Life advice ? I am finishing my master studies in IBM and a

Cooking as a career is awful. There are professional cooks and a few chefs on /ck/ and they hate it, but that's all they're good at. Just get a normal job and cook as a hobby. Have friends over and make a 3-5 course meal with small portions and work on plating and presentation if you want a challenge. You can even buy a bunch of culinary text books from library used book sales for a dollar or two if you want to see what the people in culinary school study.

>>1416775

I am not very familiar with 4chan as a whole desu, I didn't know about ck/, I'll check it out, thanks for the input.

I know its a very stressful job, but this is actually one of the things that I love about it. I have quite a short attention span and absolutely love to be sollicited on a permanent basis while working. I get into a flaw that is immensely satisfying.

I actually enjoy the time table as well, I don't mind having my day cut or working odd hours ( I have been and online poker semi-pro for the past 4 years).

Regarding cooking as a hobby, I do a lot already, for myself, with my friend and with my familly. I do realise that it is very different because circumstances are different but this is not something I feel affraid of. I have a textual basic culinary education, what I would be seeking with a good culinary school (French) would be some kind of good boy point for my CV on top of the knowledge, just so I don't end up in a kebab.

>>1416755
Trust me OP, you don't want a job in the cooking industry.

I wanted to be a Chef so I worked in it for 4 and 1/2 years. Worst job I ever had. The stress level is so high in a kitchen it's not even funny, you always have to be running around, dealing with dumb waitresses, dumb customers, dumb co-workers. The hours are unreal, I was working a minimum of 130 hours every 2 weeks. I don't wish that job on anyone.

I've met that fruit loop in that picture

>>1416798
There's a thread like yours that pops up on /ck/ every month or more, "I'm interested in cooking, what do" and there's only one piece of advice that is worthwhile: go get a cooking job. Go get a cooking job. Go work in the front of the house, go work in the back of the house, do dishes, do hours of endless prep work, and then see how you feel. That is honestly the only way I think anyone finds out if they are cut out for culinary work or not. You have to go do it. You have to do the 12 hour shifts, the holidays, and deal with the customers, and other employees and their drug habits, and see how it all shakes out.

Cooking is busy and the multitasking planning ahead is very involved and detail orientated, but it's not thought provoking. If you like busy, then that's good, but it's not a deeply "intelligent" busy. If you require challenges outside of reaction/time-based situations, you're not going to be challenged enough. Before you drop a lot of money on culinary school, I beg you to go get a weekend job at a restaurant, any restaurant, chain included. Something you don't care about, but can test out. Please do that first if you're going to do anything.

Now, the thing about having business skills? You could really consider running a restaurant. I do taxes, have done taxes/bookkeeping for a few restaurant? Want to know why at least 50% of restaurants fail in the first two years (or is it more than that, I can't remember)? Because the manager thinks he can run the place and doesn't understand the capital/start-up costs, and it all hits him at once and it's too much. So if you do have enough money saved up for culinary school, maybe consider putting that into a restaurant. HOWEVER, I wouldn't recommend that unless you work in a restaurant for at least 2 years (and consequently can save up more money during that time). You don't want two jobs? Then don't get into the restaurant business in general, and sure as hell don't ever own one.

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>>1416755

I know 3 pro chefs.

Here's the deal. You CAN succeed in it and CAN make good money, but you have to really love it. I mean cooking at a rapid fire pace in a tense environment 5 - 6 days a week.

DO NOT GO TO CULLINARY SCHOOL. It is a massive waste. You will learn 95% of cooking on the job. Not one of my friends who is a chef went to school for it. They just learned and advanced. They laugh regularly at new cooks who come into the kitchen fresh out of cullinary school who don't know fucking shit.

Go ahead and buy that big 800 page cooking textbook. I forget but there is one that is like the gold standard of cooking. Then go to a few restraurnats (the nicer the better) and ask for a job in the kitchen. They'll prob start you on something small like salads or bread. Work hard, learn learn learn.

If you show up every day, work hard, learn everything you can, you can move up.

One of my buddies is head chef at a college, his salary is $80k a year. He prob works 60hrs a week though.

One last tip: SHOP THE RESUME. After you've worked somewhere for 1 - 2 years, they're just gonna keep using you and not give you a raise. Don't get sucked in. If a place does not move you up in pay or level, then move on. Shop the resume to other places and get a higher paying gig. Keep doing this until you are head chef or suis chef at a big time restuarant.

Good luck. try this out before blowing money on culinary school.

>>1416841

> high stress level

I think it comes from the top down though (uptight head chef, uptight kitchen)

And really the cooks bring it on themselves in that way.

Making mistakes really isn't that big a deal. 2/3 customers will not be that upset about a mistake. It's that 1/3 that is rude. But they can go fuck themselves. Chefs need to realize that being perfect is a stupid goal, and the customers that can't appreciate that can get fucked.

I own a business, and when I make a mistake (which happens about 5% - 10% of the time) I just apologize to the customer, and work to fix it. I don't have a breakdown the way many cooks do.

But mostly it's the head chefs. So so so many insane head chefs out there. One in particular that I know really stands out. Yelling was like a hobby for him.