[edwrdspatchhnds]

Hi, I'm a fourty year old grill cook with 10plus years experience. I've worked everything from fast food, mom and pop owned family restaurants, bar and grills, to cafeteria and buffets. I've worked really hard over the years at two jobs sometimes three to support my loving nurse perusing wife and two boys over the years and never have made much money just enough to get by paycheck to paycheck. Currently I work under a chef at my day job as a grill cook at a cafeteria and by night I work the show grill at a buffet in my home town. My day job will pay for some of my culinary education and I can't wait to get started because I really want to be a chef by the time I'm fifty or possibly run my own restaurant. My question is what should I study now to get me prepared for school and what do I need to focus on to get good grades in my culinary courses?

 

[chefboyog]

Call the school you plan on going to.

There are a few good threads in this site about books:
http://www.cheftalk.com/newsearch?search=School+books

The CIA uses Professional Chef I used On Cooking at my college.

There are four textbooks I am currently working on for a CCC designation.

Of course if you are planning on opening a high end Molecular Cuisine Gastrosomethingirother you may just want to study some books on that topic. Maybe your into BBQ. Who knows theres a lot of books out there.

 

[wanniesue1982]

A good book to reference for culinary studies is [product="27582"]On Cooking Update 5th Edition [/product] by Sarah R. Labensky, Alan M. Hause, and Priscilla A. Martel.

 

[chezj023]

No matter what book, study the basics. And definitely culinary math.

 

[Iceman]

OK ... So I'm not sayin' ... I'm just sayin'. My "regular day-job" is being an elementary/high-school teacher, for the last 28 years. My simple suggestion would be to not as us ... ask your teachers. Whatever any of us tells you is all good fine wonderful and all, but we are not giving you any grades. Ask the people grading you what they want.

You get a poor grade:
"But this guy, that guy and some other guy told me to do this, that and something else. I don't understand why I got such a poor grade."
Instructor's answer:
"Go take classes from this guy, that guy and some other guy ... and get good grades from them. If you want good grades from ME ... do what I expect instead."

Any good instructor will let you know what you should do for them. That is what you want to follow. It's so very very unfortunate when I have to deal with upset students, and worse yet, their parents. "But Our child has always gotten such good grades from other teachers." My simple answer always shocks and/or gets them furious. "Well then ... I guess your child has either changed ... or their other teachers sucked."

 

[nicko]

@EdwrdSpatchHnds don't focus on grades seriously. When I went to [product="26789"]Culinary Institute Of America Hyde Park [/product] they told us right in the beginning grades don't matter. Actually what they told us they got the most calls about at the school from employers hiring students were:

• How many times did this person skip class?
• How often were they late?

Employers won't care about grades they are on the lookout for dedicated, hard working, reliable employees.

That being said if you care about grades the only class that truly matters in my opinion is culinary math as @Chezj023 pointed out. So many culinary students make their experience about the cooking and being the next big deal that the don't focus on how to be profitable and run a business. The second most important class is the foundation classes such as stocks and sauces.
[product="27569"]Math For The Professional Kitchen Culinary Institute Of America [/product][product="24784"]Culinary Calculations Simplified Math For Culinary Professionals [/product]
Also, if you would be willing to post a review of your culinary school it really helps cheftalk out. We are trying to build a large database of culinary schools so people can research where they may want to attend school. When you get to school you can post your review here: http://www.cheftalk.com/products/category/culinary-schools

Thanks!