A Career as an Chef

A Career As a Chef has perhaps been glamorised by the rise of TV celebrity chefs. However, what is for sure that becoming a chef is a highly skilled career available to people with the talent from all walks of life.

Becoming A Chef
There are a variety of career options and entry routes available within this
rapidly expanding industry. It is not very often that you can take something you love doing and build it into a career but chefs up and down the country do just that every day!
There are various routes to take to become a chef:

• On-the-job training to include a day release to attend college
• Attending college full time
• Working for a large hotel chain which offers its own in-house training scheme
• Starting at the very bottom in a large restaurant or hotel and working your way up taking the qualifications as you progress

There are in fact a number of different types of chef. The Larger kitchens found in restaurants and hotels are split into departments that will each be responsible for specific preparation and cooking activities such as a pastry section, which will make all the pastries, breads and puddings.

The career ladder to becoming a top chef:

• Commis Chef
• Chef de Partie
• Sous Chef
• Head Chef
• Executive Head Chef

Commis chefs will work for a few months in each section of a kitchen in order to gain necessary experience in every area of the kitchen. This may include vegetable preparation and cooking, making sauces and health & hygiene.

Each different section of the kitchen is run by a chef de partie who is responsible for the commis chefs. The next step up the career ladder is a sous chef who will be competent and skilled enough to run any section, and to take charge of the whole kitchen in the absence of the head chef.

A head chef runs the whole kitchen which will include planning menus, ordering supplies, managing staff and budgets, and ensuring food of a consistently high standard is produced.
In a smaller establishment, a chef could be responsible for the whole kitchen and this may include: food preparation, cooking and even helping to serve customers.

For more information on training and career opportunities to become a chef contact:
Springboard UK
Tel: 020 7497 8654
www.springboarduk.org.uk

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