Top Far and away from the world of conventional careers, only the brave would dare to master the art of foodcraft professionally. And the successful ones would be so not just because they have carved out a career for themselves, but also because they love and enjoy being in the world of food better than anything else.
Everyday is new. A five-star hotel environment can be heady with the inherent glamour in it. The food business is an important money-spinner for any hospitality facility.
For this reason, more and more students are taking up cooking as a profession.
Nevertheless, enjoyment is the key to a successful career.
Top Day in and day out, standing on one's feet, undergoing the rigours of kitchen life, a cook is a combination of a labourer, artist and even a manager, as he has to work hard with large cooking vessels, create culinary masterpieces and as he goes on, might even be appointed to take charge.
To satisfy the customer, one needs a lot more than good food. Because a customer can be finicky, a chef has to be very sensitive and imaginative. It is a very demanding job and with no shortcuts in this profession, one might need an element of luck to reach the top.
Hard work is the only assurance and even that can go unnoticed for years. In such cases, and they are not rare, it can be frustrating. But in spite of this, one sees their numbers growing.
More and more students are enrolling for the culinary courses available in many government and private institutions.
Top Every day is a bit of a struggle for a young chef, particularly when he is in a huge kitchen 18 hours a day, seven days a week.
Life is as tough for those who opt to work in speciality restaurants. The main difference between hotels and speciality restaurants is the size of the establishment and the less complex hierarchical structure.
However, those who have money can open their own restaurants and learn the tricks of the trade and be chef and manager rolled into one.
But with too many players, knowledge of specialised cuisine might not be enough to start a business of one's own. There is more here than meets the eye. Why does a customer go out to eat? Good food and more - ambience, degree of comfort the place has to offer, the mood it creates and other things.
The kitchen is a heavy-duty work place and there are long hours.
Perseverance
If you don't get it right the first time, always try again.
Spirit of Learning
Keep experimenting to create new cuisine.
Dexterity
Balance between the demands of being a chef and a manager.
Personal Discipline
Sometimes a lot of sacrifices might have to be made to succeed.
Competitive
Be challenged to make food that will bring the customer again.
High Motivation
Starting salaries are very low.
Where one starts off as an apprentice, it can be as long as 15 years of backbreaking work and a negligible social life to reach the top spot - that of an executive chef - and even that is not guaranteed.
There is a long way to go before cooks can become food directors. The kitchen hierarchy goes like this: apprentice cook, certified cook, commis demi-chef, chef-de-partie, sous chef, executive sous chef, executive chef, corporate chef or food director (in some hotels).
A would-be chef is trained in the basic skills of preparing food, pre-preparation of ingredients, usage of utensils, knowledge of ingredient properties, food science aspects, changes a food undergoes while heating, good safety measures, like the temperature at which to hold and serve food, sanitation aspects, communication, nutrition, food science and more. Then the race begins.
At the end of the day, most chefs hope to be rich and famous. Those who make it big graduate as sought after speakers on the circuit, scouting the world over for business prospects, attending seminars, so much so that they find 24 hours in a day highly inadequate. Of course, the advantage lies with those who choose to study abroad. They are well recognised in the hospitality industry and find a place on the advisory panel of many related publications too.
In this profession, even if you don't make it big, at least you won't go hungry!
The starting salary of a Chef, for the first three years, is Rs 2000. After gaining some experience, over another two years, the salary goes up between Rs 5000 and Rs 7000. If the person has experience of 10 years or more, then the salary is between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000. If one has work experience abroad, one can easily make about Rs 60,000 a month.
However, this is subject to experience of 20 years or more.
Upon graduating from a catering college, the young chefs have a wide choice. They can be lapped up by the leading five star chains (if the chains themselves are not running their own catering schools), specialty restaurants, fast-food joints, clubs, airlines catering and cabin services, cruise ships, office catering services, hospitals, institutional and industrial catering, tourism associations, catering departments in banks and insurance houses, government-owned catering departments, for instance, the Railways, armed forces, ministerial conventions, etc. Top
Good cooking obviously requires a great deal of skill. Catering colleges are one of the many places that provide those skills.
Numerous institutes offer courses to help master the art of foodcraft.
Catering colleges over India:
Culinary Academy,
Cidade de Goa
Food-Craft Institute,
Pune
Mumbai Institute of Hotel Management Catering, Technology and Applied Nutrition (Catering College),
Mumbai
Delhi Catering College,
Delhi
Educational Institute of American Hotel and Motel Association
Mumbai's Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, popularly known as Catering College has the largest number of students on its rolls.
