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Originally Posted by ChefSean  Here, then, is the critical question... As a professional cook, what is your home life like?
I know that I will be earning bupkis to start. I know the kitchen is hard work. I know the hours can suck. I know that 15 years in the computer field means exactly zero in the kitchen and I will be starting out as a prep cook. But I also know that 15 years + 4 military means I can work my bollocks off and not complain if chef squishes a plate of food into my chest if I screw it up. For my wife, she is prepared for the change in lifestyle that my salary change would require and she has expressed her concerns over the change.
But are cooks really resigned to have to work 100+ hours, with no benefits and little pay, divorce looming over the horizon, living in a 400 sq ft studio with wife and child, never having a vacation or even a day off, constantly moving from job to job every six months to a year, no friends beyond fellow cooks? What about my wife, do cooks' wives "hang out"?
Is the picture really that grim? Many things I've read preach that a cook's life sucks and the only really happy cooks/chefs (with few exceptions) are those plastered on the Food Network. When does the life of a professional cook change and "having a life" become possible. As cooks, do we willingly give up that world?
I ask with all sincerity and respect since everyone in the profession who is married can help me with a really difficult issue. I don't want to destroy my family just to cook. I can be a slave at my desk and shut the heck up about it before I'd risk losing my wife.
Any advice would be welcome especially that from a married professional cook or chef.
Warmest regards! |
First of all, you will be earning bupkis, but not just to start...for a few years. It's not that the hours can suck, the hours DO suck. You can work lunch shift in most places and have weekends off and morning hours, but you get more experience with a wider array of things at night. The amount of hours depends on the place. For some...when it's time to go home, the chef will tell you that you are home. For others, they are strict on only working 8 hours a day. It just depends. Most places do offer vacation time after a year, and a lot of places do offer medical coverage, but it isn't worth the price for what you get in my opinion. The people that move around a lot from what I've observed are one of four things; they need to constantly be learning (as soon as I have stopped learning for a while I move on), the place is so horrible compared to what they're used to that they can't stand it anymore, they are a terrible cook and/or worker and couldn't handle it, or they're searching a promotion. It all depends on you. I'm only 23 and just got married, yet I work the lunch shift at a 3 star (la times) place, but that is somewhat of a sacrifice to where I'd prefer to be in order to have a life and spend time with my wife. It won't always be like that but right now, my wife is the most important thing to me.
Hope that helps,
Chad