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How did you get your job??

post #1 of 11
1/1/10 at 1:34pm
Thread Starter 
I am writing a movie script and one of the characters is a chef. As I have never been a chef I am unfamiliar with the processes of how chefs get hired... does someone just look at a resume or do you have to cook some samples for the owner, is it who you know?? So if you have a moment, I would love to hear from the chefs out there, how did you get your job? As many details as possible is grand!!! Thanks so much!!
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post #2 of 11
1/2/10 at 9:01am
I started as a pot-washer at 14 years old. After 6 months of hard work, I convinced the head chef to let me move up to a "kitchen bi*ch", and after 2 years of peeling and chopping vegetables, I kissed enough *** for someone to teach me something.

Its either that or culinary school...
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post #3 of 11
1/2/10 at 9:26am
My girl friend's father didn't approve of my Bohemian, hippy, grad-student bouncer ways and dared me to ask for a job.

BDL
What were we talking about?
 
http://www.cookfoodgood.com
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post #4 of 11
1/2/10 at 11:14am
just like any other job interview, look em in the eye and tell em that you can do the job. all the resume says is that you have experience and can write.
"In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. "
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post #5 of 11
1/5/10 at 10:43am
My most brutal experience was a 12 hour interview that had me make a multicourse mystery basket lunch for 12, a sit down interview with an entire kitchen staff that was 1 hour of Q/A and finally I finished with a shift on the line working the pass/expo.

My most recent in R&D/Product Development had me do a lunch for the CEO, CFO, VP of R&D, VP of Sales and the senior scientists, a sit down meeting with the upper management and a Q/A with the R&D team.
Taste: The sensation derived from food, as interpreted thru the tongue to brain sensory system.
Flavor: The overall impression combining taste, odor, mouthfeel and trigeminal perception.
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post #6 of 11
1/5/10 at 11:43am
I started out washing dishes in an Italian kitchen at 16. By 17 I was doing light prep, taking out the garbage, replenishing mise for the line, etc. On my 18th birthday, Chef handed me a set of whites and said, "You've got 15 minutes until service. Get dressed in the office." From there, I worked as his apprentice and moved up the line over the next few years to First Cook.
That place closed, and I moved on to Sous Chef at a country club. The Executive Sous Chef in my kitchen (three kitchens, one CDC over all, each kitchen having one Exec Sous, two Sous; AM and PM; and the line on down to Chef de Plunge.) retired and I took over his position. A reference from the club got me my first CDC position in another small Italian restaurant.

It was either that or drop thousands on culinary school and, normally, start on the line anyway.''
Dammi un coltello affilato e vi mostrerò l'arte più belle del mondo.
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post #7 of 11
1/23/10 at 6:52pm
i went to catering college.

a funny story about my last job i walked out of, i was working for Whitbread PLC as a Grill Chef, and the new manager to arrive after i started decided himself that i needed to learn how to do starters (cold side), i told him that whitbread train their own staff and that i was the grill chef and the only chef there that had been to catering college, no way was i gonna be demoted, he didnt seem to get the message so i walked out there and then
we're as good as our last meal.
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post #8 of 11
2/7/10 at 10:11am
Watch out for culinary schools that have to run late night adverts!
Holly
Portland Wedding Venues
http://www.portlandweddingvenues.info
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post #9 of 11
2/8/10 at 1:09pm
Started as a waitress, then both waitress and dish pig (not at the same time :rolleyes:). When someone new came along I got bumped up to prep, then the sandwich and salad station, then fryer, then grill, etc. I made a point to learn to do as much as anyone would teach me. Since the menu was static and the portion/procedure very clear it didn't take long to learn to do everything. Eventually on the slower shifts I cooked and called for our merry little band. Special events were fun, and it was a toss up whether I'd be serving or cooking.

Then I broke my leg.

I bought myself a place and now I am everything... dish pig, kitchen b*tch, exec 'chef', KM, owner, and marketing manager... lol And I'm all by myself :o I almost had me a kitchen b*tch but my mom decided she didn't want to work for me... ( she giggled at the title but balked at the job requirements *sigh*)
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post #10 of 11
2/8/10 at 1:30pm
My mother talked to the owner of a drive-in and sit down restaurant - a very popular place - and I got hired. I never was interviewed, just told when to show up.

I started being sandwich gooper. Quickly became french fry and chicken broaster guy. Then they started having me work day shift on weekends and I learned to butcher chickens and bread them for the evening crew. Got to chop veggies. Make sauces, make salads, etc.

Eventually, actually fairly quickly, I became Fry Cook. Master of the flat grill.

Did that for 3 years, and then graduated from high school and went to college.

Been cooking since I was 9, and actually talked the boss into trying my spaghetti and meatball recipe, and he liked it better than his own, and we made the switch! Heady stuff for a 16 year old.

BTW: You're writing a movie script. Have you done stuff we'd recognize? Maybe you're even famous? Inquiring minds wanna know!

doc
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post #11 of 11
2/8/10 at 1:53pm
I live in a small area.
What you do today can come back to you tomorrow, both good and bad.
I got my first job at this place bacuase years ago. the original Executive Chef took a job at a place where I was on the last week of my 2 week notice.
I impressed him enough in that week that he hired me as a Sous when this place opened. I don't beleive in slacking just because you're short.

I got the promotions here to Executive Sous and then Executive Chef because I must still be doing things right.
Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
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