Should I become a chef?

just wait until you have to pay your own bills

You should literally do anything else. Being a cook is one of the worst career choices you could possibly make.

>incredibly long hours. Think 80 a week at the low end.
>weekends and holidays off absolutely never. You will not see friends/family because you'll never be off work at the same time.
>pretty well no breaks. Good luck finding time to get off your feet, let alone eat anything.
>fucking. Hot.
>very low pay. Think: the servers will make SUBSTANTIALLY more than you, because you will either make no tips or a very small amount (say, kitchen splits 3%).
>very high stress environment. One of the most stressful jobs out there.
>constant injuries- cuts, burns, etc
>very high risk of chronic issues. Back injuries, knee and foot problems, even sterility from the constant heat.
>no respect from people outside the industry. You are literally a servant.
B...but I'll open my own restaurant one day!
>NO. opening a restaurant takes a huge amount of money- more than you'll ever have as a cook- and banks are VERY hesitant to loan towards it because restaurants are one of the worst businesses to run or invest in. Almost three quarters fail within their first year. Even if you manage to open one and don't fail immediately, you'll likely never make much money.

Tl;dr version:

Utterly shit hours and pay and working conditions, will destroy your life.

Do you love cooking more than your sanity?
Do you enjoy whipping up the same dishes every day with only slight variation (if any)?
Are you prepared to deal with a new dickhead prep/dishwasher/server every month?
Do you want to plunge into the deepest depths of alcoholism?

If you answered yes to all the following questions then becoming a chef is the right career questions. If you answered no then pick another profession.

That's not really the dichotomy you'll find.

You can either have a job you hate, or one that you can tolerate and doesn't ruin your life. But very few can actually do something that they'll *love* to do 40 hours a week.

In other words, you're very very unlikely to love your job regardless of what you do, so you should at least do something for around the median salary so you're not trading 40 or 50 hours of tediousness every week to live in near poverty.

Everyone ITT assuming chefs and cooks are only available in restaurant form.
How many of you are ACTUALLY chefs/sous chefs? Am I getting advice from literal Wendy Chefs?

Side question for BoH here

How much is good to tip the chef, or do I tip the whole kitchen?

literally the worst sales effort for a job ever seen on the internet

Not op but
>incredibly long hours. Think 80 a week at the low end.
Good, means more money, more hours then I'm getting now
>weekends and holidays off absolutely never. You will not see friends/family because you'll never be off work at the same time.
Eh im fine with that, love my family and friends but I already don't socialize much
>pretty well no breaks. Good luck finding time to get off your feet, let alone eat anything.
As long as I can take food home and maybe have a cigarette during the day I'll be fine
>fucking. Hot.
I'm a welder, can't be much hotter then what I deal with already
>very low pay. Think: the servers will make SUBSTANTIALLY more than you, because you will either make no tips or a very small amount (say, kitchen splits 3%).
Whats a good ballpark 13- 17 (USD) an hour? That would suck but I've lived alone on less and with less hours
>very high stress environment. One of the most stressful jobs out there.
I feel that
>constant injuries- cuts, burns,
Same with welding, its never bothered me much
>very high risk of chronic issues. Back injuries, knee and foot problems, even sterility from the constant heat.
Why, can't be much worse then inhaleing welding fumes for the rest of my life
>no respect from people outside the industry. You are literally a servant.
You're a servent at any business you don't own
Doesn't sound to bad desu

lel

>Almost three quarters of restaurant's fail within their first year

I thought it was 90% 2bh

Stay welding then

Counter example I work as a software engineer making those free to play games everyone hates and I make $120k a year and love the job for both the work culture and the technical challenges

That said I'm an alcoholic in a fucked up marriage with barely any savings or property to show for 20 years of crunch

Is is really this bad? I ask because i'm pretty useless except i'm an above average cook and reading this is only getting me more depressed than i already am.

I have already dropped from two careers and this seemed like my most viable option, please don't tell me it isn't as fucked as you say, because if it's that bad in America then it's 3 times worse here in Mexico.

Fuuuuck now what, am i supposed to stay a NEET til i eventually kill myself?

