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These are just general stereotypes. Obviously one can be an awesome griller and suck when It comes to making a cake. I know this but just for fun sake lets do this.
How Would you rate yourself and your skills?
0 - A horrible cook ( can't boil water)
1- A mediocre cook ( can make one or two things on the stove, baking is a challenge, and you still prefer eating out to cooking)
2 - an OK cook ( you can cook and bake a few things well, still learning the basics) maybe you can grill meat ok but still struggle with grilling other things.
3- you can cook and bake at least 5 different meals, grill skills have evolved, a basic level of confidence when cooking. What you can make your good at. Still dependent on recipes but beginning to branch out and experiment. Your learning cooking and kitchen lingo. Maybe even cooking with wine.
4- you can cook more than 5 meals without difficulty, baking and grilling are no problem. People like your food. Your confident in your abilities and might cook for more than yourself everyday. You've memorized recipes and create your own. Your good in the kitchen, maybe work in a restaurant.
5- your basically just fucking awesome in the kitchen and everyone, including yourself knows this.
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>>7601361
3
I'm in between 3 and 4
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3.5
student with lots of roommates. Often cook for them. Know how to cook all major proteins to the point, make doughs (pasta, pizza and so forth), sauces, classic risottos/pastas, coconut based curries.
My egg yolks still sometimes scramble over my carbonara, even if taken off the heat. Yes mad.
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4 pretty accurately describes me.
Why do you think grilling is some special technique that requires a high skill level? Deep frying can be a more challenging station than grill.
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>>7601361
I'm OP. Forgot to list my level. I'm a 3.75.
- 4. I cook, bake, grill almost everyday.
I SUCK at cookies. It drives me crazy. I can make pies and cakes from scratch but cookies, man I struggle with them.
Anyway, I've been told many times that I make "good clean food" whatever that means.
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>>7601361
3.3444444444444444444444444444444
I suck at baking but I feel really more proficient at everything else. Anyways, my waifu is the one baking at home so I can focus on other skills.
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>>7601381
No, I was just trying to write stuff out and I said that. It's just a simple 0 thru 5.
However, I struggled with the grill when I was just learning how to do it. No one ever showed me. I just winged it and fucked up everything a couple of times before I figured it out. My Fire would either be to hot or not hot enough.
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4,5, I guess.
I've never memorised a recipe (other than baker's notation for the various breads I make) and cook mostly from scratch. I generally make up my own dishes or recreate other dishes I've had from taste rather than from recipes, similar to how some musicians play piano by ear rather than sheet music.
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i would say 4 just because i fetishise humility but i am the go to guy for food in my social circle and i have restaurant experience. not the dabbest hand at dainty presentation though.
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3 leaning on 4
Other people like my food plenty but I hate cooking.
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>>7601361
3.5-4
i mostly bake and need to get better at cooking meat, but i would say i'm pretty good at it as is
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Skills of a 4, motivation of a 1.
Having been a line cook broke me.
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3. I can not bake for shit, but I can do the rest proficiently. I specialize in italian cuisine. The only sweet I can do is Tiramisu.
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5
Culinary grad, going on 6 years as a cook.
It sucks.
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>>7601496
What made you stop enjoying cooking? Is it just the demands of being a cook? I mean obviously if you went to culinary school you must have liked it to some
Degree. Sorry bro, hope it gets better.
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>>7601501
Not him but when your hobby becomes a job (and a very shitty job at that) it starts to suck pretty bad.
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>>7601361
>one can be an awesome griller and suck when It comes to making a cake
literally me
I've probably spent enough time grilling to have fully learned another language by now
I'd put myself as a 3 at most though.
As long as I have a recipe, I can make most dishes without issue.
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>>7601501
not the guy you're responding to but for a lot of people it's not the cooking that sucks it's everything else.
working in a badly run or equipped kitchen in particular is sole destroying. when i worked in one everyone got back problems just from having to lean over half a metre of excessive counter space to get to the fucking sink. day in day out that shit is infuriating.
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>>7601511
>sole destroying
Guess that explains why so many cooks wear Crocs.
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>>7601511
>sole destroying
Just get better shoes.
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>>7601525
obviously i meant that the friction of chaotic activity obliterates flatfish.
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>>7601501
I never stopped enjoying cooking. What I don't enjoy is the low pay, long hours, late nights, no social life etc. There seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, you know? Why am I working this hard? All my friends make more money than me, to do bullshit armchair work. They have little skills, and zero drive. Yet you'll watch them all pass you by. Once they realize you can't go out on Friday or Saturday night, they stop calling you all together.
I used to get some foolish pride from that. Knowing that I worked harder, worked longer. Knowing that you can take the pain that others avoid. And I think on some level they know it too. They see you work hours that they would never dare. They see you develop skills, pushing yourself to do better, driven to climb higher, while they hit their 2 year anniversary in whatever dead-end computer job they settled for. This scares them. They don't understand this type of sacrifice. This dedication in the face of such little reward.
