My son likes cooking and wants to go into the food service vocational program at his high school. Its a very good program where they go 3 hours a day, learn all types of cooking, and even run their own restaurant. We also have a great culinary program at our local juco.
My issue is that years ago I used to work in restaurants and frankly, they suck. Low pay. Working nights and weekends. Difficult managers. Most of the time all you do is clean. I have also talked with people in the business and I’ve heard even top chefs burn out at around their mid 30’s.
OTOH I know cooks are usually in high demand and no matter where he moves, he should always be able to get a job. it would also be a chance to go work at places like resorts.
Also there are other avenues where one can cook like working in a senior facility which have better hours and less stress.
So what do you all think? Anyone here work in food service industries?
Not exactly an answer to your question, but it seems to me, any honest work can be a good choice, if it’s what you want to do. And even if he burns out in his 30s, that’s still young enough to try something else. My daughter is 32 and she’s about to change careers from teaching to … something else. People change course all the time.
I can’t see a real downside in learning to cook - even if he decides to pursue something else later on, he’ll have skills to last his lifetime. And who knows - he could become a famous, sought-after chef. Good for him for having a goal!
I’ve been in food service in some way since high school. I come from a family of professional cooks, so most of my learning was either at home or OTJ. I did attend culinary school in my 30s to give myself an edge in transitioning from casual to fine dining. It didn’t work, but I’m glad I have that additional training: Everybody should know how to feed themselves without involving a microwave.
Yes, food service hours are long and physically taxing. Because of the latter, most chefs stop working the line by the time they’re in their 40s. There are a few outliers who continue in their 50s. They are the proud and very few. The pay has always been historically low in light of “paying your dues”, which still runs rampant in the industry, although it’s beginning to change in certain spheres: We have a local restaurant, for example, who purposely raised their prices in order to pay their BOH staff a fair wage. They’re still the exception rather than the rule.
I switched from restaurant work to the supermarket industry because of the pay, (relatively) steady schedule, and benefits. I had to wait 4 years before a FT opening popped up, but once I became FT, I was golden. Many of my younger coworkers have followed suit, a few of them being graduates of our local vo-tech’s culinary program.
I’ve known of a few professional cooks and chefs online and IRL, and I’m told it can be a high-stress job. and there’s high rates of substance abuse in the field too.
I’ve never worked in the industry. A local breakfast place in my area recently closed one of their branches because they could not find a line cook. A review of job opportunities on Craigslist currently shows eight full and a few part time positions open. So I agree that a line cook will find a job anywhere in the country. A lot of people would find that comforting.
It is **not **a very good career for most. They have among the worst hours of any job. To make any money you usually need to open your own place and something around 90% of new restaurants close in the first year.
But if that is really his passion and not just something he kind of likes, go for it.
I know someone who went into this career line, and ended up as a “test kitchen” chef for a large food company. Said it was a pretty good job; you don’t have the stress of serving a big crowd of the general public but you get to “stretch your legs” and use your culinary skills to come up with new stuff.
My cousin went to culinary school and food really became his passion. It still is but sadly he’s out of work due to disability. When he started working in catering I started working with him. Yeah it’s long and weird hours but there’s also a culture to it. It can be exciting and creative.
I don’t think you have to have your own place to make money. Becoming a head chef somewhere is good but you can just be the talent not the owner. Thinking of the crew I used to work with in the 90s and where they are now…one guy did some stints on a yacht. Another guy settled in to a head chef job and has been there for over a decade. The baker from our restaurant opened his own bakery. A LOT of people went to work at hospitals and retirement homes. I know my cousin looked in to working for a grocery chain that did upscale pre-made meals. Some of the guys went in to event management instead of kitchen. One guy works for a local gourmet fresh pasta company making the pasta (someone else is the owner). My friend who never went to culinary school but just started as a line cook has had many restaurant managerial jobs and can go anywhere in the country with that skill.
There were lots of drugs but in my experience it was just pot and some heavy drinking, then you had your one guy who did coke or whatever and maybe these days there’d be someone who was addicted to pain killers because he had a bad back.
Anyway, IMHO it’s an honest skilled trade that is not going to go out of style. There’s a myriad of different kinds of opportunities and if you are creative and a hard worker you will do better than the guy who smokes a lot of weed and rotates between chain restaurant line cook jobs.
My neighbor is a chef who opened his own place. He wanted to move to a new location in town, so closed where he was, then couldn’t get financing to open a new place. To my knowledge, he hasn’t been working steadily for a long time now and he looks depressed. It’s a tough business.
Different country here, but I’ll agree with what many above have said- it’s a very easy field to find employment in, the job pages round here are about 50% ‘chef wanted’, but the wages often aren’t great, the hours can be horrendous, and round here, there is certainly a drug problem in the field.
I worked as a waitress for a while earlier this year, and had a running joke going with the chef there that he was having trouble finding a new job (which he wasn’t, he had a job within two weeks once he started looking seriously) because he kept failing the drug test- he didn’t do coke or speed (he smoked a hell of a lot of weed though).
But then, there’s a lot of variety when it comes to catering; it’s not just high pressure restaurants, there are so many options, from little lunchtime cafes, through event catering, to things like old folk’s homes. It’s something people do as an occasional sideline, as well as a calling.
In all seriousness, I’d say it’s a good idea if he’s interested; it does have some downsides as a long-term career, but it’s great to have the skills available as a backup option.
The reasons? Well one is places like New York and Chicago are very expensive places to live and a line cook wont make enough money to live there even if they want to work under a great chef. They prefer somewhere like say Nashville where they get the same experience, get paid the same, but the money goes further.
Another reason stated was that there are more places to eat out than ever before plus places like grocery stores are hiring so a person can work better hours with less stress.
When does this program start? If he’s interested, he might as well give it a try. He’ll find out if he likes the basic tasks of working in food service. And there are many food-related jobs a high-school kid can get. If he’s really interested in working in that industry, he can easily get a part-time job and try it out. Have him apply at restaurants, fast food places, retirement home cafeterias, etc.
I don’t know what the pay is like, but working for an outfit like Sodexo that runs corporate cafeterias looks like a fairly steady gig (if that’s something desirable at this point).
My mother, who had no training other than feeding a family for many years, started her own catering business. She did parties in private homes or for small church groups. Family and friends were her workers, and I understand she paid them fairly well. (I’sd left home by the time she started.) It got so popular, she had to turn down gigs because she just couldn’t do all the work, and her earnings help my folks pay off the mortgage early, add central air to their house, re-carpet much of the house, and take several vacations.
Even after she went out of business, people kept calling and she’d occasionally do a small party for friends, but just before she turned 80, she sold or gave away all of her equipment. I don’t know if she could have supported a family on her earnings, but I suspect had she started the business as a much younger woman, she’d have built a bit of an empire if she’d been so inclined.
My brother was in that line of work. He was the kitchen manager – he was in charge of ordering food (an possibly other supplies) but also prepped and cooked food as needed.
Later He started a restaurant which was VERY hard work (luckily he had a wealthy owner).
He was the head food guy for a year round camp. He also worked in some capacity in a university.
What I am trying to say is that there are other options than a restaurant.
That’s a good point and I don’t think I’d want to be involved in owning my own restaurant - unless one REALLY has a passion for that. Too many go under.
I like the idea of working for say a college, hospital, or school.
If you “pay your dues” with an organization rather than, say, a restaurant, your pay will gradually increase the longer you stay. What that pay would actually be, though, is another story.