Professional or Amateur cooks?

When it comes to cooking, I'm definitely an amateur -- I love it, nobody will ever pay me for it. I love eating, I love putting a dish together from scratch, I love improvising, I even enjoy making massive blunders while experimenting on my own family.

My only paid cooking job was at age 15, at a Jake's Pizza doing everything menial from rolling dough to cleaning floors (later found out that many of those activities are forbidden to those under 18 due to safety). I only lasted three weeks (school started and they had me scheduled to 1AM -- no way), and hated nearly every hour of it. Never waited tables.

Family and friends love my food, and I occasionally get encouraged to do things like bottle my salsa, or cater... Between that brief pizza-making grief, reading Anthony Bourdain's books, various shows on TV... I'm certain I'm happier as a code slinger than a hash slinger.

So, who's pro out there, who's got a counterpoint?

HI,

In the same vein, I always thought if everything in my life hit the fan, I could always work as a cook. I no longer feel that is my absolute best option any more. What changed my mind? Canning.

When I have my canning weekends, they are very intense. I will buy vegetables and fruits from farmers on Saturday morning. I will get home and immediately start processing the food staying up late into the night. I sleep, shower and begin again Sunday morning until hopefully I canned everything my big eyes bought on Saturday.

Monday morning I am tired, cranky and cannot begin to feel well rested until my feet and joints stop talking back. I don't really feel quite myself until Wednesday.

It is even worse if I begin the weekend by picking 6-12 gallons of strawberries, because now my back has joined the feet and joints in their chorus of back talk.

Ever since then, I have engaged other cooks and chefs on how they deal with their feet. They all have their strategies, which differ quite a bit from person to person.

Remember, this is just one amateur to another. I would be interested in the opinion of those who derive their income from their cooking.

Regards,

sensible work shoes w/arch support, rubber mats, correct working height, good music.

Sehr interessant! Just a momentary revery(a few observations):

I cook. Always. As per a recent NYT article? I'm so alpha in the kitchen it's ridiculous. The s/o 'n I have a galley kitchen...I appreciate the rigor...thank JHVH1 it's (a)gas.

Which is one reason why as much as I'd like to explore(and report) on Chicago's vast culinary treasure trove...I don't. We eat out with friends irregularly, or I cook. I like to cook. I really like to cook.

And definitely producing for friends. I'm not so ignorant that I imagine this type of cooking has anything in common with that which occurs in a professional kitchen.

I've considered applying to Kendall, et al. My chef friend, she says, my skills are up to snuff, I don't need culinary training(well, she says most people don't need to go to culinary school). That it's better to stage.

I enjoy flattery as much as the next guy...

so what is it fur mich?...the historical geography auf essen?
maybe...performance of the queer culinary diaspora?
perhaps, a grammar of whitey's secret menu explorations

Yumm-o

jazzfood wrote:sensible work shoes w/arch support, rubber mats, correct working height, good music.

Really, for professionals, this is all you can do. Especially the footwear. At some point you just resign yourself to being achy, sore, tired and getting varicose veins.

Remember, it's Batali that made Crocs so popular.

When I worked in restaurants, I was never so tired at the end of each day. My feet and ankles would be so puffy I rested them on the wall next to my bed whille I fell asleep. The only thing that compared was working in an Emergency Room! (Where the footwear is interestingly the same )

I'm a former pro...and now I'm much happier away from the restaurant kitchen than in it. I would never go back.

When I was cooking professionally, I could never enjoy a dinner out unless I was eating in an ethnic restaurant - hence I spent a lot of time in Chinatown in Boston or Buford Highway in Atlanta or San Jose in California. Food became a ball and chain for me. If I could make it, I didn't want to pay for someone else to make it for me. On nights out of the kitchen I didn't have the energy to cook...

Now is completely different. I can stage elaborate dinners and eat out again (hooray!). I'm still pretty critical, but I have been able to turn off the part of my brain that judged everything I put in my mouth. And now I can actually afford to buy ingredients that when I was cooking I would have been challenged to afford.

