About Us
We are a team full of people who are passionate about culinary, event coordination and making people's lives easier. We cater for cooperate functions, weddings, birthday parties, lunches and even deliver dinner to your homes than having drive out to go and buy food.
can you be a fantastic chef without going to school
ReplyDeleteI know I am probably in the minority here but I think you can. I never went to culinary school but I taught myself the basics and found a restaurant that allowed me to try out what I was learning. If you find a good mentor/chef that is willing to teach you, i think that culinary school is not neccessary. You unfortunately will have to educate yourself and read everything associated with food and the restaurant business. It takes a lot more discipline, I feel,to go this route. I have also seen people go to culinary school and come out some of the worst "chefs" I have ever worked with. Culinary school is a lot like life, in order to get anything out of it, you have to be willing to but something into it.
ReplyDeleteby steve kenney
Find a great chef, beg to work for them, even if you have to do so for free, but get in the kitchen. Learn the kitchen from a chef, then...study and learn and read and practice, but get in the kitchen!
ReplyDeletemary mcquinn
You definately can. As Mary says, find a great chef and restaurant. Aim high and be prepared to work very long hours for low pay. But you do only get out what you put in. The first 10 years are about learning as much as you can. The following 10 years are about putting it into practice.
ReplyDeleteandy ramshaw
I am a graduate of a Culinary program in India. I learnt a lot from my education, and a lot of it comes in use today. I also work with a lot of chefs who are graduates of various culinary programs. They come into the workplace with an added advantage, and knowledge of food science and excellent technique. That being said, they also come out with a seriously bad attitude, believing that they are the next Bobby Flay or Mario Batali. I know most of my chefs are choosing raw talent and eagerness over degrees and attitude, when recruiting new employees.
ReplyDeleteYou can be a great chef if you start from the ground up, learning from a good teacher. There will be bumps along the way, but if you focus, and study, and show keen interest, the sky is the limit. The most important quality in a good chef is an open mind.
Lastly, I recommend starting from the ground up, because of the prohibitive cost of culinary education today. Most graduates I know end up with tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and can only secure a job paying pittance. It's unfair. I'd suggest to any interested candidate, that they start working as an apprentice in a kitchen, and see the life of a chef is really for you. If you feel, after a year or so, if this is truly your vocation, and if you can benefit from an education, then sink yourself into it. An education only opens a door to employment, it does not guarantee success.
Irfan Dama
13yrs ago I took a part time job as a dishwasher to help make ends meet. Driving an ambulance doesn't pay well either. Now my jacket says Exec Sous on it. If people ask me what I do, I tell them I'm a cook. Because that is the best and most important part of my job. Just cook wherever you can and whatever you can. Eat, live, breathe, and dream about food. I still do temp gigs for catering companies just so I can cook new stuff. Save the money now and buy decent knives. You can always go later. And who knows, whoever you work for might help pay for it!
ReplyDeletematthew morrison
This is a catch 22. There are many people in culinary school that have no soul or passion for cooking. They just look at it like a "job". There are many who have soul and passion without school but had a great chef mentor them. The problem is that in the industry, culinary school is touted as a feather in the cap and thrown around like a James Beard Award,no matter what school. I went to school at an older age ONLY to get the degree as I knew more than everybody in there and had more soul and passion than many of the chef's teaching. You see it all the time, people on Chopped or folks talking about their background, they talk about being brought up through the ranks as the wrong side of the racks and a huge embarrassment or even a chip on their shoulder. Why is that?
ReplyDeletelesley fay