Culinary Careers
Bakery and Pastry
A career as a Bakery and Pastry usually starts with specialized Baking and Pastry training in culinary school. Most successful Bakery and Pastrys then pursue an apprenticeship, or a culinary school internship. Students pursue both hands-on and classroom activities in gaining the skills and knowledge they need. Bakery and Pastrys may work as part of a team in a restaurant or hotel, making bread and cakes, and sometimes dessert items. As a part of the kitchen team they can share in the creative process that produces new items for the menu, and even new kinds of cuisine. Bakery and Pastrys may work for a large institution, producing items for a number of outlets in one organisation. They may work independently, producing bread and related items for retail sale, or as a service for other culinary establishments.
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Chef de Cuisine
Cuisine is defined as a style or method of cooking, especially of a country or establishment. A chef de cuisine will specialize in one particular style of cookery, for instance Japanese or Italian cooking, and will be responsible making suitable dishes and menus, and ensuring that the quality and availability of ingredients contributes to the reputation of the cuisine. This kind of specialization requires in-depth knowledge of the history and culture behind a cuisine, and its classic ingredients. A good chef de cuisine will have studied the cuisine in culinary school, and have taken special courses and even studied in the relevant countries to be sure that they have the knowledge to reproduce traditional dishes. The best chefs de cuisine are capable of creating new dishes that are nonetheless completely authentic to the style of cooking.
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Chef de Partie
A Chef de Partie is responsible for a specific area of the kitchen, such as saucer (sauces), garde-manger (chilled foods such as appetizers and cold buffet items), or rotisserie (meats and grilled items). This division of the kitchen into specialty areas was developed by the legendary French chef Escoffier, who invented the brigade system of kitchen organization, thereby increasing the efficiency of the kitchen and the skills of the individual chef.
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Culinary Researcher
Culinary research is primarily concerned with the research and development of new recipes and testing new ingredients and combinations of ingredients. It is sometimes combined with food science research to examine the action of one ingredient on another. Culinary researchers have to be talented cooks, able to devise and follow recipes exactly, with good powers of observation. Culinary researchers have to make detailed records of all the actions and reactions of their research, be able to work out variations if the end results require it. Some research involves consumer testing. Developing consumer tests requires a sense for psychology, and the willingness to record consumer preferences, reactions to taste, taste combinations, color, presentation, smell and other factors that affect the reception and consumption of food and new food products and recipes.
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Executive Chef
As Executive Chef of a restaurant or hotel kitchen, you are responsible for all food served by the kitchen, and for managing the kitchen in such a way as to produce good food, well presented, in a timely fashion and within budget. This involves not just culinary knowledge and skills, but also considerable management ability, including motivating and inspiring personnel, maintaining quality control, managing budgets and forecasts, and becoming a master of procurement. The best start is to get a good culinary education that includes restaurant or hospitality management courses. If you are also creative and inventive, with a head for business and the ability to inspire a staff, you can go to the top of your profession.
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Gourmet Chef
A gourmet chef is a chef who produces food suitable for a gourmet – defined as a connoisseur of good food, having a discerning palate. Usually gourmet chefs work in restaurants of good repute, and in turn, this restaurant's reputation is dependent on the continuing excellence of the chef. However, gourmet chefs can be met in other situations, including writing recipe books, starring on television programs and giving lessons. Many gourmet chefs have specialist training and a culinary school diploma or degree. They may focus on any cuisine, and not just French or Continental. Gourmet cooking is dependent on well-developed culinary skills, expert knowledge of ingredients, good kitchen management and good kitchen help – all learned in culinary school. Most modern gourmet chefs start with a good education as the foundation of their career.
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Grill Cook
As a grill cook you will be responsible for all the dishes in the kitchen that require grilling, from steaks, chops and fish fillets to breakfast items. As a grill cook, you are part of the kitchen team under the supervision of the head or executive chef, and your expertise will contribute to the reputation of the restaurant or hotel you work for. Great grill cooks are fast, deft and accurate, and able to focus in a chaotic environment. Most orders are ‘called' to you, and you have to keep them moving, without losing your place and causing a train wreck of delayed meals. The entire kitchen's production can come to a halt if you lose the flow of the meats on the grill. During a dinner rush this is not easy, with 30 items on the grill, each in a slightly different temperature zone.
In order to enter a career in the culinary industry, you need to acquire the skills and knowledge to be able to be innovative in your approach to food preparation and cooking. Courses offered by culinary schools enable you to learn these skills, and to acquire a background of business administration which will help in the management issues of a kitchen.
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Hospital Cook
Cooking in a hospital environment presents one of the most challenging situations in the culinary industry. Hospital kitchens are required to produce food for staff, patients, and visitors. Staff have to have nutritious, well balanced, interesting and reasonably priced food, usually served in a cafeteria environment. Patients need nutritious food and palatable food, served hot at their bedside, with attention to special dietary needs. Keeping meals inviting yet compliant with dietary restrictions can be a challenge. A successful hospital cook is trained in the culinary arts, and a professional diploma or culinary degree is a must. It is beneficial to have additional training in nutrition and dietetics. Culinary schools present courses that will give you the educational background you need, as well as hands-on skills in food preparation and kitchen management.
