Thứ Sáu, 29 tháng 7, 2016

Becoming a Chef – 10 Educational Requirements

Are you interested in becoming a professional chef? Do you want to start your own catering business? Do you want to know what education is needed to become a certified caterer? Or you want to know how long it takes to become a chef? If you seek answer to any of the questions above, then i advice you read on.
There are two pathways to follow when you want to become a chef. You can either go the way of formal training or in the direction of personal training. However, you should be aware of the advantages of getting formal training to become a chef.
If you plan to be self-employed all through your career life, meaning that you would have your own restaurant and be your own boss, then you can shove the idea of getting formal training but if you plan to be employed; work for 5-star hotels and restaurants, then you really do not have a choice but to get trained professionally because most of these organizations generally have some basic educational requirements which they expect chefs to meet up with before they hire them.
Before we go into that, i think it’s important that you know the different types of chef, skills and general requirements of becoming a chef.

Becoming a Chef – 6 Types of Chefs

  • Executive chef-: An executive chef is like the most senior chef. If you are climbing the ladder in this profession, your aim would be to become an executive chef eventually. An executive chef is very involved in cooking the food. He also plans and directs how the ingredients should be handled and methods of cooking the food. The executive chef is the boss in the kitchen. He is in charge of running the kitchen and ensuring that the food turns out nicely and meets up with the required quality and standards. When other chefs are to be hired in an organization, the executive chef plays a major role in the decision making process.
  • Sous chef-: As a Sous chef, you are the executive chef’s direct subordinate-his assistant. You would also be involved in cooking and serving meals. All other chefs would be under your supervision.
  • Saucier-: You would be responsible for preparing sauces that dishes would be cooked in especially French cuisines.
  • Pastry chef-: Cakes, confections and all desserts are in your care. You would be responsible for ordering ingredients to be used, preparing the confections and recording the costs.
  • Garde manger-: The Garde manger specializes in cold food preparation and presentation. He makes salads and salad dressings, cold sauces, canapés, pates and other dishes that do not require cooking over the fire.
  • Commis chef-: The Commis chef is like a trainee and is literarily at the bottom of the food chain. He is positioned in different departments of the kitchen for different lengths of time so that he can learn and gain more experience.

General Requirements and Skills to Become a Chef

  • The ability to survive a fast-paced and stressful work environment.
  • Creative flair and innovation.
  • Ability to create interesting menus.
  • Food presentation skills.
  • Ability to put in long working hours.
  • Excellent memory to be able to remember recipes. It would look unprofessional if you have to use a written recipe each time you need to prepare a dish.
  • Team player.
  • Ability to delegate responsibilities.
  • An excellent sense of taste and smell.
  • Passion for food.
  • Innovative and experimental skills and of course, the knowledge of how and ability to prepare good food from start to finish.

Educational requirements to Become a Chef

  1. High School Diploma-: This is the first basic requirement as it would prepare you for higher education. Most culinary institutes and colleges require that you have a high school diploma before you can be admitted. So, if you want to become a professional chef, the first step is to go to high school.
  2. Community College-: When you are done with high school, you can now register for a degree program at a community college. These programs usually take between three to four years to complete and at the end of those years, you would be awarded with a degree which you can use to practice as a chef. Some chefs stop at this point but if you want to become an executive chef eventually, you can’t stop here. You need to get further education and accreditations.
  3. Culinary School degree-: Culinary institutes offer varying lengths of programs that better prepare you to become a professional chef. Culinary schools are more practical in nature compared to community colleges. They train you on how to cook, how to purchase ingredients and equipment, cooking measurements, stock keeping, how to take inventory, time management and how to cope with stress.
  4. Apprenticeship program-: This prepares you for the real life experiences of becoming a chef. Most culinary schools have apprenticeship programs that help you start out your career as a professional chef and help you gain the experience required for you to be hired.
  5. Baking/Pastry School-: This is for people who want to become pastry chefs. You would obtain extensive knowledge on baking, decoration and preparation of pastries.
  6. Trade Certification-: If you want to rub shoulders with the creme de la creme of this profession, then you have to register for training and take examinations to qualify for professional trade certification as a chef. There are different organizations that issue out trade certifications.
  7. Chef training courses-: There are regular short courses for chefs that you can take to expand your knowledge and cope with trends in the business. You could travel to other countries or continents to learn how to prepare their dishes.
  8. Continuing education programs-: If you have a professional certification as a chef, the professional body that issued you the certificate might require you to complete specific hours of coursework and study as a condition for renewal of your license.
  9. University degree-: If you have enough funds, you can consider going to the university to qualify for a Bachelor of Arts degree. This would usually take about four to five years.
  10. Personal training-: Well, you may be asking, why am i including this? This is definitely not an educational requirement but it is just as important as all the aforementioned requirements. No matter how many culinary schools you attend and how many certificates you wield, the key to success is in you. You have to be able to perform excellently and be the best at what you do to succeed as a professional chef.
In conclusion, chefs make as much as $35,000-$150,000 yearly; so you will be able to recoup every penny you spend on educational training eventually.
Resource: mytopbusinessideas.com

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