Is it worth it to go to a culinary school?

maybe, but most of the culinary grads i cook with are lazy and cant work the line for shit.

>>8181854
only if the piece of paper is necessary for a job you want
in the modern day with all the info online you can become a real good cook at your house and don't have to pay someone money to do it

Like with everything else you can theoretically self teach you just as well you just need to answer three questions.

1. do I have real passion for cooking and want to make it my job?
2. do I lack the self discipline for self teaching but have enough discipline to be able to learn in the right environment and under guidance?
3. do I need the school to prepare my skills and the qualification to find the right kind of job instead of getting right into a kitchen job?

If you answer to all of this is yes you can go for it.

>>8181857
Lol my dishwasher wants to be a chef and is currently in school for it, he can't even handle his 8-16 hours a week without breaking down and "showing" the Chef.
Last week he said, over the phone to the Chef, "this kitchen would FALL APART WITHOUT ME."

>>8181884
Nobody likes a martyr. Sometimes it's true, but not at the low end of the totem pole.

if you have a lot of money saved up and have worked in the industry for at least 2 years already? yeah, go for it, it gives you really good skills and is a fun experience that broadens how you understand food, at least from what I've heard, but it won't get you a job, only experience will.

>>8181884
>my dishwasher
I thought you were taking about your wife for a moment.

>>8181884
ive worked pretty much all positions in the house, dishwashing is a bitch, good way to get in as a cook though

>>8181875
Is there a series of videos with good step by step for all the basics? As in actual lessons and not some guy mumbling for half an hour in his apartment kitchen, going off on random tangeants?

>>8181892
Honestly, it's easy as fuck at this place. Service is set up as breakfast, lunch, dinner at specific set times, so the dishwasher just does bussing and dishing for 2-3 hours and cleans up the kitchen at the end of the night.

>>8181892
How will dishwashing get you into a cooking position? You're the easiest replacement in the whole kitchen and have nothing to do with preparing food.

>>8181875

>you can become a real good cook at your house

Confirmed for once again having no clue what you're talking about.

Filtered.

>>8181900
Are you retarded? You do good at dishes to show you have decent work ethic and can complete simple tasks, then move up to prep, then cook, and then maybe even sous chef or head chef if you're there long enough. If they aren't keen on handing you a promotion, ask anyone if they need help prepping, cooking, plating, etc.

>>8181901
I will take the bait. Give me one non autistic reason why this shouldn't be possible.

>>8181909
Nice american dream meme.

The reality: If you're lucky you will be appreciated as a great dish washer and get a tab on your back from the chef. Meanwhile they hire someone with experience as the next cook.

>>8181900
a lot of places have dishwashers do the prep. relax tough guy

>>8181926
lol i watched this happen
good kid, but too valuable in the dishpit to move up

OP I am in culinary school right fucking now, ask me anything except where I go.
best decision of my life, of course I was about twenty pounds and a six minute mile away from considering joining the military the best decision of my life soo.......

shoot

>>8181926
do you work in a kitchen?

>>8181936
Not anymore. I can agree on the matter though that a lot of places handles this differently.

>>8181854
>Is it worth it to go to a culinary school?

Do you really have a passion for cooking? do you really like working long hours? Do you like giving up holidays and weekends?

I just looked up the annual average for an executive chef and it is US 53-75k a year with a degree and 7 years experience. A sous chef is around 35 to 54k a yr.

I also have no doubt that the higher salaries are because they work in expensive cities. 50k a year might sound great if you are living in a small town in a flyover state; but that is not so great if you are having to live and work in LA or NY.

If you have the drive, the talent and dream of becoming an executive chef/owner of your own place one day - not so much to make money; but to just make fantastic dished, then yeah it would be a good route to go. Just do not get into school debt over it.

I don't even know why people want to be cooks. You just do cooking under pressure and always produce the same dishes. At home you can be creative and make everything you want.

>know someone who wants going to culinary school
>ask if he ever worked in a kitchen before
>he says no

>>8181935
How much are you going to be in debt?

>>8181964
probably like 40 before interest

>>8181854
No, cooking in a restaurant setting is the most depressing experience you could ever possibly have.

>>8181971
>probably like 40 before interest

You could have been a switch man on a rail road and made more than that in your first year and still work the same shitty hours and not be in debt.

>>8181971
What have you learned, and how long have you been going?

