Learn the basic skills needed to be a chef. Watch cooking tutorials online, try new recipes, experiment, and start cooking! 

Skills

Teach yourself how to cook. 

Create distance between yourself and your routine! Take something you're interested in and seek out a location or an event that supports that interest within your time and budget.

Day to Day

Travel to a new place. 

Listen to author Richard Florida speak about the importance of creativity in career stability. How can being creative, no matter what industry or job you're doing, give you an advantage?

Career

Learn about the importance of creativity in any career.

Chefs

Direct and may participate in the preparation, seasoning, and cooking of salads, soups, fish, meats, vegetables, desserts, or other foods. May plan and price menu items, order supplies, and keep records and accounts.

Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

Enterprising

Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Realistic

First Interest High-Point

Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Artistic

Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Social

Third Interest High-Point

Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

Conventional

Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Investigative

Second Interest High-Point

Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Chefs and Head Cooks

Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers

Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations

Check the quality of raw or cooked food products to ensure that standards are met.

Monitor sanitation practices to ensure that employees follow standards and regulations.

Check the quantity and quality of received products.

Order or requisition food or other supplies needed to ensure efficient operation.

Supervise or coordinate activities of cooks or workers engaged in food preparation.

Inspect supplies, equipment, or work areas to ensure conformance to established standards.

Determine how food should be presented and create decorative food displays.

Instruct cooks or other workers in the preparation, cooking, garnishing, or presentation of food.

Estimate amounts and costs of required supplies, such as food and ingredients.

Collaborate with other personnel to plan and develop recipes or menus, taking into account such factors as seasonal availability of ingredients or the likely number of customers.

Analyze recipes to assign prices to menu items, based on food, labor, and overhead costs.

Prepare and cook foods of all types, either on a regular basis or for special guests or functions.

Determine production schedules and staff requirements necessary to ensure timely delivery of services.

Recruit and hire staff, such as cooks and other kitchen workers.

Meet with customers to discuss menus for special occasions, such as weddings, parties, or banquets.

Demonstrate new cooking techniques or equipment to staff.

Meet with sales representatives to negotiate prices or order supplies.

Arrange for equipment purchases or repairs.

Record production or operational data on specified forms.

Plan, direct, or supervise food preparation or cooking activities of multiple kitchens or restaurants in an establishment such as a restaurant chain, hospital, or hotel.

Coordinate planning, budgeting, or purchasing for all the food operations within establishments such as clubs, hotels, or restaurant chains.

