Red Seal in Ontario

Hello

I have been in the industry for over 13 yrs and working in many restaurant's throughout my career, unfortantly when I get chefs from my previous job's to sign off on the areas- sections I have worked they have moved on & can't get the work signed off. Have the 6000 hours required by the ministry, until I get all sections signed off I'm sitting in stage 1.

I live in Niagara; here is the contact info for the st. Catharines office to follow; and they can direct you to your city office

Ministry Of Training, Colleges and universitys

#301 St. Paul St. 9th FloorSt. Catharines, Ontario L2R- 7R4

telephone; (905) 704-2991

Exam is $100 and needs to be written in the office indicated, you will have 4 hrs, of multiple choice questions. If you want a breakdown of the examination plan let me know.

Jacob

I would love a break down of the examination, if you wouldn't mind.

I'm planning on booking my test for this coming Wednesday. I've already been approved to challenge it so all I need to do now is pass the exam

I hear so much chatter about how the test has weird questions on it and that it is actually pretty difficult. I admit I did pretty average in my Food Theory class at George Brown (got a 75/100). It was by far my worst subject so I'm a little intimidated that I'll fail the first go.

Any advice? I've been reading Gisslin Sixth Edition but I've heard it's not all that extensive in pertaining to the actual test.

i wrote my exam in calgary 14 years ago.  know your math.  from what i remember there was a good amount of questions,  food costing, opening closing inventory.  know your temperatures for meat.  these are the given questions.  then they will  have many about the classical dishes.  i found this hard to study for because there are so many.  what do you study?  the "gisslin" is good.  "chefs compendium" .  the easiest is the math and the basic kitchen structure.  know this inside out and it will be the majority of the test you will know.  the sauces and classical dishes are all multiple choice i found my self looking at the answers and saying "well that does not sound right",  and choosing the one that made most sense.   there are so many that my brain could not keep them all,  and when do you use them in a average canadian kitchen,   but they will be on the test.   i got 90% on the canadian red seal and 70% on the alberta provincial test.  i found the alberta one harder.

good luck and use common sence,  this will answer half the questions.

also i know that you could get sample tests.  we had one at S.A.I.T the cooking school i went to.  you might want to contact a cooking school in your area and see if they still have a samlpe test

S.a.i.t. and N.a.i.t. are in Alberta, and Alberta was was the first prov. to introduce a practical cooking testing component for the Red Seal.  B.C. introduced the cooking component in 2010, Don't know if Ontario  has done so yet.

The Red Seal is a Cook's designation, and is governed by the ITA.  Every Prov. has their say in how the test should be designed and what should be on it, this is why each Prov. differs so greatly.

There's an old saying that if you have to ask how much a Rolls Royce costs, you can't afford it.

If you have to ask what is on a red seal test, or how to prepare for one, odds are very high that you will fail.  Remember, "challenging" the test is the back-door method, the front door method is to complete an apprenticeship and go through the required schooling components of that apprenticeship.

Wendy's and the Red seal have quite a hsitory, and a very bad one at that.  Wendy's is the only chain that I know of that requires it's cooks to have a red seal in order to get the highest pay rate in the kitchen.  In the late 90's there was a newspaper ariticle where two Wendy's employees challenged the red seal, with all of their employment hours done at Wendy's--no other employer.  They passed.... 

Yes, I am aware of what the Red Seal is how to obtain it the 'proper' way.

No, I don't know everything. One of the things I learned from my best teachers was that no matter how much you know and now matter how long you've been doing it, you'll never know everything.

I don't really care what happened in the late 90s with the "Wendy's girls" who got their Red Seal. That was well over a decade ago. Things change.

You have pointed out that there are some ridiculous questions that have appeared on the exam (such as how to skin an eel). After reading things like this why wouldn't I ask this?

I would LOVE if the Ontario version of the Red Seal was a practical exam. Every cooking class I had I received nearly 100% and some of my chefs were very tough.

No... for Ontario, things haven't changed since the 90's, and there appears to be no desire to do so either..

The exam is a mulitple choice, questions change evey year, or even ever few months.

You can check out what B.C. wants on it's red seal as far as cooking tests.  There is a pastry portion as well, in which 1 bread item must be made, a large sessert for 6 ppl, and 6 indv. desserts are to be made.  Alberta is similiar.

Quetions are loosely based on the book "On cooking", but also from other material as well as practical knowledge.