On my blog, I've starting collecting the stories of people who left the kitchen and why...one interesting statisticoid I learned when in culinary school is that that the attrition rate (for restaurant kitchens) is 95% within 5 years of finishing culinary school. Almost everyone I know from culinary school (I graduated 10 years ago) has dropped out of restaurant kitchens, although most are still in the food industry - a few TV chefs/personalities, cookbook writers, catering managers, big bad multinational food companies, culinary school instructors, etc. Not a single one regrets their decision to leave.

Cooking professionally isn't for everyone. It wasn't for me in the long run, but it did open up opportunities that I would have never had otherwise.

People ask me (probably less than entirely seriously-- I clearly have capable amateur, not professional, skills) if I ever thought about cooking professionally. (Not counting McDonald's in high school.)

I can't imagine a faster way to turn what I like doing for fun into what I hate having to do exactly the same, over and over....

there's other ways to have a career in food other than slaving over a hot line. as you progress in this profession in fact, you generally end up cooking less, which is a shame as that's what i like most. not labor projections or p&l statements.

i admit, i can't go into any restaurant w/o sizing them up in seconds-minutes. but i do the same w/music as well. i know how good the rhythm section is after a few bars @ most. or where a restaurant may be leading me if i encounter things i feel or know to be good or bad. most people w/any specialty or hyper awareness on any subject do the same.

in a home i'm different though. i'm there for the atmosphere and friendship. i appreciate the efforts and enjoy being on the other side. i don't compare it to being asked to pay for substandard food or service, or better yet, excellent tastes that can only be executed by a full on brigade. the best food and most memorable table experiences i've enjoyed has come mainly from homes, not restaurants. it's true and most of my friends believe that and have no prob inviting me to their homes to eat. although i'm sure i miss out on a fair share of invites over the "i can't cook for him" syndrome.

i get calls from from all over the world @ any time of day or nite from friends and associates asking me culinary questions. i love that fact that i can usually offer them an answer to what they sought. my gift to them. that's a point that has been neglected as well. a good chef or talented cook often has the need and ability to nurture as well. i believe that personality trait to be essential in good food well prepared. some say it's cooking w/love that adds to that component. i agree.

Cathy2 wrote:In the same vein, I always thought if everything in my life hit the fan, I could always work as a cook.
Regards,

Everytime I want to get back in the business, my wife asks me one question. "Can you stand up on tile floors dor 10-12 hours?"

NO WAY! Enough said.

I had 5 years of professional cooking under my belt before I decided to hang it up. I did not go to culinary school but managed to learn from good cooks and chefs, teach myself in my off time and get jobs in progressively better or more diverse restaurants.

Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential paints an accurate picture of the grind and the lifestyle of a line cook which is not to be confused with a chef. Among these titles you have many variations depending on the size of the operation and the preference of the chef in how the kitchen is organized or if it's large enough to do a traditional brigade system. Saute, grill/broiler, garde manger/pantry/fruit cutter, chef de cuisine, chef de parti, banquet chef, soups/stocks, etc....

Depending on where you lie in this hierachy determines the amount of freedom you have in bringing you own creativity to the plate. Typically some people who think professional cooking is for them or want to pursue culinary school may not consider the first few formative years in a professional kitchen or understand the "dues" to be paid before progressing. Don't expect to create your own seasonal menu or weekly specials as a first year grunt. It can be repetative and very stressful at times, but also extremely rewarding and ego boosting when you receive a nice complement or when you crank through 150 covers and you are in the zone the whole time. I miss the adrenaline rush of getting slammed with tickets but being capable of cranking through them with consistency and quality all while laughing and yelling vile obscenities at my co-workers. This type of interaction is frowned upon in my current cubeland existence.

While not as seasoned, my experience is very similar to jazzfood's description in another thread of the harshness of a professional kitchen....but i grew to love it. Shades of the military, uniforms, hierarchy, weapons, sense of battle, etc. There is a definite hard living lifestyle that goes along with professional cooking and it's not exactly family friendly. Not everyone participates, but it's part of what builds camraderie and friendships in addition to the cuts, burns, soreness and exhaustion everyone experiences.

I miss professional cooking all the time. What I don't miss is constantly being broke and working weekends and holidays.