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Line Cook
Line cooks are the heroes of the kitchen. The world knows a lot about celebrity chefs, but the fact is that the millions of restaurant meals served in fine dining establishments all over America are prepared primarily by line cooks, not the chef whose name is on the door. A line cook is part of the kitchen team, working for the head chef, or sous chef in a larger kitchen, and responsible for preparing dishes to the kitchen recipes. In some kitchens, line cooks have special duties as to the type of food they are responsible for, and in other kitchens they are members of the team, and are expected to be able to take the next job that needs doing, whatever cooking skills and processes are required. A line cook needs good all-round culinary skills, and has to be able to handle whatever task is handed to them. For this they need good practical skills training, and an understanding of the whole working of the kitchen, and there is no better place to acquire this than on a course at culinary school.
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Pastry Chef
A pastry chef has mastered all the intricate and skilled techniques of pastry making, and related skills, including baking, cake decoration, and breadmaking. This is a complex and skilled area of the culinary arts, and a rewarding area in which to specialize. The normal educational path to becoming a top pastry chef is to get your culinary arts diploma or degree at culinary school, with a focus on patisserie and baking. Many pastry chefs will do a post-graduation specialization course in pastry, as well. As with most chef careers, finding the right internship is essential. After graduation, pastry chefs join a kitchen team under the supervision of the head chef, but they have considerable responsibility for their own area of production.
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Personal Chef
A very small percentage of the population can afford to employ their own personal chef, but a much larger percentage would love to be able to afford to do so! A personal chef will often work solo, planning a series of menus in conjunction with their employer, preparing and cooking meals, ordering groceries and supplies, shopping for fresh items, cleaning the kitchen and sometimes serving the meal. Catering dinner parties and larger events are often part of the duties of a personal chef and for these events kitchen help will have to be employed. In such cases, a personal chef also has to be able to perform as head chef, able to do planning and co-ordination of food preparation and food and beverage service.
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Production Chef
Production chefs tend to be employed by high volume catering establishments who have to produce food on a regular basis, often supplied to a number of different outlets. Typically such an establishment will be a large institution, such as a university or resort that has a large, passing population. A production chef will be responsible for producing large numbers of meals quickly and regularly. This kind of environment needs really good planning and budgeting skills, with the ability to forecast the needs of the establishment, and to cater accordingly. Production chefs may have to create and test recipes, and make sure that they are followed when put into production. They will also be responsible for quality control, purchasing, service, food handling and hygiene both in the kitchens and in the outlets.
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Second Cook
A second cook works as an assistant to the first cook in the kitchen. Second cooks are involved in the planning process, and may have responsibility for some of the management duties such as procurement or staffing issues. They will assist in cooking duties, and if the kitchen works on a shift system, will probably be lead cook for one of the shifts where the first cook is not present. Training to be a second cook starts with good skills training, normally at culinary school. Gaining a vocational qualification or a degree will enable you to build up a sound skills and knowledge background, not only in culinary skills but also in the management issues of running a kitchen.
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Short-Order Cook
A short-order cook will work in a diner, coffee shop, family restaurant or hotel, or any establishment where there is a need for hot food – particularly breakfasts and lunches – that has to be produced quickly. A short-order cook is responsible for this part of the menu, planning and executing the chosen dishes to order. Being a great short order cook is one of the hardest jobs in a kitchen. You have to be fast and able to think on your feet. The orders come in furiously at rush times, and most of the prioritization has to happen in your head. One false move and half a dozen hungry customers are left waiting, in the middle of a short lunch hour or on-the-run breakfast. The best place to develop your skills is at culinary school, combined with an internship at an appropriate restaurant. A good short-order cook has impeccable job security, as there are many opportunities and your reputation will keep you employed.
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Sous Chef
A sous chef is second in command to the head chef, or executive chef. The sous chef is responsible for much of the kitchen work, and some of the management responsibilities. In many cases the sous chef participates in menu planning and development. It is probable that the sous chef will have spent some years working in a number of different roles in the kitchen, learning in detail the specialist cooking procedures. A sous chef will have attended culinary school, studying for a diploma or a degree in the culinary arts. They will have learned the culinary skills necessary to become a good cook, plus the management skills necessary to run a kitchen – procurement, staff management, food and beverage management and other areas. A sous chef will be learning the role of running the whole kitchen, probably with the idea of becoming a head chef in due course.
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Specialist Chef
Specialty Chefs are responsible for a particular area of cuisine in a restaurant or hotel kitchen. They may specialize in a particular country's cuisine, for instance Thai or Indian cooking, or they may specialize in a school of the culinary arts, for instance Le Cordon Bleu. Other Specialty Chefs are expert at athletic performance cooking, low-fat or low-carbohydrate cooking, or spa cuisine.
To become a Specialty Chef, the first requirement is a deep personal interest in that area of cuisine. Next, you need formal training and in-depth experience, and to have gained a reputation for the quality of your cooking. Specialty Chefs need specialist training, and the place to gain this is at culinary school. Here you will not only hone your basic skills, but gain exposure to the specialty that will form your career. Internships in your chosen area of concentration are essential, and most culinary schools will assist you in finding just the right practicum placement. You will also benefit from contact with people who have knowledge of the industry, and of your specialty.
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