How much of a scam is culinary school? Would an AA or certificate

It's a scam.

Get a job as a line cook in a decent (non-chain) restaurant. Work your skills on and off the job. Work your way up the ranks. Find a better regarded kitchen after a while. The key is to never settle and always be eyeing the next step up the culinary ladder you can take.

Hiring managers looking for a fucking line cook don't give a fuck about culinary school. It just means the new hire is gonna think he's tough shit.

>>9220613
Its just a bad investment regardless of cost. Youre never going to make enough to be able to pay off any remotely decently sized loan. If you like cooking, find a genuine fine dining establishment committed to doing it the right way and just shut the fuck up and cook your ass off. Your career path will take the exact amount of time as you would with a degree and you wont have the burden of loans to pay on 12 dollars an hour.

>>9220613
Total scam, just get in a kitchen. Unfortunately I realized that after I was up to my eyeballs in debt

>>9220619
>It just means the new hire is gonna think he's tough shit.
And is a pretentious asshole that trucks up to work with literally all of his culinary school tools.

>>9220613

Look, culinary school is just as much of a scam as regular college. That is so say, it's going to help some people a lot and others not so much.

For one, if you don't intend to get seriously into a restaurant job then don't bother. If you're aiming to be a line or prep cook then you might be able to completely avoid needing such a thing. Or if you're going to work in a donut shop or something.

If you intend to go serious with your career, like by becoming a head/sous chef or a professional pastry chef, then yes by all means culinary school is gonna be very valuable. Heck when it comes to pastry chefs I'll bet most higher-end jobs won't even consider you without one. But yes, experience is ALWAYS valuable. That's why most of the time they make you get a job in a restaurant while you're in culinary school.

So yes, culinary school is admittedly a bit of a scam for some. But it all depends on how far you want to go go with it. And even though experience is very valuable, I can tell you from personal experience that if a restaurant is trying to hire two similar people except one has a culinary degree, you better believe they're gonna lean towards him.

>>9220634
>I can tell you from personal experience that if a restaurant is trying to hire two similar people except one has a culinary degree, you better believe they're gonna lean towards him.
That goes two ways though. Most places, certainly now, have figured out that its cheaper to go with the guy that doesnt have a culinary degree. You can train someone to do exactly what you want them to while a guy with a culinary degree might give more push back and command significantly more an hour.

The times did a story on this exact thing. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/business/economy/pastry-workers-restaurant-job-training.html

>>9220655

I've worked in a restaurant here in New Orleans for about 15 years, hiring people. I can tel you for sure that people with culinary degrees do not get paid any more for a position because they have a degree for the most part. Like, if we're hiring a line chef we're most likely gonna offer near the same salary to both.

Plus, the link you provided is specifically about pastry chefs. That's different than a general culinary degree, and most of the time good pastry chefs command a higher salary than an average chef. I mean in the article you mentioned it says that the main pastry chef trained for eight years before getting this position. Sure a newbie pastry chef is going to be way, WAY cheaper to hire but frankly most of the time they're gonna know dick compared to someone with a degree. So that's part of the tradeoff, they're cheaper but far less talented to start off with. I mean heck just making something like ice cream is not super easy, you want a person who knows what's up.

So yes it does go two ways, but so does talent. If you're paying less you're probably gonna get less talent, stands to reason.

It's a complete scam. I know a guy who works in a kitchen as a line cook, been working there for over six years, only guy in the kitchen with actual culinary training besides the head chef, and still hasn't been promoted past line cook. Culinary school doesn't mean shit.

>>9220737

That's silly though. Look, a college degree isn't some magic piece of paper that gets you better jobs. And similarly, a culinary degree isn't a guarantee that you'll be promoted to sous/head chef. I mean shit I got an English degree, does that mean I should automatically be promoted above non-degree holders?

>>9220737
>It's a complete scam. I know a guy who works in a kitchen as a line cook, been working there for over six years, only guy in the kitchen with actual culinary training besides the head chef, and still hasn't been promoted past line cook. Culinary school doesn't mean shit.
Maybe there isn't a position above him that opened up?