Is It Difficult To Become a Cook?

Are you thinking of becoming a cook? The profession is booming, with cook roles projected to grow to 26% by 2030. Perhaps many people watching “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” “Chef,” or the ever-popular “Bake Off” and “Masterchef” series seem inspired to pick up the apron and get creative with their cuisine, providing delicious, delectable meals to their customers.

 

Whatever the motivation, making that career transition is always challenging and intimidating for job seekers. Where do you begin, and what steps do you have to take? Of course, one of the necessary early steps is to get your resume looking great. Use our best cook resume example, designed explicitly for cooks, to guide your resume refresh and get started in this industry.

 

Let’s take a look at some steps to becoming a cook.

 

Head to Culinary School

There are a couple of different entryways to becoming a cook, one of which is heading to a culinary school to get expert training. In a professional culinary school, teachers will guide you through all the intricacies of cooking. You will hone your culinary skills while you are instructed in other aspects like food prep, hygiene, and menu creation.

 

You will need funding for many culinary schools, such as the Culinary Institute of America. This is not a must for new cooks entering the profession, but many chefs say that if you want to reach the highest-paid roles in top restaurants, you’ll probably need a professional training.

 

Get Straight Into Hospitality

If taking a paid culinary course isn’t a viable option for you right now, you can take a job in hospitality, in a restaurant or kitchen, and gain some skills on the job. The food service industry always has many open positions and is a relatively easy industry to enter. As we’ve already mentioned, the food service sector is growing, meaning there will only be plenty of roles available.

 

Many employers frequently give entry-level candidates a chance to become a kitchen assistant or similar role. This allows you to experience a restaurant kitchen’s frantic, fast-paced environment while gaining some valuable skills. Kitchen teams often form great bonds, and if you do well, there will likely be opportunities for career progression.

 

Starting roles in a restaurant kitchen often pay very little, but with a bit of patience and a lot of hard work, this is another way toward becoming a professional cook or chef. After all, as your work your way up, you can always engage in further training. Many top roles will require a combination of experience and professional training anyway. A degree from a culinary school may not suffice on its own.

 

You’ll need to have a growth mindset and continuously learn on your journey to becoming a cook. Different cooking methods, different approaches to menu creation, the logistical nature of stock management-all these skills take time to master.

 

Let’s take a closer look at the skills you’ll need to develop to become a cook.

 

Necessary Skills

In answer to the question, “Is it difficult to become a cook?” we have to consider not just the process but also the multitude of skills you need to develop to become a master in the profession:

 

• Time management
• Attention to detail
• Flexibility to work long hours
• Teamwork
• Ability to work under pressure
• Communication skills
• Multitasking abilities
• Specific culinary skills
• Food safety and hygiene knowledge
• Creativity
• Leadership (the head chef or cook is responsible for a whole team)

 

Being a cook isn’t for everybody. It’s so much more than creating wonderfully-crafted tasty meals with a whole cooking machine in motion behind those swinging restaurant doors. It’s frantic, hot, tiring, and stressful, preparing all the dishes on time as well as sending them off to the tables through the servers.

Some of the time, you may also have to take on additional responsibilities, like buying a few new set of cutlery for the restaurant or figuring out who provide wholesale server aprons to get them at affordable prices for the waiters. However, many professional cooks have a passion for their work and this additional responsibility doesn’t bother them much.

 

If you share that same passion, you’re sure to find the path to becoming a cook not all that difficult, whether you work your way up through experience and on-the-job training or if you enroll in a culinary school course.

Once you have mastered you chef skills, you might start taking an interest in how the restaurant is being run. Please see the infographic below for some analytics restaurants can track to help their decision making process.