>>8181854
Depends. Do you want to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a piece of paper that doesn't really help you get a job, in a field with extremely shit working conditions and very low pay? If that sounds like a good life choice to you, go for it.

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If you wanna work at a retirement home or making the same damn thing at shitty restaurant, sure.

How does culinary school compare to actual school? Seems project orientated.

>>8181986
Is retiring to a retirment home the ultimate disgrace? The ultimate proof that your entire life was worthless? The shittiest final chapter to your life you possibly could have? I want children and raise them decently only because of the fear that I will go into some shitty retirement home because no one wants to take care of me. But thank god everyone in my family dies at around 80 anyway so with little luck I can just die at home.

>>8181854
You're best bet would be to try and get the shittiest job available (probably dishwasher) in the kitchen of a relatively decent restaurant. Work your ass off and do a good job, pay attention to what's happening in the kitchen (create a flow chart or some other process diagram and continually update it as you observe more) then start brown nosing your boss. Research food, recipes, techniques so you can comment intelligently about the food being prepared. Show interest in getting into cooking. When a prep job comes open tell your boss you'd like a shot.

That should work. After that, it's up to you.

>>8181976
well I was at school last year for about six months, went on my internship for the summer, and just got back to school.
lets see i learned how to get yelled at properly, how to clean hood vents, how to mop without getting yelled at, how to talk shit about your fellow cooks without having to hear them cry, how to have a superior attitude but appear humble, that i hate kale more than I previously had thought, that professionals can make shitty food, that i'm a crazy person, that eighteen year olds really can't drink like i used to, that i'm actually pretty fucking good at cooking protein, that i kind of enjoy getting yelled at, that fucking up even insignificantly is a cardinal sin, how to keep my mouth shut when i'm being yelled at (yes chef), that servers are literally the worst unless they're blowing you, that cocaine is just not worth it except when it really really is, that you really can turn up on a tuesday, and that drugs really can't compete with that feeling you get when you push through a big ol' pile of tickets with a smile on your face.

idk my schools weird though, i always had the feeling those kids at CIA didn't have the same experience

>>8181993
i'm not really in the classroom at all, we pretty much work production but with you know, teaching.
>>8181984
cool

>>8182021
Why won't you tell us where?

>>8182024
its really small and ten years of 4chan has taught me to never reveal too much about yourself here

>>8182034
Like a community college?

>>8182038
nah we real

i guess what I'm trying to say is, this is a hands on industry. all the book smarts in the world won't help you push tickets, and nothing they teach you in college will prepare you for working with kitchen slaves. chefs are always pissed about the hot shot coming out of culinary school, but that was never me, and I think they really appreciated that.

could I have gotten a similar education if I just jumped in from the real world? not really, but kind of. would it have brought me where I've been so far? Where I'm headed?
absolutely not.

>>8181912
There's a huge difference between being a good home cook and a professional chef. They're just two different approaches to food

>>8181854
I went through culinary school 10 years ago.

It is NOT worth it. If you are interested in the industry, get a culinary degree at a community college, don't go to an established culinary school. You'll learn most of what you need on the job and YouTube videos anyways.

>>8182098
I'd be fine with community college except it forces you to take extra unnecessary crap with it. Hate that shit.

>>8182156
No different from some engineering major having to take 20 humanities courses in a 4-year degree.

>>8182156
You have to take a lot of unnecessary shit in Culinary School too. The thing about community college is the credits will transfer to other Universities if you decided to change your career later. Your Culinary school's credits are worthless and transfer nowhere.

I ended up as a video game developer since I didn't like Culinary after working in it after a while. I didn't suck either. I cooked for a bunch of celebrities and top level politicians.

Culinary school costs a lot of money. I used to work at a Ritz Carlton and 75% of the servers in the restaurants were people who quit culinary after going through culinary school. They were struggling to get by to pay off their student loans Most people who go through culinary end up hating cooking since it's not as glamorous as you think, and the pay is total shit unless you become a celebrity Chef.

I've only known one of my peers to achieve the "big times".

Whatever you do DON'T go to culinary school. I know you think you know better but you don't. People warned me not to either and I blew them off thinking I knew better. I wish I had listened. I got in some insane debt that I only really paid off since I started my own business in a completely different industry.

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>>8182174
>I know you think you know better but you don't

Nope, I don't, that's why I'm asking. Comically, my desired choices are sitting between culinary stuff, IT stuff (already have A+/Network+ cert), and aircraft maintenance (both parents did it and I know too much about planes for my own good).

