krisfroste-blog

[krisfroste-blog]

What its like to be a young cook.

My experience as a young person coming up in the industry.

               I now have been working as a cook for almost 7 years professionally and I know that’s a fraction of time compared to a lot of people in the industry, but I know I’ve been through enough to have learned a lesson or 20. Or at least long enough to know that its not an easy career to get into. Yes, I say career. Anyone can cook as a job, its not hard to get by just doing the bare minimum with the tiniest bit of knowledge and not go anywhere, but to make it a career, that’s a whole lot of work and a whole lot of time,

           Time… the only element that was created to control humankind and eventually the only element that gets the better of us. But it’s one of the most important things to learn how to manage and take as much control over as you can, especially as a chef the earlier you know how to manage your time the better. Knowing how long everything takes to prepare and cook so that you can get food out hot and on time or knowing when your busiest times are, so you don’t leave your station and have your head chef yelling at you or worse. Time is important. Also, it takes time to make it up the ranks. Yeah, some guys come out of the gate swinging and get the good positions early on in their career, but then what? You get to the top and that’s where you want to be for the rest of your career, but again unless you are born with cooking skills blessed by the gods, chances are when you get there you aren’t going anywhere else. Some of the best cooks in the world are the ones that spent the first 10 to 15 years of their career working their way up the ranks, doing dishes, spending hours just peeling vegetables, being the very last one to walk away from clean up, just to make sure everything is exactly how the chef likes it when he or she walks in the next day. It all takes long countless hours of what’s going to seem like mind numbing work, but if you can stick it out it will all be worth while. Oh, and don’t get me wrong it took me a while to realize all this.

           I started off in this industry as a total accident, I had just barely graduated high school and had no idea what to do with my life. All I knew was that I was a half decent baker and so I thought why not. I didn’t qualify for regular cooking or baking school, so I found some one-year program that helped me early on, realize that I was no baker and switched to cooking classes after about 2 months. While doing the cooking classes I had entered and won a bronze medal in a provincial cooking skills competition, so when I finished the course, I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder and it got the better of me for a number of years after that. I spent the first 3 years of my career job hoping like a jack rabbit. Little advice for young cooks/chefs, employers don’t like that so much. I was cocky and thought I knew more than I actually did. It wasn’t until the last year or so, that I finally found a place that I love working at and have amazing chefs that teach me so much.

           So, the biggest pieces of advice that I can tell young people in the industry, maybe questioning their career path in the times we’re in. don’t give up, no matter how hard things may be, don’t give up. It all takes time. When these dark times are over its going to be us hard-working, passionate young cooks and chefs that are going to fuel this the fire to get the industry rolling strong again. Listen to your senior chefs, they are going to be the ones that show us and support us when this is all over. Keep practicing your skills, do your research and studying of food science, do what ever you must do to keep up and better your skills and techniques.  

Stay safe and stay strong