I’ve been looking at a lot of New careers recently, and one which quite often pops up is the career of a chef. As I’ve been investigating all of the Careers I’ve been looking at, I’ve also done research into this particular job. The following is basically an expression of my own opinions of what I feel it would take to become a chef, and ultimately if it’s a New career I should ever contemplate.
I’ll start off with the bad points first – and with this specific job my main grumble would need to be with the working hours. Chefs can be needed at all hours – from working during the day at a busy seaside restaurant or cafe, or working into to the early hours at an exclusive city centre restaurant. The big money Careers for chefs orginate within the cities, where people have enough money for expensive fine dining. For me this would be a bad thing as I like to have my evenings and weekends open, but for someone who is not particularly bothered by this, then it’s not such a big bad thing.
One of the good points I liked about being chef as a New career is the degree of creativity it offers people. Chefs typically take responsibility over their kitchens, deciding what goes on the menu, and what doesn’t. They may also be responsible for choosing what the dish of the day is, and in some instances they will even come up with their own dishes to be sold at a restaurant. To me this amount of imagination and independence makes the job seem attractive – becoming a chef definitely appears as if it would grant you a much higher degree of freedom in comparison to your average 9 to 5 office job.
Another good point, but for me this is not a good thing really – becoming a chef needs no recognised qualifications (with the exception of a hygiene certificate). You just need an enthusiasm for food, you have to be an extremely good cook, and you need to be determined to be successful. While I may have a passion for food (well, a passion for for chocolate!) and I am determined, one way or another, to succeed in life, I am not a very good cook at all. I have a penchant to burn or destroy pretty much any food substance I come into contact with. I assume with time I should overcome this and master the fundamentals, however I can see where this would distinguish me from the really good chefs – the people who seem to have an affinity for the food, and which spices will go well in which dish, and things like that. These are the chefs who are really going to be successful in this career.
So for that distinct reason I think I will continue my search for New careers. Becoming a chef definitely looks like an interesting career however, and if had I been a better cook I could have contemplated it more seriously.

