Get the right kitchen utensils · 2.Keep your knives sharp · 3.A mentor can be invaluable in helping you move forward and find your place in the culinary world. Experienced mentors can serve as inspiration and help chefs avoid mistakes and bad habits. Many chefs have such good experiences as mentors who also become mentors to future cooks. Escoffier students have access to cooking instructors who often act as mentors to students after they graduate.
They can also access the Escoffier Alumni Association, where fellow graduates offer mentors to each other and share stories and advice. That's why these steps of education, experience, and mentoring will be repeated many times throughout your career. In terms of education, a chef may choose to take a specialized course to expand their knowledge of charcuterie or advanced baking. Or they can read cooking books and watch videos on YouTube to learn new skills.
And for mentoring, there's always someone who knows more than you or has more experience. Your mentors will change and grow along with you throughout your career. Chef training is a delicious activity that lasts a lifetime. While the paths to excellence may vary, they are all a combination of education, experience and mentoring.
Whether you choose to study on the job or start your career with an education at a culinary school, it's simply a matter of how quickly you want to achieve your goals. How do you become a chef? Everyone can cook, right? Well, everyone can feed themselves when needed. But cooking a gourmet meal requires skill, training and a lot of practice. Working as a chef requires a great deal of experience, so recent graduates are not likely to immediately start working as a chef.
But they aren't chefs yet, the chef title comes from a combination of education and experience. Nowadays, most chefs work 5 days a week, however, some kitchens may require longer working hours, which means that chefs can also work 4 and 3 days off. So what are the qualities of a successful chef? First of all, every successful chef must have a genuine love for food. One thing that will attract or repel those thinking of becoming chefs is that chefs are generally “active” when everyone else is “out”.
Whether as an assistant or starting chef, with your experience and networking opportunities, you can land your first chef job. It can take a chef several years to reach the top of the industry, but cooks and chefs can enjoy the unique challenges of cooking and the rewards of a job well done along the way. A Sous Chef is the “second in command” and actively participates in the operation of the kitchen, often replacing the head chef.