I still really like the thought of working in IT, but I wanted to reevaluate my options while I could still afford to change (both money wise and time wise).

So really, thanks to everyone giving me honest opinions in here, I really do appreciate it.

>>8182201
>aircraft maintenance
DSFKSDBGF DO THIS
I fucking WISH I could have learned a useful trade from my parents. Instead my dad was a truck driver and my mother was a VFW bartender.

>>8182204
Truck Driver is dogshit but it's money.

>>8182204
My mind works better on computers than mechanical stuff. Parents always tried to teach me but while I easily understood the blueprints and concepts and how the parts worked together, I could never properly translate from brain to maintenance action. Computers, especially networks, I understand without effort. With a lot of effort I could probably make the switch, but neither of them work the field anymore, so any new knowledge would be solely through CC. Cooking stuff, at least what I know to do so far, is kind of in between those two, I can get it right after a couple tries usually, and I can translate from blueprint (recipe) to action, but with some effort.

>>8181900
anyone worth half a shit will develop talent from within before hiring on some fresh fish culinary dickwad that wants to be sous chef with a 2-year and zero experience.

>>8181952
because working the line is FUN. the pressure is FUN. making great food is FUN.
if you don't thrive under pressure you're not going to make it. if you're not feeling the pressure you're on the wrong line. if you're on the wrong line you're wasting your time.

>>8181854
You could either go to culinary school or you can work in a kitchen.

The trick is the latter is a lot harder to do. Not impossible.

You have to treat it like a kung fu movie. Find the fanciest non-chain restaurant in town. Follow the head chef home. Stand outside his house for three days and three nights to show your dedication to the craft. BEG! BEG FOR HIM TO TEACH YOU HIS SECRETS!

>>8182297
I've always wanted my very own restraining order.

>>8182300
That's how you know that he is not your master.

A true master will take such an eager pupil under his wing, ready to mold into his magnum opus.

But seriously, work in a kitchen. A lot of chefs prefer to raise up their staff rather then find someone that's been to culinary school. They'll have to retrain if you did.

>>8181939
Sure they do. But if they want to be a dishbitch for 10 bucks an hour you just quit and find a new job until you get that sweet prep position.

>>8182297
>fanciest non-chain restaurant
You clearly haven't watched enough kung-fu movies.

The true masters are in the most rundown shacks in the boonies because they only care about their tradecraft and not actually catering to other people's whims.

>>8182010
>When a prep job comes open tell your boss you'd like a shot.
thats what i did. it wasn't prep though, it was garde manger.

>>8182334
I concede defeat in this matter.

>>8181854
>got a memegree of that piece of shit
>o shit nigger I'll be cooking like a boss
>working at a internet cafe
>fuck culinary school you can learn everything by yourself
>culinary school is a meme OP don't do it

Is it really all degrees now? do not high end chefs, or the industry as a whole, not have apprentices? I know guys making 70-100k a year and never put a dime into school because their trade skill unions taught them a fucking trade through apprenticeship. You know, where someone takes on a young person interested in the the trade because knowledge has to be handed down to make sure older guys have a retirement.

began as a dishwasher got bumped up to the loline started on slow days got to the hard shit moved out got a new job at a more high end place. fuck the class room go work kill two birds with one pan.

life is hard pay sucks but as a fellow anon said fun is worth the work don't be greedy skills will last a life time.

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>>8181890

>>8181975
Confirmed.
Union Pacific starting pay is around $30/hr.
Ultra union job too, never work more than 8 hrs, can't work until your boss runs to you with a work order, and you have to stop working if your job even comes close to interfering with someone else's job. That's stealing their time/pay.

>>8181888
The guy on the low end is the most important fyi

>>8182201
>aircraft maintenance
I've worked on civilian cars, semi's, tanks, locomotives, and rotary wing aircraft.
Aircraft maintenance is by far the worst maintenance you can do. Good pay, but the job is all paperwork and waiting.

Its like babysitting an autistic child. It's always broke and you have to use kid gloves to fix it or you can make it worse.

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>>8181926
Former dishie here. This is completely and utterly untrue. Just work hard, ask if the cooks need help all the time when it's slow, ask questions about the dishes, and let them know you want to cook eventually. If you're good they'll hire another dishwasher and move you up eventually.

Seriously, most cooks and chefs are more than happy to bump you to prep or the line and teach you shit if you prove yourself as a dishie.