Welders are mostly racist, which is a big problem for me because they all expect me to laugh at their blatantly racist jokes and be "the cool black guy who does blue collar work".
I hate it

That's awesome. The idea behind what I said is that there are plenty of tasks that people get paid to do that people consider enjoyable or satisfying, even to a great extent, but when we extend these to 40+ hour durations add pressure and responsibility, and of course add other tasks that people don't want to do and might hate, the job becomes just "decent" or "good" rather than something you love.

That's kind of how I feel about my job. I don't think there's anything *practical* that I'd be happier doing, and I like it pretty well, give it a 7/10, but I'd much rather do it for 20 hours a week. Man 120K/year must be nice, but I guess you've earned it after getting 20 years of exp. I prob won't ever make more than 75K

Jeez no savings? What happened?

I had a guy in my kitchen who liked to take an hour long break all the time, couldn't fire him cause he was black.

It can be.
But not in some pleb kitchen.

With being a chef, you have to aim for the VERY top - i.e. Michelin Star Restaurants

Then its a matter of generating enough publicity for yourself that you might attract investors to open a restaurant. Restaurants are high risk and I don't recommend using your own money.

iirc, most of the elite train and apprentice in France.

Dude if you're a welder you probably make more money for your time than 90% of decent chefs already depending on your area.

And you'll make much less than that for a long time starting out unless you get very lucky.

chefs make 40k+ though

does anyone on this board even cook or is this
>Veeky Forums - Memes and Fast Food

AHAHASHSHHAHAHAAGGAGAGAGAGAHAHHAHAHAHA

How much do you make?

That's stupid as fuck
Literally if you fuck up once as a welder, they take your certification and tear it up in front of you, and you can't weld in that state again for 2 years. Regardless of race

You will end up hating it. The best chefs in the world hate it, you're love for creation and ingredients needs to outweight that right from the start.

So no.

For every cook along thread there's at least 3 fast food shill threads and one Ja/ck/ thread. What do you think?

here is my experience when I worked as a chef seasonally in a resort town for 2 years.
>the hours suck
>the pay is miserable
>everyone in the kitchen is on something
>there will always be tons of mexicans no matter where you are
>the mexicans are more fun then anyone else
>you will fall for a waitress
>you will fuck said waitress
>she will leave you at some point
>repeat first step

no it isn't all bad like most anons are gonna make it out to be, but if you have the requisite skill to make french toast and omelets and are charismatic you'd be surprised where it can get you.

No they don't, and if they do then they are working 70 - 80 hours a week, and plus that is still poverty tier wages

Fuck up as in how? My buddy said even if you get fired you can just ship off to the next town or state over.

French toast an omelettes? That's easy as fuck, where do I sign?

What if I go to a fancy culinary college and get a bunch of degrees? Is it still bad then?

You think you'll avoid racism working in a kitchen. Lol.

After experiencing kitchen work, nobody ever actually wants to be a chef.

It's a job for lazy fucks and ex-cons and spanish-speaking mexicans and other people who couldn't hack a real job.

My brother is a chef and he has a pretty chill breakfast gig working 28 hours a week making the same I make doing 36. He just saves up and goes traveling and sometimes he makes cash working abroad.

>Being a cook is one of the worst career choices you could possibly make.
in america

yeah, the pay is better up to a certain point. if the restaurant has a michelin star (or is known as a good ass restaurant for rich people) the pay is way lower than a fancy restaurant without michelin stars because everyone wants to work at the best restaurants

Dont go to culinary school unless you plan on opening a restraunt just start as a dish washer and work your way up line cooks like to teach same with chefs it will take the same amout of time and you will be a better chef. Its what i did and i won on chopped

If you love cooking. No.

I worked at shitty jobs before. With a lot of stress and shitty co-workers.

But everything service related is just over the top nerve-grinding.

I'm a culinary instructor at a community college and I have made it my duty to make all these niggas hate cooking.

Also no don't become a chef it aint worth it.
I wish I became a dentist or something

Nigger you're a welder and wanna go down 100 notches to cook?
The fuck lol

Been there, went from dishwasher to prep cook in a month, then quit to become a line cook because they dropped the cooking side of prep and had me doing dishes during service again on top of my morning prep. Where do you suggest I go for a good dish job? There's not many good restaurants in my state.