Current Events > I'm seriously thinking changing career to cooking.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I dunno how or what the best steps are.

What I want to do is cook, be creative and stuff, and the road there is really hard, long and unpredictable. Maybe cook at some small place or something.
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I told you to do this months ago, and you said I was stupid to suggest that!!! >:V
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Apply for Masterchef and get training from Gordon Ramsay himself!

It feels unrealistic. I dunno how I could end up with my goals.
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Didn't you go to school to be a nurse
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glitteringfairy posted...

Didn't you go to school to be a nurse

I'm only 1 semester off from graduating, but I dropped out of the dissertation, so I gotta restart that, and pass an exam I failed (only one).

But due to my mental and physical health now, I need to take a break. So I'm going back to work for awhile.

I also don't know if I honestly want this anymore.
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Don't.

If you actually enjoy cooking, doing it professionally is the worst decision you'll make. Working the line is stressful, demanding, has horrible hours, and will just make you feel burnt out.
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I used to want to be a cook and realized it is so not for me. Having worked in kitchens on and off for years (dish washing, cooking, janitorial) I've discovered you have to be a little bit of a crazy person to enjoy it. When I was in culinary arts in high school my chef/teacher would always tell us that if you really want to survive in the kitchen, you have to be a bit of a stress junkie. He was totally correct. Cooking at home is relaxing and allows much more creativity. Working in a restaurant is fast paced, dirty, loud, and requires a lot of accuracy. It can be stressful, and you will be working next to people who might also be stressed out. But it can also be exciting. And watching ingredients go into the messy, sweaty, smelly hell that was the hot line come out as delicious and beautifully prepared dishes was pretty cool.

But it's the same with any kind of career. It's not a good idea to pursue a career in something just because it's fun to do in your own time. You need to study the career itself, because chances are its not going to be the same as when you do it in your free time for free. It doesn't matter if you're at your absolute happiest when you're cooking because cooking in a restaurant is very different from cooking at home. Just like how being into wood working doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy being a carpenter. Or how enjoying working on cars doesn't necessarily mean you'll enjoy being a mechanic.
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line cook is a terrible, terrible job. don't do it.
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I know those things. And I don't just want to cook because it's relaxing home cooking. I want to get more into it, science and stuff behind things like why things happen at certain temperatures etc, really understand ingredients, flavors, how they work together, and the creativity behind things as well.
I want to perfect my skills, and challenge myself, get better etc.

I've handled plenty of stress, and that's been when people would get hurt that has stressed me. Knowing that me messing up would not hurt people would not be the same kinda stress anyway.

You can work with food in different ways as well, I don't want to just be a restaurant cook. Even if that's gonna be loads of the time.
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That is one of the worst jobs you could go to college for. I totally respect the fine chefs out there who work in fancy restaurants, but working in the run-of-the-mill restaurant is not a good career choice and that's where the vast majority of the jobs will be for you. Go into a trade or get training for operating heavy equipment like a backhoe or bulldozer instead. Ever drive by road construction and wonder why there's always three guys with shovels standing around watching one guy on a backhoe work? The heavy equipment operator makes more money than all three of those guys put together, so it's cheaper to have them at the ready to maximize his time.
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You cool with giving up Friday and Saturday nights for the forseeable future? Can you multitask like nobody's business? Do you consider your knees and back to be non-vital parts of your anatomy you can destroy for the next decade? You like being under unnecessarily intense pressure for hours at a time? Can you threaten to punch someone in the throat if they don't back the fuck up for a second and then grab a beer with them an hour later? Is being cut, burnt and abused on a weekly basis an issue for you?

If you answered 'no' to any of the above, please consider that professional cooking is not for you. If you answered 'yes' to all of the above, please seek professional help for your mental illness, grab a copy of Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, and join us, brother.
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FF_Redux posted...

I know those things. And I don't just want to cook because it's relaxing home cooking. I want to get more into it, science and stuff behind things like why things happen at certain temperatures etc, really understand ingredients, flavors, how they work together, and the creativity behind things as well.
I want to perfect my skills, and challenge myself, get better etc.

I've handled plenty of stress, and that's been when people would get hurt that has stressed me. Knowing that me messing up would not hurt people would not be the same kinda stress anyway.

You can work with food in different ways as well, I don't want to just be a restaurant cook. Even if that's gonna be loads of the time.

be a pastry chef then. it's basically the only low intensity cooking job and you can still go to school to learnt he science behind it all
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Buy a food truck and get a permit
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You should, your food always looks fucking delicious.
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my bro is a professional cook. he makes good money but he works like a fiend. hell, 12 hour days are short for him

FF_Redux posted...

I want to get more into it, science and stuff behind things like why things happen at certain temperatures etc, really understand ingredients, flavors, how they work together, and the creativity behind things as well.
I want to perfect my skills, and challenge myself, get better etc.

And you'll do none of that as a line chef because your job is to replicate a given recipe over and over and over and over a billion times, not be creative. To get to a position where you get to actually create and experiment, you need to be working in the industry for a long time, OR at very least you need to own your own business.

If you want to get creative, your home kitchen is the best place to do it since you're not cooking for an audience and you're not at risk for being fired. If you wanna learn the science behind it, just watch the entirety of Good Eats.
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Could have sworn the title said cocking
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MedeaLysistrata posted...

be a pastry chef then. it's basically the only low intensity cooking job and you can still go to school to learnt he science behind it all

This. Some baking jobs are pretty chill. It depends on what kind though. And it also depends on the season lol.
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TheAnthraxBunny posted...

MedeaLysistrata posted...

be a pastry chef then. it's basically the only low intensity cooking job and you can still go to school to learnt he science behind it all

This. Some baking jobs are pretty chill. It depends on what kind though. And it also depends on the season lol.

Abso-fucking-lutely not chill during the summer time, not with all those ovens working in the same building
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