Want to be a chef

>want to be a chef
>cringe from the sound of metal scraping on metal

anyone else /fucked/ here?

help me Veeky Forums

In culinary school, we were taught to chew on tinfoil, if we didnt like that metal noise thingie. It helped.

dafuq

D-did anyone get poisoned from ingesting small chunks of aluminium?

Aluminum in my mouth makes my fillings buzz.

Does this work with the chalk scratching and chewing on limestone?

>he WANTS to have the worst lifestyle of all jobs. Get out while you can. At least when your knee deep in shit as a plumber, you get benefits, holidays, paid days off, retirement. You don't get any of that being a chef/cook.
You just work your balls off until you die.

Meant to un green after "jobs."
but I'm drunk as fuck, because I'm a cook.
GET OUT
Don't ruin your life like we have.

If you're over 19 don't bother starting.
It takes years and years of slaving labor and hardship before you make any decent money and you'll have to push yourself harder than you ever imagined.

After 4-5 years of line cooking you should move to fine dining for at least 4 years, from there move to a Michelin ranked establishment, and work in those circles for like 6 years minimum.

Than once you have all that, you can begin getting sous jobs at nicer places, and so on. Then you'll start to see some real money. That being said you're looking at at least 12 years of indescribable physical, mental, and emotional stress that you have to personally push yourself through. And you must retain perfection along the way, many fine dining restraunts will can your ass if you fuck up. Say a double bone-in tomahawk gets rang in at med-rare, you cook it to med-rare, but it carries over to medium just slightly, you're fired. Simple timing mistakes are not tolerated, and you are 100% disposable and replaceable in this industry.

Say you're 25, and want to truly be a professional chef. You'd be nearly 40 still doing brutal line work before you got anything decent in pay/title, and I promise your body and personal life will not make it, it's not a challenge, it's just a fact.

Hell I started running a sautee station at 15, and I'm in my early 20's in the fine dining/Michelin scene, and still have many years to go before I make anything of myself, and I can very clearly feel the tolls this has taken on me. I'm very cold, blunt, apathetic to others, it makes relating to normal people so hard.. They live such vanilla lives yet complain about things that never mattered. I haven't had feeling in my fingers in years, I can't sit still ever, my body always hurts and aches, it's been years since I've had hands without wounds, the days melt into weeks and my concept of time is fucked, I'm so use to being stressed, that having nothing to do actually stresses me out..

You should've stopped typing at the second to last paragraph

Cont.

The thing that scares me the most is if I'm not able to hold onto the women I love. I think about it every night, and looking at her next to me every night, and imagining that side empty terrifies me. I know she loves me, and I love her. But we live in such different worlds and it makes relating to her so hard at times, I think if I lost her I'd probably just give up. I don't even complain to her about things she does that bothers me, because of my fear of pushing her away; hell I sleep 4 hours a night because she wakes up at 6 for work and always wakes me in the process. Quite frankly the only reason I am bothering to type this all is because I don't really have friends or anyone to talk to, my family doesn't think of me and just expected me to fail in life, and my girl works an office job and has no concept of what my life is like. Personal problems, issues, pretty much everything except true emergencies aren't tolerated or cared about in this industry, and it's been so long since I've actually verbalized my internal stress.

So there's a glimpse into what aspiring to be a Chef is like, excuse the wall of text. You could just sit at a desk your whole life and cruise through life on the easy path, be healthy, not wake up every night sweating and panting from stress, and get decent money. Honestly, it's my only option in life, and I do what I do for a purpose. I was a typical black-sheep child, lots of abuse when I was young, drug usage and trouble as a teenager, pretty much thrown into the world with no help and expected to fail. It's the potential for great success through hard work that keeps me going, and the possible respect I could earn. I've never had anyone see me as a success, or respect me, and it's all I've ever wanted.

Long story short, if you have other options take them. Cooking will eat you from the inside out, and only those who are young, have no options, and an abnormal sum of personal drive stand a chance.

You should get those removed. Metal fillings are outdated and can make your teeth brittle. They use plastic these days

I'll look into it, thanks.

You should go join the military.

Haha no thanks. I have a girl who I plan on marrying, and somewhat of an established name for myself. Plus Chrons disease, and a small cbd pill before bed keeps me from being bent over the toilet half of my life, the military doesn't exactly accommodate that.

it's not always that bad, you're goofy af

the chefs at both of the restaurants I work at only work moderately hard, 5 days a week, and pull fairly comfortable middle-class salaries

not the life I want, but comfortable positions are available in any restaurant where the owners are not completely unreasonable.

That sound is ASMR to me.

Any kitchen sound is.

Ha, goofy?
True, it is not always like that. It depends what ones ambitions are really. I personally want to pursuit the fine dining circuit for quite some time, and (hopefully) one day become CDC or exec of a fine dining establishment. Every path has its trials. There's some highs, and some lows, I just happen to be in a low with no where else to bitch about my situation except this place.

>Just want to be straight and lead a normal life
>Be OP

>get fired for that
What kind of fucking hellhole is America? Thanks Obama.

I've seen shit like that happen before. Michelin circuit is cut throat my friend, cooks are as disposable as towels in that line of work.

well then it shouldn't be hard to get another job

I know how Noma got their Michelin stars
200.000 swiss francs.

>may we contact your previous employer/employers?
>uhh... Sure
>yfw you don't get the job because all your past bosses hate you from the time they fired you on

It's not common to contact previous chefs. Most fine dining places do estoge for a bit and see how well you do for yourself. Most 1 or 2 starred places will pretty much let you walk in, I got my first Michelin job at a 2 star. I was fed up with my current job at the time, and came by the place as everyone was setting up.

Asked to speak to the chef or sous when they have the chance, and asked if they were in need of kitchen staff, asked about a week estoge, got hired. It's tough work, but it's different work. It's not as fucking maddening as typical line work, everything is utterly efficient. It's a change of environment with new challenges. Typical line work builds you physically, fine dining and Michelin work builds you mentally. I found staying impeccably clean a pain for awhile, not that I'm a mess, but they keep kitchens like that spotless to every detail. It's such a different environment

Its not! Culinary isn't all bad!
>You pretty much always have a job, there are a ton of career paths (though hard grind can only be avoided so much) and it's easy as piss to get a new one. It takes me a maximum of 4 days to find a job. Never had to wait longer.
>Drugs and drinking, if you're into it this field is pretty ideal. You have to control yourself, but nearly everyone in the kitchen uses something or has. It's a slippery slope, the stress of the job can spiral into addiction and self destruction.
>Good eats, lots of stuff to eat.
>No shitty pc culture. There isn't much that doesn't fly. One of the only fields that truly has freedom of speech
>Success is very self determined, no shitty cooperate ladders and beucratic shit (except those who settle to Corp life.. Shame)
>Heightening of senses and reflexes.
>Stay in decent shape, for the most part l
>Bitches love a man that can cook
>You're judged almost completely on your work, you can be litterally whoever, and as long as you don't really step some bounds.
>If your a masochistic fuck you'll love every second of it

There's a ton of good stuff about working in the industry. It's a pretty tight and closed world, but with some hard work you an worm your way in. Plus there are so many opportunities and options.

Hard work in = Opportunity out

Dude, not all cooks have shitty lives.
I make about $56,000 a year at a government cooking job, get over time and double time, weekends off, anD a wicked benefit plan.

You'd need to eat a decent amount to get poisoned.

It will make you constipated in small doses though

I have been cooking for 15 years and love it. Yeah it can be hard at times, but it sounds like your problem isnt cooking, its that your fucked in the head. I suggest therapy.

>want to cook for a big group
>very slow in cutting ingredients