Biggest Problem Facing Young Chefs

[Pete]

All you young "chefs" need to get over yourselves. I too consider myself to be a young chef. I am 29 and am the PM Sous at a great restaurant in downtown Chicago that has received lots of great reviews both nationaly and locally. I have been in and out of this business since I was 8 and have been pursuing this career professionally for the better part of 10 yrs. One of the greatest lessons I have learned is humility. A lesson I think a few of you need to learn. I've worked under a number of very good chefs and could probably run my own place by now, but I feel I still have lots to learn before I am ready to open up and run a 3 star restaurant. Sorry to ruin your dreams, but cheffing is about much more than cooking. It's about running a successful kitchen and business. It's knowing 1001 things that have nothing to do with cooking, on top of being able to create foods that people will come back for time and again. No school can teach you all these things. It takes years of observing and learning to get it down right. It is also about proving to people that you are ready to take over a business that they have sunk a lot of money into. I know some young chefs who have succeded in doing this, but I know many more who have jumped before they are truly ready and have fallen flat on the faces.
You talk about respect, but you have to show respect to earn respect and the if your attitudes, that you show here, spill over into your work life its no wonder you recieve no respect from your superiors. Over the years I have found that it is the cook (or chef) who quietly goes about his job perfectly gets a lot more praise, responsibility, and offers than one who constantly tells everyone how great he/she is.

[This message has been edited by Pete (edited October 19, 1999).]

[m brown]

Young chefs biggest problem is to wake up and smell the coffee.Don't whine about the kudos and glamour you feel you need, if you deserve it, it will come. Put your head down, shut your mouth and learn.If you think cheffen is cooken read on.......
To be a chef you must be 501 things:
1 Babysitter
2 Drill Sgnt.
3 Maid
4 Artist
5 Plumber
6 Butcher
7 Gardener
8 Accountant
9 Master of scheduals
10 Librarian
11 Pshyco analyst
12 Shop keeper
13 Dishwasher
14 Soda Jerk
15 Phone answering machine
16 Humanitarian
17 Nurse/Doctor
18 Over the age of 30 to have aquired finess on all levels of the above.
19 Teacher
20 Photographer
21-500 fill in as you go along.

501 Oh yeah, mastering the art of food is a good thing too.

If you want to edit my spelling or grammer, do so on your own time.
Sorry this isn't sweetness and light but art isn't all sweetness and light.

[This message has been edited by m brown (edited October 19, 1999).]

This is mostly to "m brown" and "pete". You are both correct. I didn't want anyone to get hot about my answer. . . But in my experience thats whats happened to me. I have kept my head down and worked quietly and diligenty and guess what that just got me FIRED. The chef I was working for wanted someone who thought they knew it all and wouldn't be afraid to tell the world that. His Sous chef is just like that. A Graduate from J&W the kid knows absolutly NADA about cooking, let alone M brown's other stuff. I know I don't know alot about this industry I know that I wouldn't even want to open up a Mickey D's right now. I am trying to learn everything there is to know. I am looking for the right job with the right chef who is willing to teach me that. Yes you are both right in sying that we need to relax a bit and take that chip of our shoulder. We need to be humble and love what we are doing before we can be the best.

Just remember that an amateur built the Ark. But a professional built the Titanic.

[This message has been edited by ChefTiss (edited October 20, 1999).]

[Pete]

ChefTiss then you have to ask yourself, "Is this a place that I want to work?" You got fired because you did your job, did it well, and wasnt a showoff about it? If this is truly the case then you are better off out of that place. Most professional kitchens I know would die for cooks like that.

[m brown]

extra reply, oops.

[This message has been edited by m brown (edited October 21, 1999).]

[m brown]

chefTiss
Don't freak out and don't blame the last place you worked, look for a place better suited to your talents. Ask yourself "What did they do right", hold that and bring it to your next job. (remember what they did wrong and don't do that.)
I have been fired by idiots and gods alike. The best part is I have taken a part of each establishment as I went along.
The point of working under a chef is to take, assimilate and move on when it's time. Don't jump in try to change things and takeover cause nothing is worse than someone trying to fix something that's not broken.
*there is more than one way to skin a cat.*

My last post was to no one in particular, just needed to vent and I guess stir things up for a passionate discussion.

