ok...now for a different scenerio.....
divorced stay at home mom, hadn't worked out of the home in 15 years....moved 500 miles to a new town. Designed my own personal cheffing business. School hours, 4 days a week $50K+.....cooking in gorgeous kitchens with incredible ingredients.....there were down sides but NOTHING compared to the horror stories being told by others.
That was 10 years ago....there have been numerous changes since then.
I still personal chef for a priest on Mondays.....essentially start at 8:30-9 shop, cook, eat lunch, pick up and leave by about 1:30-2 sometimes earlier rarely later. I make decent money but biggest thing is the health and dental insurence.
Catering.....I like it alot. Some weeks are busy, some slow. I get to play with designing menus to fit events, sites, guests.....that is an absolute turnon....schlepping shtuff not so fun, but apart of the gig.
Stage Directing...fun, help other chefs work through the logistics.....
I've got alot of friends in the business, those that own their own places usually have longer hours. Some have built up to having multiple places and are not in the kitchen anymore but doing most of the
PR/marketing. The majority are enjoying what they are doing....a couple of the top tier chefs are no longer in restaurants but are traveling the world (literally) and booking team building through cooking events with various businesses....Funny that two would be doing that......
Consultants.....many people want a restaurant and have no (READ NO) idea what is involved.....so they call a restaurant consultant, Great money.....usually they are hired a couple weeks prior to opening when the owners find out how deep they are..........
Cooking Schools, again a fun gig to teach or work with teachers.
I hope you pull up some of the posts from the archives that deal with possiblities in the food world...you don't have to be slave labor in a gulag basement **** hole kitchen, with no family, screwed up friends and essentially no tan lines cus you've not seen the sun in years.