I received a request from someone who has many friends that are recent Culinary School Graduates, that no one will hire. Here’s my bit of advice in my Letter to a Culinary Graduate, that I am happy to share with you. Feel free to share this with the struggling chefs or home cooks that you know.
Happy Healthy Eating,
Dear Friend with Friends:
Thanks for reaching out to me.
You are a good friend to help people in this way. Bravo!
Here’s what I know: In today’s world, you don’t have to go ‘old school’ and work your way up at a restaurant, although I will say that if owning your own restaurant is your goal, you will have to do that at one point or another. In the meantime, sit down with a pen and paper and list everything fun, enjoyable and satisfying for you in the food world. It may be as simple as making a mac n cheese with a garbanzo bean flour and olive oil roux, using coconut creamer instead of cream to provide a healthier mac n cheese for kids, you may like working with kids, or you may want to cook for a family. The list is endless.
You may want to be a speaker at colleges, talking about quick and healthy recipes you have created. You may want to put together and promote a 5 week class teaching home cooks what you have learned, including knife skills, knife sharpening, how to cut an onion, what spices to use with what foods, spice combinations, how to boil an egg properly and anything else you can think of that is a great tip for the home cook.
You may have a ton of recipe ideas that take a little from this recipe a little from that and you will be able to call those recipes your own. Give yourself credibility. Write a cookbook. No money? Write an e-book. You can promote it on Amazon and using certain tricks, make it a best seller (the first week you give it away for free and promote it everywhere).
You may also want to do some volunteer work to build your resume. I hooked up with a non profit to teach kids that had fallen through the foster care system, now living on people’s couches or in shelters, a skill (cooking) that they could use to feed the people they were living with. Vegan recipes to stretch the dollar. And all the fruits and vegetables used to cook went directly to these kids, who obviously were not eating much or well.
I also did an event for The Food Bank, cooking with other chefs at a gala. Hey! That’s a good idea. Find out what food events are happening in your city and offer to sous chef for free. You never know who you will meet, that has just had a line cook walk out.
Do your homework. See what line cooks and sous chefs make in your city. Don’t under sell your services, but be willing to compromise if asked.
Take a look at http://chefmarian.com. I give recipes, ideas on how to live your best life, I cover and create food events, do restaurant reviews, etc. I go on Instagram and Pinterest and post great food pix. I Yelp about restaurants. I send my blog out through all my social media. There’s no reason you can’t create your own brand like The Happy Chef, or some other kind of name, and then promote it.
No one is going to do this for you unless and if you hook up with a partner that knows social media and split the profits, (which is not the best idea unless that person is a love interest).
You learn in baby steps. Don’t be hard on yourself. Get a composition book at the dollar store and start filling it with ideas and recipes. Watch Jacques Pepin on PBS and get ideas – and if you are a healthy chef, figure out how to make his recipes substituting in better choices.
I am available by email: mm at chefmarian dot com. If you need encouragement, or you have reached a stumbling block, email me and I will give you my two cents.
Wishing you the best,
Chef Marian