Chef 101: How to Get a High-Paying Job in the Kitchen

Forget culinary school. Get a restaurant gig first, say veterans

August 6, 2008 RSS Feed Print

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Dory Ford's chef de cuisine, Esteban "E. J." Jimenez, recalls that about six years ago, he badgered Ford to become his mentor after being a member of Ford's team during a chef's collaborative at Disney Animation Studios.

Ford's team lost the competition that day, but in the process, Ford taught Jimenez to make a proper "pate sucree," or pastry crust—it took the young cook five tries to get it right.

Jimenez worked for years in various kitchens before coming under Ford's tutelage, and attended the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena while simultaneously working for Ford at the Huntington Beach Hotel. Like his mentor, he recommends that anyone thinking about going into cooking work in a kitchen first.

"Wash dishes and work your way up to prep cook. If you still have the desire, get on the sauté line. If you still have passion after that, then consider going to school," Jimenez says. "You really can get beat up on the sauté line, and if you're working that line and you can't picture yourself doing anything else, that's when it lies true."

Tags:: culinary school,; continuing education,; careers

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To be a chef is to love cooking if any one jumps In to the food business for money will be very disappointed., in short period of time but bottom line what ever make happy and if you can make a living out of it go for with out regrets.

Chef alberto of TX 9:18PM March 21, 2013

These people are looking in the wrong places to be a cook or chef! In my home state of Alaska, you can easily make $50 to $60K a year working as a cook or baker, but it has to be one of those remote camps, usually on the North Slope. They make anywhere from $13 to $20 an hour, depending on the employer, but most of the $ are from overtime. You usually work 3 weeks straight, then home for 3 weeks. If you want to make even more than that, work on tugboats or ships for weeks on end, providing you have Merchant Mariner Credentials, at $60 to $70K per year or at the radar sites doing more than just cooking for even more money and cooking for only half a dozen folks. The executive chefs at Anchorage's fine restaurants and ski resorts are probably making in the 60's per year and the jobs are much more mentally stressful. And finally, there are government jobs as cooks ranging from WG-5 to WG-8 that pay from $40 to $65K per year that are pretty laid back. And some permit overtime. But they're also hard to come by, thanks to Obama.
I think culinary school is a waste of time and money. You can work your way up to chef with many companies, such as Aramark, but most of them don't give a damn about their employees and work them half to death. The chefs you see on TV are making money from the shows, not working at the restaurant.
Institutional cooking is the way to go. The customers at a fine restaurants don't care who's preparing their food, but you work where the food served is on a steam table line, many people show some gratitude toward you
My old boss on the North Slope was a Swiss gentleman that had a fine restaurant in Washington and pastry shop, but there was no money in it and he worked on the North Slope for years at twice the money.
Unless you're lucky or work really hard and have some networking, you won't get wealthy in this business, but can make a comfortable living. And you must really have an art and passion for cooking, plus know all the science for baking to succeed.
As a final note, I spent 22 years in the Air Force and part of it cooking, where I got most of my training. Cracks me up how service members complain about being underpaid.

Jon of AK 6:37PM November 18, 2012

You are right when a student finishes most Culinary schools they are qualified to be a prep cook or a line cook only . My students wanted to learn the glory of sauteed and seeing the wine on fire, decoration of a beautiful cake first. They thought that was the School part. So I would sit them all down before We started the first class and asked them if you were to build a house what is one of the most important things ? Most said, a Plan and a good foundation . I asked what is the most important thing about decorating a cake ? Taste of the cake and the texture of it . That is what you will receive at great Culinary School a good solid foundation to build upon. You have to learn measurements, cooking terminology, how to sauteed, Blanche,fry,broiled,grill correctly, Stock is the foundation of cooking ! If thee stock is not great everything you put it in will not be that great. If the stock is delicious everything will be delicious you put it into.
A Doctor that is a surgeon might have 10 operations a week. But Great Chef operates on thousands from the inside out. What you eat and drink just like the correct gas in a race car determines the flow of the car. So think culinary student the cake can look beautiful on the outside, but it is what is inside that really counts. It's all about the food!
I created a Culinary School from scratch and ran it for 11 years. Been cooking for 45 years and I Ann still learning . When you stop learning in life in general you start to die. We as Chef's I believe have the highest calling on earth. Humans live and die from the food and drink We consume .

Executive Chef Richard of GA 2:11PM November 02, 2011