hello everyone listen if you could tell by the thumbnail I'm going to get right into it to paint a picture you're a br you're 16 17 years old you're in high school and you want to become a chef now my number one recommendation is to start working in a restaurant okay any level food Runner Bus boy prep cook dishwasher these are all entry level positions it'll be very easy for you to get your foot in the door now let me explain why I think what's really important is I see it all the time and not
so much anymore but um you know a lot of people look at what happens on Instagram what happens on YouTube and they see these food creators you know and they want to become a chef but what they realize is that has nothing to do with the chef world now if your goal is to be a YouTuber or a social media star then or food blogger then don't even waste your time just focus on that and you can learn off YouTube and every body else that's created content that's more of an influencer role but here's the
thing if you actually want to be a chef and own your own restaurant one day or work for a hotel or work for a celebrity chef or run restaurants then you need to go work in a restaurant first it's my number one suggestion I know it's not let everybody not everybody wants to hear that but it's it's the truth you will find out within a couple weeks whether you really want to work in the restaurant business or not and here's the thing you know it doesn't matter what position you start at okay because if you
have zero experience it's going to be very difficult for you to get a job in the kitchen guarantee it so everybody usually starts at a food Runner Bus boy front of the house first or prep cook dishwasher and then they move their way up and there's nothing wrong with that and that's honorable and I think what's really important is take in consideration like you want to give it at least 3 to six months right uh do the best you can just make sure you tell your manager or your the chef that hey I want to
be a chef my goal is to be a chef this is what I need to do now do you need to jump into culinary school really quick you know honestly it's a very touchy subject and I am not going to sit here and tell people not to get to further their education but what I can say and what I will say is it's almost not worth it nowadays and the reason why I say that is because the return on investment is not there and the fact that you leave culinary school at uh you know 20
21 years old with 60 to $150,000 in debt you're already getting kicked in the teeth before you have a chance to to get out in the world now if you are able to get grants or if your parents are helping you pay or if you're getting subsidized or you have some sort of um coverage whatever it is uh if it's a tech school you know if the tuition's low then by all means do your thing but I think what I want to try to tell the young and upcoming Chef that if you're in high school
if you're going to college but you still want to be a chef get a job and part-time in a restaurant trust me okay because the benefit is you're so young you can could hop in there if it's something that you really want to pursue then guess what then you can start building blocks and Foundation off of that all right let's take a step forward let's say you are uh you you are you want to be a chef right this is what you want to do you're super passionate about it I knew I wanted to be
a chef when I was 16 years old okay 14 I was dabbling but at 16 I knew it something clicked in my head and said you know what I want to be a chef this is what I want to do okay it took 10 years min actually a little bit more more than 10 years till till I got to a suf level okay it took hard work it took dedication and so I'm going to be the first one to tell you I don't want to sugarcoat anything depending on which direction you want to go um
you know it's not an easy job okay it's not a 9 to-5 desk job okay this this job is very labor intensive it's long hours long weekends long nights um you know it's it's it's very very difficult okay but it is is very rewarding when I was growing up in the in the industry uh being a cook was not really uh you know something that was ideal for a career path okay nowadays it's changing you know chefs are celebrities chefs are in front of cameras now you know chefs are uh you know established in restaurants
they're actually making money so I think that's really important to take a note it's not like it used to be when I was growing up being a chef um you know it was a different story and I'm very happy to see where it's come because now chefs are rock stars and there's so much different opportunities out there so the next the next steps it's very difficult when you're a young cook to figure out what type of Chef do you want to be um I'm going to break it down for you really easily okay there's you
have Michelin star Chef you have your fine dining chefs you have your hotel chefs you have your catering and private event chefs you also have private chefing or estate Chef you also have yacht chefs there's there's a bunch of different types of chefs right and I think what's really important is is you need to dabble in a bunch of both okay like try a few things make a fiveyear plan you say okay and during culinary school I want to work at this after culinary school I want to be here but the most important thing is
you have to continue learning don't get stuck at one job and not be promoted in you know more than a year I can't tell you enough I think what's what's really important is to have a game plan and if plans change that's okay but it's very difficult to pin down a Cuisine there's so many different types of Cuisines what has worked for me in my past is knowing a little bit of everything right French Japanese Chinese uh the different sections of Chinese um you know there's like you know American I'm going to say of course
