114 - Culinary School vs. On The Job Training

I am excited to talk to you about the difference between cooking school and cooking on the job. Do you really need to go to culinary school? Do you really have to take that time? The answer is an emphatic no, you don't. But I did go to culinary school. And one of the reasons why I did go to the culinary school that I went to was because they had not only the cooking aspect of it, but also they had the business side, I spent a full four years going through school, whereas most of the other places you can get through within 18 months to two years. And that extra time that I had was learning the business side, I was learning employment law, I was learning leadership skills, things that you would need to know for, you know, your profit and loss sheets and all of those kinds of things. So that is why I decided to go to the school that I went to. Now, unfortunately, that school no longer has a culinary program. It was at Utah State University if you're wondering. But they did teach me a lot of really good things. And the instructors there were absolutely amazing. Now, what I did, and I would suggest that anybody else do if they decide to go to the culinary school side is to actually work in a restaurant to help pay for your culinary school. The reason why I say that is because the culinary school will teach you the basics, it will teach you the fundamentals. culinary school will give you that full breadth of the multiple cuisines that are out there, it will teach you best practices, it will teach you you know a lot of the history of cooking it will help you understand where your where it's coming from and help to build your leadership skills. Because in the cooking environment at school, you are able to work with other people and and help out other people same time. Another thing that I really enjoyed about the cooking school was the time that they gave you to be able to accomplish the task. Okay? in culinary school, the instructors have the time to be able to spend with you to really teach you the concepts and the principles were in real life. It's not that way, it's very difficult for them to teach you in as one on one and as personable as it does in the cooking school. The other thing is that I enjoyed about cooking school was all of the, you know, all of the books, you've got all the recipes, I mean, the amount of information that you got, by going into the culinary school was absolutely huge. And I continue to use a lot almost all of those books in my day to day life, because of the depth of knowledge that you can that you can glean from those the ability to work with multiple different chefs in the various distinctions and the various you know, ethnicities of culinary and, and the various aspects of working in multiple multiple styles of restaurants and styles of profession are within the culinary industry. You know, there was you had your, you know, different ethnicities and the styles of food. You had, we had an opportunity for a catering experience, banquet experience, and lots of other kinds of things like that. So the breadth that you learned, and the introduction that you got from going to a culinary school was invaluable in my opinion. I would highly suggest that if you want to build that foundation if you want to build that. That breadth of knowledge. Definitely go for it. culinary school. Now, if you just want to get in and you know exactly what you want to do, okay? If you're very focused and you know that you want to do this, okay? I want to do French cooking, then find yourself a French chef, a French restaurant that is going to teach you and go to that place. Don't bother with the culinary school. Okay? The reason why I say that is because you will learn the depths of the cuisines. By working in those restaurants by working in those locations. If you want to learn about catering and you want to be you want to do catering, and you don't worry, you don't really care about the restaurant, you don't care about those things like that catering, go to a really good catering company. If you want to do you know, if you want to do banquets and things like that, if you know exactly what you're going to do, then I would suggest that you definitely go and straight into that business. But what happens was most chefs, they just want to work in a restaurant, okay? And they don't really know what they want to do. If that's you, I would highly suggest you go to a clinical. One of the cons, one of the difficulties of going to a culinary school is the expense. If you go to a restaurant and you start working, they will pay you to learn, okay, if you go to culinary school, you pay them to learn. So you need to be very cognizant of the decision of financial, the aspect of that, when you're making your decision. When you graduate out of a culinary school, you're probably going to pass being a dishwasher. And that's about as far up the ladder as you're gonna go. You might be able to pass the prep cook station a little bit faster, but not really too much. So what does that mean? That means that you're really not going to be making the huge amounts of money that a typical person would, after going to a university and getting a degree or a certificate or things like that. There's really not much difference in the pay rate for somebody who went to culinary school, and somebody who did not like going to culinary school, I found that those that did go to school, tended to progress tore up the ladder faster, but they still started at the beginning. Okay. And the bigger factor of that, I think had more to do with the caliber of chefs that are the caliber of chefs that are going to spend the money, the time the effort and the money on gaining that education more than the certificate that they receive. Does that make sense? So the person who is going to spend the time the money in the effort to be able to go and learn and pay somebody else to learn is somebody who is really dedicated in learning and growing and really want to become the best that they possibly can. Whereas somebody who's not