what would you say is an average time to achieve head chef position

>>9298919
6-8 yrs min

>>9298919
the only shortcuts I know of is to make your own restaurant.

>>9298919
Depends a lot on your learning speed and motivation, and opportunities in your town. I'd say six months to go from full-time dish, through part-dish, part-prep, to full-time prep. Depending on turnover, maybe another six months to get the bump up to line, starting on fryers or pantry. Then, it just varies with turnover and whether you get along with the chef. Probably another two years to have the trust necessary to sous. If you pitch a tent in the kitchen and live there six days a week, you could maybe make chef in two or three more, but five or six years experience is a drop in the bucket for running an entire kitchen and all the staff, handling the orders, the food cost, the menu, the hiring and firing, etc.

File: marco-pierre-white.jpg (254KB, 1500x1000px) Image search: [Google]

254KB, 1500x1000px

>>9298919
Shortcuts? lol. Take all the shortcuts you want. I'm sure you can find some owner circling the drain that will put you in charge hoping to save the place.

You won't. It won't do shit for your career. You'll piss away months or years you could spend developing your career, or you can spend it making shit for pay, trying to bail water from a sinking ship, and watching your booze and drug habits climb.

Culinary school is a waste, except maybe for pastry chef which is a fairly specialized career. Most owners and chefs would rather have someone that will show up on time, ready to work, every fucking time. No exceptions. No being sick, no being hungover, no being high on anything stronger than a bong hit. Chefs don't give a shit the way CIA told you to do it, they don't give a fuck what Escoffier would do. They want you to do it their way, the same way, every fucking time.

But by all means, look for shortcuts. You'll have a lucrative line of cookbooks, a show on Food Network, and an endorsement deal from Knorr chicken stockpots in no time!