this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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Cook.
Kitchen staff, for the most part, work long hours in chronically understaffed kitchens for very little pay. You get a break when things slow down and chances are you're going to be eating, hitting the bathroom, and trying to get a little sit time in a milk crate out back in that short little window (hint, pick two of those, the third might not happen).
You get burned, cut, over heated, covered in filth, and breathe in noxious crap all day from stoves, fryers, industrial cleaning chemicals, and other things.
You, probably, and a lot of your coworkers are short tempered, sore, tired, and possibly on drugs or alcohol. You are surrounded by ideal weapons for hurting others and you will be in or see a fight every so often.
Wait staff pretend to like you but really they work shorter shifts, go home relatively unscathed, and make a fortune in tips. So you also dislike and resent them. You don't want to but see above.
You work when everyone else is off so you end up hanging out with people in similar situations who aren't always the best people for things like networking into a better job. They really like partying though, and who needs a future.
Then you get a little older. Maybe you are running a kitchen and finally don't need to have roommates to afford the horrible apartment but you're only there about seven hours in a row at any given time. You met someone through friends but they don't see a future because you are always working.
Eventually, health issues force you to find other work and you claw your way to normalcy 15 years behind everyone else in retirement saving, salary growth, and so on.
Well fuck man I'm a senior in highschool and I was debating between culinary school and IT/engineering or something the like. Just made my choice a hell of a lot easier.
Oh shit. My daughter just started culinary school. Is there a fulfilling path forward for her?
Food is art and just like art the people that produce them often run on razor thin margins. Aside from being a celebrity or an extremely niche job like being a private chef I am not sure if there is a lot of culinary work that pays very well.
It's certainly an excellent hobby and life skill (you'll never be hungry again) but you can very easily learn that from home by watching other famous chefs.
Yeah, Iβve put a bug in her ear about some of the niche job paths. Private chef, test kitchens, etc. would love to see her win the lottery with something lush but know that is not to be expected. Thanks for your response!
I haven't worked in the industry since the late 90s so maybe it's better now?
There are positives. I learned that stress is transitory and I don't have to give in to it. Staying calm and working the system is how you survive getting slammed (overwhelmed by orders). I was in charge of a kitchen as sous chef in my early twenties, hiring people, ordering the supplies and ingredients, preparing for banquets and events. This was a massive confidence builder. I learned how to work with people I literally could not stand, and got to work with people I would back up in any situation.
Plus your going to be a good cook for the rest of your life and that's a big plus. You might not want to cook when you are not at work but you can and that's great for family entertaining and your own personal enjoyment later in life.
I also traveled to places I never would have been able to go to if I wasn't working there. I lucked out and worked in high end places, including one featured in the European Vogue Cooking magazine (meant something back then). I also worked in some dives.
I learned so much about people and myself. But you can do that a lot of other ways that pay better!
One last thing. With the exception of one or two really tough manual labor tasks I've done, no job has seemed hard after my time as a cook.
This is encouraging. Thing is, sheβs on the spectrum. I could see that working in her favor or becoming something unmanageable. So far she is the star pupil according to chef and if she could just complete a two year program and feel good about that accomplishment, my heart would be swole.
Even if she walked away from it in a few years, if she took away half of the positives you did I would consider it a win.
Thanks, dude!
No worries, there other ways to work in food services. Breakfast cooking was a favorite of mine because I was mostly alone until 9 or 10 am in different hotels (you start at 5). Just you and the bacon. When breakfast is over it help with lunch and then you're done.
Pastry and bakery shops are also usually much more professional environments where attention to detail and consistency are very important. I have worked in a few of these (once full time, mostly just helping out here and there as needed in hotels) and it's nothing like the main kitchen.
You can also work in banquet venues where there's less yelling and stress compared to a la carte cooking.
One thing I really liked is if you worked hard, helped others when they needed it, and did your share of the cleaning, and showed up days after day you were part of the crew. I worked with people that could barely read, lapsed philosophers, guy training to be a pilot, washed up old guys who didn't know anything else, and we had each other's backs. It was good a lot of the time.
Make her dethrone Rachel Ray and then do a show about cooking her remains.
She would do that. Sheβs twisted.
If she has good qualifications, she could cook in China in a city like Shanghai if she doesn't want to get burnt out. They would give good working terms and conditions, they just want a foreign cook on the team. Moreover foreign cooks are very common in big hotels and can usually run the kitchen as the Chinese staff can still be pretty mediocre at Western dishes.
Extremely interesting. Sheβs really into Asian food (Vietnamese and Filipino) but has a natural talent for Tex Mex and soul-ish food. Thanks for the response!
I'd say so. My wife has a degree in culinary. She's used it to work her way up the hospitality industry and is now a regional GM over a few hotels in our area.
I just left the restaurant industry after 10 years (mostly as a cook). This is too accurate, unfortunately π
Uhhhhh did you just read my autobiography? Graduated with a degree in culinary arts after high school whilst working in kitchens throughout the course of school. Worked my way up to district management in a metropolitan area. 15 years in I had zero life outside of work and nothing to show for my work other than crippling depression and addictions. Moved back home to start over. Got a 9-5 municipal job and I'm back in school working towards a doctorate in a completely different field. Never been happier in my adult life than the past 4 years that I've been out of the service industry. Fuck restaurants. It's even ruined my ability to enjoy eating out. Doesn't help that it costs a fortune now and 20% tips aren't enough anymore. Also fuck the restaurant owners that take advantage of their staff.
I can enjoy a good restaurant but get really upset at crappy ones. I mean the kind of crappy you can detect with this kind of background. Like terrible menu choices that you know mean tons of frozen product or line cooks that have so many dishes to remember that they just wing it on half of them.
And I'll never spend my own money to have someone else cook me a steak. :)