willing to do that might not have that drive might not have the the really go get in the attitudes, that is needed to be able to progress in a culinary environment. So and that aspect, if you're gonna go to culinary school, that's one of the great things about people who graduate from culinary school, they do have that depth they do or sorry, they do have that breath that that base foundation, you can ask them to do something that may not be part of your restaurant that is, you know, completely different. And they will know how to do it because they went to school. Whereas if you ask somebody else who came in, you may not they may not know how to do that, even though you consider that to be a fundamental thing that all chefs should know, unless they worked with a chef prior that had taught them that that skill. They're not going to know and so you're going to have to teach them. So that's another plus of going to a culinary school is that you can do more things than than the typical chef Okay, so that's my plug for culinary schools, again, I went to culinary school, I highly suggest that you go to it, it is not required. Let's talk about the people who jump right into the job and just get the on the job training. I mentioned about the fact that if you know exactly what you're going to do, then go get the job, don't worry about the culinary school. Okay? That's because you get that depth, you get to work with an executive chef, you get to work with other people that are in the kitchen, that know that cuisine or that industry, that part of the industry much further, further and much more than you will ever learn from a culinary school, culinary school, you'll spend maybe a week talking about a cuisine, you know, you may have a class that talks about catering or something like that, but you don't really get the chance to do the catering, you just learn the theory. Whereas if you go in, you get the job, you're going to learn that intimate knowledge of the practicality and how to actually put things out there. The other thing is, when you're learning on the job, although in culinary school, you have that time you have that focus, you have that instructor be able to help you on the job, you got to get in there and you got to do it. Okay. One of the difficulty thing, difficult things have students chef out of culinary school who has never worked in the kitchen, you show up and they think they have three hours to dice today's a cup. And they will meticulously take the time to make sure that every single one of those is absolutely beautiful. And you're like No, it has to be done in five minutes. Okay. That's one of the frustrating things about somebody who graduates from culinary school and has never worked in a kitchen, they don't understand the concept of speed, they don't under understand that concept, it's completely foreign to them, because the only experience they had was having all the time in the world where the instructor was more interested in the accuracy of the product, and less interested in the amount of time and money that it would require for you to to create that an item that menu, that dish, you know. So working in the industry working and getting it on the job training, teaches you teaches you efficiency, it teaches you accuracy, it teaches you the tips and the tricks to be able to produce and really get things out there. And in the most effective way possible. The other thing that on the job training does is it puts you into the environment where you're working in a real kitchen. Okay, every single kitchen is different. And I would I would venture is that 95% of the kitchens are not built, or 90% of the restaurants are not built with the kitchen in mind to become the most productive and the most effective. The reason why I say that is because even if they do for that restaurant, even if someone comes in and they are very meticulous, and they know what they're talking about, and they build that restaurant and that kitchen, so that that restaurant can be the most effective it can be. The problem is is menus change. Chefs change. And the restaurant may change hands. And so it'll be a completely different concept. And then the new people come in, and they've got to rearrange things to try and make it as effective as possible. And so very few restaurants kitchens are actually set up really good. Whereas in your culinary school, it's very simple. You know, very basic, and everything is already planned out based on the curriculum so they don't have to worry about that. But working in a kitchen, and getting that on the job training really teaches you how to adapt, how to make things work, and how to think on your feet. It teaches you those real well Life skills and those soft skills that are required to be successful. Working in culinary, on your culinary degree in school, again, you do learn some leadership skills. But working in a kitchen, those leadership skills are ingrained in you. Because you understand where you are, and who you need to report to who you are in charge of what needs to happen. And if you're working, if you find a great chef, he's going to teach you those leadership skills. And you're gonna get more out of that Chef than you would at school. So what's the difference? culinary school versus on the job training. It really depends on what you want to get out of it. And, again, my suggestion is, go to culinary school. But make the effort to pay your own way through culinary school by working at a restaurant. Because there you will not only get the breadth in the school, but you will get the real life experience of working in a restaurant, of working in the weeds of getting out of the weeds of really understanding how you can become the best that you possibly can. You will learn your weaknesses faster, you will be able to really grow and develop as a chef as a cook by doing the things by working in the industry. So thank you so very much. Those are my thoughts on the difference between culinary school and on the job training. I will see you next week. Thank you so very much for coming and watching