ChefTiss and Pete...AMEN! You are both absoloutly right! I truly belive in lucky breaks, and that is what some young chef's get. I personally worked my butt off to get where I am at...and it didnt take bragging and a large head to get there. You know...anybody can talk thier way into a position...but you know the old saying, the proof is in the pudding. A chef's job is to manage. It is to make food cost, and labor cost, and make sure production is the utmost in quality. That is what chef's are paid to do. I am young...26. But I consider myself very knowlegeable because of the time I put in to learn all aspects of the hospitality industry. School, front of house, back of house, dishes, and banquets, banquets, banquets.Done it all, and THAT is what it takes to be successful...not a fancy degree from an overrated culinary school..and "poof" you are a chef. BULL! GOOD young chefs do not get the respect they deserve because of the over abundance of hot shots that graduate culinary school and fail.

(sorry...got a little excited there.)

WOW! I have been gone for a couple months and this site is getting interesting. This subject is so funny to me. Sounds like a young boy pissing contest. The real questions are " how do you define on top? " I have been on top of the Chef game many times in many different places. How do you define success? Is it money? This respect you are all talking about is hog wash. Respect is what you give and receive from yourself. Your ego wants the entire restaurant to call you Chef,applaud & tell you how great your food is. And media you know newspaper articles, reviews that kind of thing feeds your ego not your respect. Want some advice? Use this business as a springboard to improve your life. Don't kid yourself that there is a big phat paycheck at the end of all those late nights and working holidays. Use your talents to live a lifstyle of great food appreciation, share that with as many people as you can in a 40 hour week. Then do something else you love! The quality you bring to your life is the quality you will give to your craft.

How about this? SCREW the chef title. Lets just cook, Cook with the love of God so that we may feed the hearts of humankind. It ain't rocket science. Titles,titles, titles..ie.,yada,yada,yada!

Ermmmmm, I personally feel that titles r still essential in the industry, to the authoriztion...
may be a shorter ranks wil solve this prob??



[This message has been edited by Nicko (edited February 04, 2000).]

The biggest problem facing "young chefs" today is the media and the way it has glorified this profession. Not only is it NOT "rocket science", it's not rock and roll either. Thanks to the TVFood Network(and others mediums like them),too many aspiring young chefs think that they just need to go to culinary school, get a job working for Emeril, and the next thing you know, Ol' Jed's a millionaire. This may seem like an exaggeration on my part but I have MET people like this. Whether or not we're "chefs" (young or not so young...I'm 32 and just started culinary school after 14 years straight in front and BOH), we are all COOKS. And if your love of food and all it's glory is not the #1 reason you are in this business, then it's time to think about a career change.

Well said, very well said.

true very true it is the love for the food. But i also feel that it is a certain person that makes a chef. this is a career that you can not take any old joe or jane and turn them into a chef it is only a special person who can do it. to be blunt all of us chefs must be idiots to put up wiht what we need to just to get by a day in the kitchen. but **** it i love it and i don't have any other idea of what i would want to do wiht my life. give me a good wine after work to relax and i will be there tommorrow to do the same.

Whoa!There is altogether too much testasterone flowing in this space,<and if i spelled that wrong its because i don`t have any> The biggest problems facing young cooks today are 1.not having enough honest,sincere and caring mentors in everyday life situations to look up to and learn from. 2.The low rate the industry pays graduates who have a degree but must start at the bottom in the real world we assume is only our own. 3.The unrealistic expectations of what is out there when they do graduate. 4.That it takes too **** long to get anywhere in this profession unless you have a rich uncle or alot of connections. 5.That there are too many butthead chefs out there who don`t deserve to be where they are,haven`t put their time in,take advantage of the good employee or their sous chef who should really have their job,etc,etc,etc... 6.That cuisine can`t make up its mind in this country and just get back to basics.Haven`t we all heard the saying,"keep it simple stupid!"?? I swear,Escoffier would be rolling over in his grave if he could see how food has been bastardised in the past 10 years. 7.and finally,the biggest challenge facing young wannabechefs is that they need to realize that there is a life outside of cooking and if they get too wrapped up in this all consuming career,they will get burnt out and quit when all they wanted to do is cook because they love it.There are many avenues to this career:take the time to explore,travel to see how food is really prepared in italy and you will know what is in your heart!

[ChefRon]

Hey, I think some of you guys are taking yourselves way too seriously! The biggest problem facing young chefs? Developing a sense of humor. I mean, ain't nobody getting out of this (life) alive you know!

King Solomon said something in Ecclesiastes (that's in the B-I-B-L-E) I shall never forget: "The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all."

No matter how hard you work and study, no matter how many sacrifices you make, no matter how earnestly you prepare, your competitior just might be luckier than you. The object here is not to take ourselves so seriously we end up with ulcers.

-Peace :0)