This matter less as I get older. The immature notions of being harder, better than my peers means less and less. But I don't have any other marketable skills. I just want to be paid what I'm worth. Kitchens don't run that way. I always love to hear from cooks who made it out.
tl;dr all cooks are bitter philosophizing poor people
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Almost 3 but still struggling with a few basic so I'd say 2.5
>>7601375
>My egg yolks still sometimes scramble over my carbonara, even if taken off the heat. Yes mad.
Try taking it off the heat 1-2 minutes before you add the eggs.
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>>7601533
I think it's like that for many people in their jobs. My friend is a nurse and I mean that's what they were meant to do. But they absolutely hate it now and say they are burnt out because of the hours, paperwork, etc. they always tell me they became a nurse to help people, not to push paper and fight with insurance companies.
What about a food truck or something in the future where you can be your own boss?
What's the typical pay for a cook anyway? Just keep on keepin on my man. I was always told the difference between a hobby and a job is the paycheck. Jobs suck in general for most people I think.
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>>7601557
I'm 26 years old and I made 22.5k last year. Its enough for me to live. Its not enough for me to build a life. That's what I'm struggling with now.
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>>7601570
Seriously?
Wow. You would think cooks/chefs would make more than that. That's not a lot. I would think at minimum $35,000.00 U.S.
I guess it's dependent on your area and place of employment(?) you guys should be paid more than that. Running a kitchen is hard work.
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5
Been doing this professionally for 10 years. Work hard on all my skills, among the best knife skills in my city. I absolutely love cooking, I've done a ton of travel for cooking, and can analyse a dish and recreate it fairly accurately without a recipe.
For all the cooks who seem so depressed, I can tell you that it's possible to break the cycle. You just need to change your lifestyle. Don't drink every night. Apply yourself more to your work. If you hate your job, then leave it. I can't stress this enough. There are enough good restaurants that you don't need to be beholden to anyone. There's plenty of good situations out there if you're a hard worker and truly passionate about what you do.
I get paid well, not as much as my more educated friends, but I work hard and save my money. At first it wasn't much, but it grew and grew and now travel and vacations aren't a problem, can buy new shit when I need it, and I'm not being left short and hoping for a pay cheque. Start by saving 25-50$ a cheque, and build the habit. Your career is based on building good habits, so start applying it to your life.
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>>7601591
No, I haven't been living under a rock. Unless your working a fast food joint, I honestly thought cooks made more than poverty wages. I figured at least 32-35,000.00
Sorry
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>>7601361
your classification is not so good.
i've cooked alone for a table of 20, grilled everything you can imagine, I can (and do) routinely make good food from scratch, without using others' recipes
I can bake pizza, and that's about it. Baking is a whole nother game.
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>>7601604
It's even worse in small restaurants because they don't have corporate and shit to answer too.
Nobody in this industry gives even a small shit about labor laws, let alone a decent salary.
I've even heard stories about cooks who'd work for Michelin-starred restaurants for free because they had hundreds more candidates in line who'd want to put the experience in their resumes.
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>>7601613
You're
>fixed
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>>7601557
I live in Canada, so it might be a different payscale than USA. This is what I've found to be true in my city.
Entry level: 22k- 28k
Average:25k-34k
Top tier:36k-48k
Management: Cheap company tier 35k-45k
Normal 45k-90k+ (I've had a few friends making over 100k, It's generally more paperwork than cooking, and they all eventually leave to do their own thing)
Depending on the restaurant, this may or may not include tipout. Keep in mind, 2 cooks doing the same job, with the same skill level may get paid differently because of poor negotiating tactics, underselling themselves, past experience, or cheap owners. Potentially all 4. And yes, it's possible for a line cook to make more than someone in management.
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>>7601361
I'm a 1. Maybe even 0.5, I just have no clue or intuition when it comes to the kitchen or cooking. I can make a good sandwich and microwave popcorn pretty good.
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>>7601655
I don't believe you. Post sandwich as proof.
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>>7601611
>>7601591
>>7601604
>>7601586
I've always found it high-Larry-us that chefs earn so little. Every cook and chef I know, and that's no small number, tells me the same thing: they regret ever going into cooking as a career.
The other night, a few friends and I were discussing money troubles and making fun of one friend for being complete shit with money even though he earns six figures (engineer). Another one of the friends works as the general manager for a Burger King. He earns $43K. The third is a manager for Target. He earns just shy of $90K.
I found it a bit vexing that I'm the most educated of us and have a doctorate yet barely earn more than a burger joint manager ($49K). Fuck me.
I'm a lecturer, which is a step below assistant professor and a step above post doctoral fellow. Welp, more motivation to publish, publish and keep publishing and get onto tenure track ASAP, I guess.
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>>7601665
Perhaps I should have said I can make a sadwich. Lol.
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>>7601655
Me too
0-.25
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