but uh you know knowing a little bit of everything including baking and pastry will really set you apart from everybody else all right that set aside okay you're still in you're still hooked you still want to be a chef all right now when you uh take in consideration the amount of money right I think this is something that that's not talked about enough um you know a lot of people ask me how much money are you going to make as a chef and this is very up and down but I'm going to create another video
just for that because it's an own topic on itself I have a lot of experience in it uh from all from all different levels but this video I'm going to strictly keep to you want to be a chef what are the steps all right so those are the steps that that's my advice I strongly stand behind it if you have any questions or comments if you want to add please add them down in the comment section I'll be sure to respond I think this is really good I want to get the conversation going if you're
if you're a chef please if you have something to say or something I missed hop in the comment section all right um I made a video last week about knives but I really really truly deep down in my heart as a chef I want to help the younger generation of chefs have a fruitful career okay I made some bad decisions on my way up um that really affect me nowadays especially now that I have kids and a wife and um you know I'm not going to get into that but you know I wasted a lot
of time if the advice that I would give to somebody is very specific you know don't go work in a restaurant don't work in a hotel no hop in the field right away okay Jump Right In don't waste any time all you need to do is be 16 years old and I'm telling you right now it's the best thing to do don't worry about culinary school don't worry about getting a knife set don't worry about getting a chef uniform don't overthink it hop in the restaurant business and I'm telling you right now the Reigns on
the restaurant operation will guide you to the promised land and then the thing is is there's so much good information out there that you will know so um the one last thing is okay what restaurant should I work at blah blah blah so what I'm going to recommend is a Restaurant Group not chain restaurant group that is Chef driven that is reputable okay or you pick out the best restaurant in your area okay that has a chef driven menu very important okay do not waste your time with anything else you need to go to a
reputable Restaurant Group that's Chef driven a good example of that is Danielle bl's Restaurant Group Thomas Keller's Restaurant Group Charlie Palmer's Restaurant Group I'm just naming the ones that I worked at but you need to go to a restaurant group that the Michael Mina group Restaurant Group that is reputable it might be tough to get a job there but it's very it's very important that you don't waste time going working at chilies or Applebees or Cheesecake Factory any of those restaurants forget about those forget about fast food okay do not do that what you want
to do is look and the best restaurant in your area that could be a Chinese restaurant Indian restaurant doesn't matter make sure it's Chef driven P primarily Chef driven okay very important and then I think what's really important is to when you uh go to apply right you write as many emails as possible and you keep hammering away trust me the squeaky wheel gets the grease all right trust me I I know it's I know it sounds crazy but if you walk into that door don't don't ask him for an application you say hey I
want to speak to the chef or hey I want to speak to the manager and tell them directly here's my number here's my name make sure you're clean please give me a call I'm looking to be a chef I want to see what it's like to work in a restaurant business I'm brand new and trust me it'll either work or it won't but at least you tried and I guarantee you I would say there's a 60 to 75% chance you can get a job nowadays because of Co and everything that's going down working is really
is really easy I know a lot of places that are looking for manual labor to be honest so one last thing that I want to say and this is very important don't obsess about the next couple years if you're in high school right now if you're in if you're just starting College listen you got plenty of time okay there's no rush you could literally do this for five to six years and start all over and you're totally fine okay I remember having the perception that oh my God if I'm not a sue Chef by now
oh my God I'm never going to make it I'm never going to get paid that's okay but I'm telling you right now be patient you have to be patient just because you're not a sue chef at 19 does not mean anything okay you have plenty of time and and and trust me I've seen a lot of people hop into being a chef and realize it's not what they want to do and that's okay okay too but it's good to find out earlier than later what really sucks is if you go to culinary school without working
in a restaurant and culinary school is all fine and everything but then you come out there with a culinary degree you get plopped into a restaurant which you will start at the bottom because you have no experience and then guess what you freaking hate it I've seen that I've seen that with my own eyes I've seen it because it's grueling so anyway please if you have any questions comments concerns leave them down in the comment section I would love to respond this is just a freestyle video that I wanted to throw up this is a
common question that I get and listen if you have any other questions or you want something me to answer specific go over to my Ig okay I'll leave a link down below okay Tik tok's a little crazy but go over to my Ig and leave a comment make sure you follow me over there leave a comment in one of my recent videos I always check the comments I don't check DMS too much but I check the comments I reply to comments a lot on IG all right cool make sure you hit that subscribe button [Music]
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