“Life as a chef is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
Choosing a career path in your life can be daunting, especially when you are looking for a career that requires a lot of hard work and years to progress. But a career as a chef can be amazing in all aspects. The profession of a chef is driven by sheer patience, passion as well as love.
One who is passionate about cooking and feels utmost satisfaction in serving others can choose these careers undoubtedly. Whenever we go to any parties, restaurants, functions, weddings, the best thing we appreciate is the food. If the food is not good, we never get satisfaction. So cooking is such a work, by which you can give happiness and satisfaction to many people.
WHY SHOULD YOU CHOOSE A CHEF AS A CAREER?
There are endless scopes, jobs and employment in this path. The hotel and restaurant business is increasing by leaps and bounds every year.
- One can get an excellent salary in this path.
- You can get satisfaction with your creative skills.
- You will have full freedom to experiment with new dishes.
- One can also achieve celebrity status and gain popularity.
- One can also start his/her new food business.
- One can focus on any specialisation provided in the food business.
Eligibility Criteria:
There are lots of pieces of training and courses offered by many of the reputed institutions. And also, you need to have strong interpersonal skills in this field.
- You need to pursue a degree in hotel management and catering technology.
- You can also pursue a diploma or other certificate courses from any reputed university.
- You should have two-four-year culinary degree courses.
ITC Hotels, Oberoi Sheraton, Taj group are some of the top recruiting companies in India in providing jobs to chefs.
Job Options:
You can have multiple job options in this field with a satisfactory salary amount which is very rare in other career paths. Here, I am going to list all the possible option for employment in this sector. They are as follow:
- Executive Chefs or Head Chefs: they usually look after the kitchen operations. They involve themselves with the sous chefs who prepare most of the meals in the kitchen. They also provide training to other cooks and all other workers who are involved in the food preparation. They also design menus and give food reviews and some of them are also involved in administrative tasks.
- Cookbook Writer: they usually write recipe books and gives valuable recipes to the individuals.
- Event Caterer: in this profession, you have to work on events like weddings, parties, family functions, gallery openings etc.
- Sous chefs: They are second in command after the executive chefs. They supervise the other cook’s workings for the restaurant. Moreover, they are also involved in cooking meals.
- Private chef: They work for one client full time. A private chef works for a household, groups, president or diplomat.
- Restaurant Manager/ Pub Manager: One can also take a job as a pub manager or a restaurant manager by overseeing the day-to-day operations of restaurants.
- Food Critics: You should have an experienced degree in the culinary profession to work for magazines or news organizations.
- Consultant: After years of experience one can become a consultant and work with restaurants in designing the menu and contributing to the improvement of restaurant ambience.
Employment Opportunities:
A chef can open approach many paths in the following areas:
- Airlines
- Food processing companies
- Restaurants
- Cruise liners
- Hotels
- Food manufacturing
There are many other avenues like entrepreneurship, corporate catering etc. one can also choose to provide caterings in schools, university canteens etc. so, one with an intrinsic interest in food and cooking can have a wonderful and amazing career as a chef.
Salary:
It doesn’t pay you well at first. But along with experience, you can secure a good place in this career with a good earning. For the newcomers in this field, the salary range is from 10000/- to 15000/-. But after an experience of some years, it increases to 40000/- per month. However, the head chefs earn more than 1 lakhs per month.
Being a chef means a lot of hard work and experiences, but if you love cooking you can enjoy it eternally. Every job, every career has its highs and lows. But if your dream is to become a chef, you will reach heights.
By – Sanchayita Chattopadhyay
