How to start your career in the industry: A guide to ‘how to become a chef’ with WhitePepper’s Al Brady and Spring Restaurant Head Chef Eleanor Henson

If you want to be a chef but are unsure about how to go about it, or know you want to work in a kitchen but are wondering what employers will be looking for, this is the article for you. Becoming a chef is so much more than just loving food. Equally it is so much more than having a strong work ethic. Both are important but to become a chef you have to combine these elements. With the expertise of WhitePepper Chef Academy Head Tutor Al Brady and Spring Restaurant Head Chef Eleanor Henson hopefully our guide will increase your confidence when entering the industry!

Maybe before we get into the nitty gritty we should assess what being a chef means. Being a chef is different to simply being a cook, it is a professional role in a professional setting. As with any profession being a chef requires a much greater level of skill, patience and attention to the craft of cooking than a home cook would possess. It also requires a great deal of dedication. In the past, chefs would often work long split-shifts as a norm. Fortunately, we are now seeing many employers remove this in favour of straight-shifts (perhaps 4 days on, 4 days off). While, cheffing is often considered a lifestyle, it is a wholly creative one. If you love food, want to perform at the highest level, and are looking to throw yourself into your work then being a chef is the career for you. But the question is how does one get to the stage where they can legitimately call themselves a chef? 

There are many different routes to becoming a chef, like with anything there is no right or wrong way of going about it. Instead you choose the best option for you and your lifestyle. For many, formal training is the best way into a career as a chef. Formal training will provide you not only with the necessary skills you need to function efficiently in a kitchen but also a qualification to help speed your career progression. 

One of the fastest methods of becoming qualified is to undertake a professional course at an accredited Chef Academy. As Al Brady suggests, a WhitePepper Chef Academy education provides you with a “good grounding for when you go into the industry”. From his own culinary school experience he gained the crucial “basics, so I had all the foundation that I needed to succeed”. Not only will a qualification improve your chances of getting a job, but having those foundational skills is also a huge positive to any future employer. Culinary school will set you up to be as desirable a candidate for a job as you possibly can be. A secondary benefit of culinary school is they offer a range of courses that span from a few weeks to several months at varying skill levels. For instance, at WhitePepper Chef Academy you can complete your Level 4 Diploma in Professional Cookery Arts in just four months. This variety in length is a great means of testing if culinary school, and by extension cheffing, is right for you. The dynamism and intensity of a culinary school kitchen attempts to mimic that of a professional kitchen, so if you love your course the likelihood you will love being a chef is high. It is the speed and concision of such courses that make culinary schools a great option for those wanting to kick start their careers. Run by trained professionals and ex-chefs, not only do you get a taste of what working amongst a team of chefs is like, you also gain an in-depth knowledge of all the skills you would need to stand in good stead in a professional kitchen. 

This is not to say that you will be able to go into to a high functioning kitchen and know exactly what you are doing. In her experience of transitioning from culinary school to a professional kitchen, Spring’s Eleanor Henson found that “culinary school is the most amazing foundation to start your journey of learning how to cook”. It is a great means of jump starting your career and providing you with a foundation on which to build and hone your skills. Fundamentally, they are great options for gaining skills and completing globally recognised qualifications like that from the Confederation of Tourism and Hospitality, as at WhitePepper.

However, for some culinary school might not be the thing for them. They are supportive but intense, an intensity which often requires proportionally high fees. An alternative option for achieving a formal qualification is through a College course. These courses while cheaper will usually take between just under one year to four years to complete. Yet, for those who finding a passion for cooking from an early age this is a great option instead of completing traditional A-Levels, for example. With this in mind taking the extra time to complete a less concentrated and less expensive training might be a preferable choice when looking to begin a career as a chef. 

A further means of starting your career is to become an apprentice. Chef apprenticeships combine theoretical and practical training. As much as anything, you learn on the job. Depending on where you do an apprenticeship it will normally take upwards of a year to get the experience and qualifications you need to properly begin your career. Apprenticeships are an example of applied learning as you balance the development of your skills as a chef, your knowledge of food and ingredients, and your workplace proficiency in a professional kitchen. 

In a similar way, another entry into a career as a chef can be found in just working. While this may not immediately lead you into a high position in a kitchen, or to a qualification, and is likely to take some time, we can never overlook the value of experience. If you are willing to start from the bottom and gradually work your way up this might be the option for you. It should be noted that some employers may want evidence of qualifications, especially if you are moving restaurants during your career. In starting as a Kitchen Porter, like Al did (although he later took a Level 4 Diploma at culinary school to fast track his progress), or an assistant you can work your way up the ranks and over the years gain the skills you need to succeed in the industry. Getting your foot in the door is key to any career and just working will help do this. Restaurants will often do trials for those looking for a job. Eleanor’s biggest bit of advice for those wanting to start as a chef is “just go into kitchens”. Many restaurants, Spring being one, offer trials or work experience. At Spring this is a ‘stagiaires’ (intern) and it is “an amazing opportunity to understand how kitchens work and see whether it suits your personality”.

This seems to be what becoming a chef comes down to for both Eleanor and Al, finding a route and restaurant that fits with you. For Al those looking to be a chef “should be people who are willing to learn, open to discussion but also willing to express their opinion but not get upset when their opinion maybe isn’t agreed with”. He recollects that passion is key, “all I ever did was read on my time off…I would just read cookery books. I would go the pub and read cookery books day in day out just to learn as much about food and what other people were doing as possible”. For Al “skills don’t stand out … it is your approach to things” that matter when you enter a restaurant. Similarly, Eleanor goes so far as to say she would “hire somebody with zero kitchen experience if they came in and were smiley and friendly, and polite and interested and asked lots of questions and really tried to learn as much as they could about the restaurant”. This is not to say that the skills you would learn at say culinary school are not required. Employers want balance; they are not looking for the whole package from day one. Instead, they are looking for someone who is willing to learn and build on the skills they have, and who has the ambition and drive to succeed. 

Still feeling a little stumped with where to start when looking for somewhere to work, even if you are fully qualified? It is understandable. With their network of contacts and years of experience, culinary schools can be incredibly helpful from a careers perspective. They will always be there to provide guidance and aid if and when necessary on your job search. But, also with the hundreds of new restaurants cropping up every day, the impacts of covid on the old names, and the rise of social media influence on cooking the options seem overwhelming. On the plus side, there are always options. Al, who has amassed over 18,000 subscribers on YouTube, suggests utilising the new world of technology in your search, “look at your options, have a look on Instagram see what people are doing, if you like the look of the food reach out and see if you can go in for a trial”. The likes of Instagram and YouTube are great ways of assessing the style of food and the mood of a restaurant. It is the mood of a place that Eleanor also suggest you look at, “go somewhere you love the food, you love the ethos”. Not only that, “speak to the people there that are doing the job you are applying for. They are the ones who will give you the best idea of what the reality is”. In short, do not be afraid to explore all your options and certainly do not be afraid to try something and then change your mind. This is your career, not somebody else’s. 

It does seem as if there is no right or wrong way of becoming a chef. In fact there is a course of action for everyone and anyone. Whether you want to fast track a qualification, learn online on-demand, or learn through practical experience there is a route for you. If you have the right attitude, are willing to learn and love what you do you have everything you need to become a chef. Whether you want to go to culinary school, do an apprenticeship, or just jump straight in, all there is now left to do is take that first step.

Article by Food Writer Katharine Spurrier, June 2023.

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