From Second Cook to Executive Chefby Kirk Bangstad Within the culinary industry, professional kitchens can be much like corporations. There is a definite hierarchy that exists between chefs, especially in large fine dining restaurants. Most fine dining restaurants have at least four chef levels, and many go far beyond that. The basic four levels include, from top to bottom, the executive chef, the sous chef, the line cook, and the assistant cook. These levels can multiply at the line cook level. The line cook in charge of meat, for example, may have his second cook take care of roasting the chicken, while he grills the beef. A second cook is another line cook who takes direction from the primary cook. Where a Chef Education Comes InAs you can see, working your way up the ladder as a chef can take some time. A second cook is far away from becoming an executive chef (especially working for $9 an hour on average) but he probably graduated from a reputable culinary school and has a grounded chef education. The main differences between a second cook and an executive chef are seniority and luck. Experience counts in the restaurant industry, and any good chef education doesn’t end after culinary school. Aspiring chefs generally need to spend time working under more experienced chefs to ultimately get a complete chef education. Some things, like developing a chef style, can’t be learned completely in culinary school. A good chef is like an encyclopedia of recipes, and needs more time than a few months in culinary school to build that repertoire. This means that if you ultimately want to make it to the top of the culinary ladder, your chef education may take quite a few years. But if you’re determined to make it to the top, it’s worth it. SourcesU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics About the AuthorKirk Bangstad is a singer living in Chicago, IL. Having received his B.A. in Government at Harvard, Kirk previously worked as a management consultant.
Posted on June 12, 2006 at 10:26 AM
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