As my senior year is approaching I have been thinking about plans post-graduation. It is terrifying. Everything about the restaurant business is thrilling, but also terrifying and uncertain. Do I keep working in kitchens until I learn more and get promoted to Sous Chef somewhere? How long will that take? How do I work in a business that has weird hours, long hours, and engulfs your life? How do I make sure my life revolves around the "other" things that I value - the Lord, my friends and my family, living my life - and not let the biz overtake my life? How do I work hard and not be so exhausted at the end of the day that I don't even have energy for the other things? I know these are questions that people in every field face, so it is not a new struggle.
So with all of these questions have also been ideas, and thinking through how to pursue this career with a 4-year degree in hospitality management and no degree or certificate in COOKING, which is what I want to do. I am not regretful for spending 4 years getting my B.S., but I do fret over the costliness of culinary school and whether or not it will be worth the money (will it pay me back?). I get mixed reviews. Some say yes, do it. Others say no, it's the business that teaches you and the hands-on. Obviously both would be ideal, but if I don't have upwards of $75,000 sitting around in my savings account then what do I do? I would prefer the comprehensive nature of culinary school and the variety of instructors; however there is a long long list of CIA grads who are jobless.
So I have decided to start where I am. Where I am is working in a great kitchen, where I am is stuck with one more year of undergrad, where I am is money-poor and unable to consider the possibility of culinary school at least for today. I went to the public library yesterday and checked out 5 books to start flipping through: La Gastronomique (a classic and well-known culinary dictionary), The Food Lover's Companion (another culinary dictionary for the layperson), A Goose in Toulouse (a memoir on eating your way through France), The Man Who Ate the World (another memoir), and Slow Food Revolution (a book I keep coming back to for foundations in ethics). I am hoping with these few books to feel encouraged, to learn about food in the technical sense and in the empirical sense.
Any book suggestions? Culinary advice?
No culinary advice here. But I do know that you mainly want to please the customer, so I'm here for you if you want to try any crazy dishes and need a taste tester. Also, consider starting your own something something?
ReplyDeleteI don't know a lot about culinary skill, but I've always thought that learning the process and how everything relates to one another as very important.
ReplyDeleteLa Gastronomique is an absolutely wonderful book. I've seen this book around and heard good things about it: On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals. I like the cook books by Alton Brown. He talks a lot about the process and how to get from one recipe to another by changing only a few things. And this isn't a cookbook per se, but I loved it: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.
Congratulations! I think you're going to make a wonderful head chef!