>>8181909
>Are you retarded? You do good at dishes to show you have decent work ethic and can complete simple tasks, then move up to prep, then cook, and then maybe even sous chef or head chef if you're there long enough.


Are you retarded? You do good at [insert menial task] to show you have decent work ethic and can complete simple tasks, then move up to prep, then cook, and then maybe even sous chef or head chef if you're there long enough.

>>8181909

Personally it sounds miserable. Really need to have a passion to work in the kitchen. I love cooking at home but doing it professionally would probably just be a pain in the ass for me.

>>8181900
I'm a chef and I started as a KP. I know a lot of other chefs who's started that way too.

>>8183069
cooks cook.. chefs do so much paper work and harcore prep its like a job and cooking all at once if that makes sense.. you follow recipes make your own and do logistic and HR shit all day.

Slightly related, how good is a Bartender's pay?

>>8181854
Absolutely not. Be a dish bitch for a fancy joint, work hard, watch the chefs, talk to them, express interest, offer to come in early to help prep, now you know prep which you didn't know before, eventually you get on the line. I was a dish bitch at a five star steakhouse and three years later I am sous chef and will be moving to the new restaurant opening soon where I will be head chef. I got paid for the training I got. Cooking school grads never have real kitchen experience and can't hack it and now they are in debt for a job where you're lucky to start at $15.

>>8181926
Cooks love a good dish bitch.

>>8182477
>ANY kitchen job
>union
Dude most of the cooks are felons in even the fanciest places, m goddammed garde manger is a child molester doing pre-release. I'm a pot head college dropout our only union is boh are always losers

>>8183076
this is generally true with the sous chef usually but not always running the lines from the expo during service and playing tournant otherwise.

>>8184136
word the sous chefs are the expo for the rush and that's another thing in this thread that should be mentioned expo.. uhg I hate a food runner.

has anyone gone to school and sounded off with a good "BEHIND" or "WALKING HOT" I doubt it that shit is only learned from life time line cooks I swear.

>>8181857
Basically this. Every good head chef I've ever worked under hasn't been classically trained. I've only ever worked in steakhouses and gastropubs, though.

>>8181926
That's never been the case in places I've worked. The dishers that don't get promoted are the ones that only want to be dishers so they can come to work high as fuck and scrub. The ones that want to cook generally get promoted to prep after a few months.

>>8181952
Being a line cook is fun, mang. There's room for creativity at some jobs. I made lots of soups and daily specials for my gastropub over the years. I recently quite being a cook and got an IT job. I kind of miss being a line cook, though. Those drunken bastards are fun to be around.

>>8182089
Maybe you didn't read what you quoted before but the guy said
>you can become a real good cook at your house
He didn't say you could become a professional chef in your house.

>>8184529
DRUNK HEARD!!

If your goal is money: absolutely not.
If you love working in a professional kitchen and want to refine your craft and also have a whole bunch of money sitting around: maybe.

>>8184216
I learned that in school, yeah.

>>8181854
>be me
>go to culinary school
>only do good at baking and sugar/ chocolate work
>whatever, i'll just do that then instead of cooking in a kitchen
>find out bakers hours fucking SUUUUUUCK
>gotta be up at 3 a.m.
>usually still drunk at that time
>take a break from the food industry for years
>just started new job yesterday learning to be a sushi chef and getting paid to train
>paid fucking training to do sushi

yeah, it sucks now because i've forgotten most of what i learned aside from baking (which is totally my fault, i'll admit) and i'm having to learn some basic shit all over again, but i couldn't be happier getting paid to learn a skill that can literally take me just about anywhere in the world.

culinary school is great if you already have an in at some place or it's something you all-around are passionate about, but it's time-consuming, usually quite expensive and you may find out you don't like cooking as much as you thought you did or that you fucking suck dicks at some type of cuisine you were genuinely passionate about.

>>8181926
I went from dishwasher to cook big guy.

>>8181926
You're either retarded or making excuses to be lazy.

Anthony Bourdain started as a dishwasher. I did too and made it to lead line cook in 3 years.

He also went to CIA

I want to go to culinary school just because I like cooking and want to learn more about it. But if you're trying to be a career cook, just start working at a restaurant. People seem to think that schooling is necessary for every job, but it's not..

>>8184806
Yea, after he became a cook.

>>8181975
that sentence was ancient af