Janet Baraclough wrote:
>
> The message >
> from Serene Vannoy > contains these words:
>
> > On 07/04/2010 11:34 AM, Peter wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I am not sure if this is the appropriate newsgroup to which I should
> > > post, so please excuse me if it is not.
> > >
> > > My question is simply whether one has to go to "cooking school" to
> > > become a cook in a restaurant. I ask this question because I am
> > > considering making a career change. I am a middle age mathematician
> > > and I have the opportunity to cook at a small establishment a friend
> > > of mine is opening. I am a good cook, very passionate about food, and
> > > love to cook. He knows it, and is willing to put me on. Done the road
> > > though, I would like to perhaps move on and I am wondering if anyone
> > > will hire me without a proper degree? I don't have any pretensions of
> > > trying to become a great chef or of being at a fancy French
> > > restaurant: I mostly like to cook simple food well using fresh
> > > ingredients.
>
> > Just do a great job cooking, and take some classes if you have the
> > desire. Classes might help you become more proficient at the basics,
> > etc., but lots of chefs became successful without cooking school.
>
> True, but they usually did it by starting at the bottom and working
> their way up. Few start at the top.
>
> There is a gigantic difference, between being able to cook well on
> the domestic front for people you know, and being able to organise and
> manage a commercial kitchen team
> which supplies dozens of dishes to order, simultaneously. ( devise
> menus, organise suppliers, order and store the ingredients, balance the
> books, *and* manage a complex team of workers
> in a high pressure environment while keeping ahead of commercial food
> hygiene legislation). Cooking, is only a small part of a chef's
> responsibility.
>
>
> Janet

Some of those responsibilites can be taken over by the restaurant
manager as such. In a large establishment, the chef wouldn't necessarily
be the accountant or even order the basic supplies. Not every chef has
time to go round the farmer's markets every day and do all the shopping



>