[panini]

Disclaimer: I'm 100% amateur with no experience.

That said: chef != restauranteur. Knowing how to cook is difficult, and managing a business is even more, and these two roles are not related. I believe very few people in the world can be a very good chef AND a very good restauranteur based on talent alone and - sorry to say - 8 years of kitchen experience only.

So if you wanna run your own restaurant, while you might be already qualified to cook, in your shoes I would invest in some restaurant management course. Or consider an experienced partner to focus on business while you focus on kitchen.

Good luck!

Well Steak is almost on the right track. If you go to culinary school and you plan to own something one day, you really need to back up the culinary with a business minor or major. Quite a few chef/owners don't make it because they don't have the business skills. I almost disagree that there would be a need for management school. Management can be learned in your working environment. You can't learn bookkeeping and such while on the job. At the minimum, take some accounting courses and get familiar with business programs. Take some Quickbooks courses. At least you'll be able to generate reports and handle payroll and taxes. So many people keep putting it off. I promise you, if you do acquire a business, once you are cranking there is never time to go back and learn. Steak, never mention the most unfavorable word in business again. (partner)