Jobs for Chef School Graduates

Learn about the different jobs you'll be prepared for after chef school.

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Life After Chef School: Starting Your Career

Chef school will help you learn the techniques and tricks that you'll use throughout your culinary career; however, getting work experience is critical to understanding the ins and outs of a working kitchen. Entry-level chef positions may not be glamorous, but they're definitely worth the learning experience.

Your ultimate goal may be restaurant ownership or an executive chef job where you'll manage the kitchen staff, plan menus, order supplies and ingredients, and oversee all food preparation and cooking. In the meantime, however, the following jobs can help you better understand the business and build a solid foundation for your culinary career after chef school.

Restaurant Jobs for Chef School Grads

Garde manger: Garde mangers produce cold food items like salads and dressings, cold appetizers, sandwiches and garnishes.

Line cook: Line cooks are assistant cooks with a specialty. Grill cooks, fry cooks, sauce cooks and sauté cooks, among others, are also known as line cooks.

Patisserier: Pastry chefs coordinate events, create dishes and prepare specialty desserts, pastries and baked foods. The position requires formal training and accreditation from an accredited culinary institute in addition to two to four years of experience. Generally, pastry chefs supervise kitchen and cook assistants.

Prep cook: Prep cooks generally assemble, decorate and garnish all prepared foods. They are responsible for quality and quantity of production of cold foods.

Sous-chef: As the head chef's assistant, a sous-chef plans and supervises the daily operations of a kitchen.

Non-Restaurant Jobs

Food scientist: Food scientists apply scientific and engineering principles in research, development, production technology, quality control, packaging, processing and utilization of food.

Food stylist: Food stylists arrange food for commercial videos and photo shoots for magazines, newspapers and books.

Institution and cafeteria cook: Institution and cafeteria cooks work in the kitchens of schools, cafeterias, businesses, hospitals and other institutions. For each meal, they prepare a large quantity of a limited number of entrees, vegetables and desserts.

Private household cook: Private household cooks plan and prepare meals, clean the kitchen, order groceries and supplies. They may also serve meals.

Train at Chef Schools to Hit the Ground Running

Your time in chef school will give you the essential tools you'll need to start your career—but that's not all chef schools can teach you. While knife skills and basic technique are important, the benefits of attending chef schools are that you'll have the opportunity to work with high-end ingredients, state-of-the-art equipment, cutting edge techniques and experienced professionals.

Chef schools are a great place to pick up the training and experience that will take your career to the next level. It's true that many great chefs are self-taught, but chef school is a springboard that can help you reach your full potential.

Chef Schools: More than Cuisine

At chef schools, it's not just about the food, it's about the business too. Each school has a unique curriculum, but if you're interested in learning how to run a great business, chef schools across the country offer the training you'll need.

Business is more than just numbers. It can be learning to meet market demand. And your chef school training can give you a good foundation for doing this.

A lot of diners are looking for healthy choices or low-cost options. Some diners place a high value on local or organic ingredients. Chef schools can help you develop the creativity to build a menu that will appeal to your customers—and still taste great. Do you want to open a restaurant where you can experiment with molecular gastronomy or other cutting edge techniques? Chef schools will give you the opportunity to develop your skills.

Get Started in Chef School

Regardless of where you want to end up, the advantages of attending chef school is clear. Take the first step by researching different programs and requesting more information from chef schools near you.

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