7475475
>Thoughts on culinary school?
work in the industry for a handful of years before you decide to attend
>>7475527
>save your mid-age crisis for something better like fantasies about fucking blonde swedes
in 5 years there won't be blonde swedes anymore
>>7475475
OP, get a niche passion. Pickles. Salsas. Cupcake lollipops. Honey farming. Granola in a jar. Ethnic sandwiches. Empanadas.
Sell your item at a booth at a farmer's market while you keep your day job. Use the money to apply and do well at a culinary school, or buy into a food truck/increase your ability to grow or hire an underling.
At 29, $20/hr isn't too bad. To make money in restaurants, you should instead be thinking about hospitality industry, esp if you look decent with classic looks. Your goal is that a big chain pays you to man their lucrative hotel restaurant and catering business for events. The hot little local joint that comes and goes every 2 years, is not stable work. But, you can get a good name for yourself starting at a market. You could even do it seasonally during peak shopping (before holidays) or summer tourists.
You will be on your feet 24/7, your hair and skin will suck always. You will have no time off when your friends are off from work (like school holidays). All the best times to party will be you working. Your peers are not really other chefs, but exconvicts and immigrants that you spend the most time with. Are you low class, a really truly blue collar kind of education kind of person? Do you wish you had more creative conversations that stimulate you other than drugs, drinks and sex? Cause it's a low class kind of job. It isn't glamorous, it's actually a service profession. We've applied some kind of rock star status to it, but it's actually a "dirty job" unlike any other.
>>7475974
Pretty much this.
Its the passion of cooking and mingling with the chefs and cute servers. My roomie is a level one cook that is a garunteed 16 an hr here in maple land. Once he gets level 4, hell make 20 as a lead chef plus 30% gratuity for the night, thats just in your normal restaraunt. In a 5* hed make 25 to 28an hr if hes an A grade chef
>>7476731
Best advise in this thread
