A lot of people think that just because you have a paying job, means that you are progressing. True, its nice to have money and it is necessary in world of today, but recently I discovered that in order to get a head, you must learn from others.
There is a certain practice that culinary students used to do but it is not as popular today. The Stage is when a cook or a chef would work in a resturant for a day to learn how to cook a certain item or a number of certain items. This practice could also be used as a "working interview" to see if you could handle the pressure of various orders or how you create hollindaise sauce without breaking it. The reason why this practice is not popular today is because most of the time, you work with no pay. (I would like to note that there are some places do have paid stages.) Although, the big plus size with stages is that you gain more experience, learn more about how the certain mechanics of how the restaurant works, and make various connections with chefs to find more job opportunities.
Now im not saying that you should just only do stages for free for the rest of your life or use this method to use for income. Its a learning opertunity and a chance to make connections with other big time chefs. You might say, it continueing culinary education in the most unconventional way. True, its a tough upbringing and you sacrifice full-time employment but it does bring the upbringing of many great chefs and future culinary stars.
For the past month or so, I have become a freelance cook, going to small resturants, catering companies, and other fields of the culinary world to gain experience in my field. Its going to be a long journey for me to become the chef I always envisioned and the path im taking right now is the one less explored. Yet, I believe at the end of this road, I see the promise of greatness to those who work hard and prosper for what they do.
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