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How about a career as a chef?

What makes for a good chef? There is more to a chef's life than just preparing tasty stuff

PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

BE CREATIVE A chef is really a ladies' man

`Hi chef, can you tell me the recipe of eggless cakes? How do you make them? Am looking for some real low cal stuff, can you help? And how about some quick party snacks?' Well, only a chef is familiar with such relentless questions the moment he steps out of his domain, trying to take off his chef's jacket. Of course he is a ladies man but only to the extent of good food and recipes! Nevertheless, life as a chef is highly interesting and varied. The package includes action packed days, tense moments, great ups and equally great lows, and a lot of riddles to solve. Overall, it is not as monotonous as many other professions.

A chef needs to have his creative juices flowing, it is a profession which needs skill as well as a lot of thought process. He needs to be a great organiser, quality and materials manager and he needs to know his cost accountancy thoroughly. He also needs to understand the human resources aspect, as he has to work with a variety of people. He should know how to market his food and must be well versed with infrastructure of his kitchen. Added to this, leadership and charismatic skills go a long way in making a great chef.

Years of toil

All these don't come easy, a good chef is a product of years of toil.A fresher usually joins the kitchen brigade with a love for food and cooking. Once the young chef has embarked on his journey in the culinary field, everyday becomes a new experience, he learns, matures, he correlates his job with his own creativity and overcomes one hurdle after another. This lucrative profession does provide attainment of a high level of job satisfaction and the hard work and perseverance required then looks quite worth it. Just a word of caution though, fresh aspirants in the profession should understand that it is the focused approach to learn the basics well, without shortcuts, and practice and perfect their skills, which take a chef a long way.

There are numerous catering colleges in the country, but one should look for good colleges that have a good success rate, and should have good kitchen infrastructure, faculty and follow the AICTE affiliated curriculum. Also one should look all the aspects, of which hotel one should opt for training and not to just look for a hotel near one's home but look for the best branded one, perhaps in a metro city, for training. Preferably one should decide in the first year of college, whether one should to go to kitchen, that way one can utilise one's industrial exposure to the fullest and get a head start. One should prepare oneself for campus from the first year and have a focussed approach on their recruitment criterion. Concept Hospitality, Oberoi schools, Taj group, ITC etc. provide fresh recruitment opportunities through campus. Life and career as a chef, is quite an experience. It is a profession for the brave yet warm hearted.

DEVRAJ HALDER

(The author is Executive Chef, Uppal's Orchid)

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