On Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:41:09 -0600, Arri London >
wrote:

>
>
>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

A restaurant manager's responsibility is limited to the front, they
have nothing to do with the kitchen. A head chef is more involved
with managing the kitchen than in actual cooking... it's more
important for a chef to have accountancy/human resource skills than
cooking skills.