Apple corers

Blast chillers

Blenders

Bone saws

Boning knives

Box graters

Braziers

Bread slicers

Broilers

Cake decorating tools

Cappuccino makers

Carbonated beverage dispensers

Chefs' knives

Commercial coffee grinders

Commercial coffeemakers

Commercial dishwashers

Commercial microwave ovens

Convection ovens

Conveyer ovens

Cream whippers

Desktop computers

Double boilers

Dry or liquid measuring cups

Electric deep-fat fryers

Electric ovens

Electric stoves

Fire suppression blankets

Food dicers

Food processors

Food shredders

Food smokers

Fruit zesters

Garbage compactors

Gas ovens

Gas stoves

Gas-powered deep-fat fryers

Griddles

Grills

Hot dog cookers

Ice shaving or crushing equipment

Ice-making machines

Infrared heat lamps

Instant-read pocket thermometers

Juice dispensers

Juice extractors

Kitchen fire extinguishers

Kitchen shears

Kitchen tongs

Knife sharpeners

Laptop computers

Mandolines

Meat grinders

Meat slicers

Meat thermometers

Melon ballers

Mixers

Oyster knives

Paring knives

Parisian cutters

Pasta machines

Personal computers

Pizza ovens

Plane graters

Portion scales

Pressurized steam cookers

Refrigerator thermometers

Rice cookers

Rolling pins

Rotisserie units

Salamanders

Serrated blade knives

Sieves

Sifters

Slicing machines

Steam kettles

Steam tables

Strainers

Toasters

Vegetable brushes

Vegetable peelers

Waffle makers

Woks

ADP eTIME

Axxya Systems Nutritionist Pro

Barrington Software CookenPro Commercial

CostGuard

Culinary Software Services ChefTec

Delphi Technology

EGS CALCMENU

EGS F&B Control

Email software

GNOME Gnutrition

Google spreadsheet

Internet browser software

IPro Restaurant Inventory, Recipe & Menu Software

Menu planning software

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Office

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Word

Chef

The road-trippers try their hand at spinning molten glass with glassblower Jessica Schimpf. The world isn't looking for you, she says, you have to go out and find it--she left a big-time welding gig to follow her dreams. In Texas, the team interviews Austonites on the street and goes for beignets and palm readings in New Orleans before hitting crowd-powered T-shirt purveyor Threadless in Chicago.
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<a href="http://academy.autodesk.com/"><img width="96%" height="96% style="position:left" src="http://archive.roadtripnation.com.s3.amazonaws.com/roadtrip/logo/Fueled_By_Autodesk.png"></a>

Make it Your Own

I had graduated from high school, went to a year of college and just was restless. Moved around the states a little bit. I came back to New Orleans and eventually started cooking socially. It was sort of an epiphany. It was like, this is what I've been looking for. The prime example of that is just the crawfish boil. There's just nothing more fun than standing around a big table, newspaper, hot, steaming crawfish, stuff dripping down your arms, and just talking to people across the table or next to you or it's fun kind of seeing what their experience is and what they bring to the table. >> Guys, it's good. >> Going back to how you kind of fell into cooking, you found it as something that you were doing for fun. Was there a turning point where you said, I can make this into a career? >> Yes, there was a French restaurant with a chef who was somebody I had known. I tried to sort of stay out of his way and then eventually I began reading a lot of the books in his office and asking him questions. So he started becoming more of a mentor to me and talking to me a lot about food and sharing a lot of things and pushing me. And after working there with him and getting a little bit more involved and getting more feedback, I think I said like, I can do this, I can really do this. >> And then what was it like going out on your own and starting a restaurant outside of the one with your mentor? >> So yeah, so I took it in phases. I opened a restaurant in, think it was November. And it was, it was hard to kind of be Charles in charge. I would go in my office and just cry. I was just, it was just so hard, you know? But, eventually, I got past that point and just realized that I did have kind of a vision for how I wanted things to be and how I wanted the food to taste and look. And I think the most important part was that I had a standard that had to be adhered to. The buck stops here. I'm the one that sets the standard and says, no that's not good enough. But it was really important to me and I really was on fire. So I kind of got my strength finally from that. >> Cool, well one wrap-up question that we usually ask everyone. Thinking back to pre-26, what advice would you give people in that situation? I know it's difficult to pinpoint something, but if there's a nugget of advice that you could impart on us. >> My advice would be, don't be in too big of a hurry to get to that top position. Get a lot of experience, get a great foundation, learn your technical skills. Work a lot of different places, commit for a decent amount of time, but try to get a good variety of experience so that that's gonna be the foundation that you go forward with. Kinda take your time so that when you do finally get to that top position or chef position, then you have a really solid foundation. It gives you the confidence to be creative. If you have, if you develop your technical skills, if you know how to sharpen your knife, if you know how to roast and saute and butcher, and do all these different things. You gotta know that stuff. It's like walking before you can run. That's the only regret I have, is that I didn't work in more places, and kind of see more things before I started being the one saying, okay this is how it is. 

Culture

Experience

Goals

Passion

Interview

Don't be in too big of a hurry to get to that top position. Get a lot of experience, get a great foundation, learn your technical skills, work a lot of different places. Commit for a decent amount of time, but try to get a good variety of experience so that that's gonna be the foundation that you go forward with. Kind of take your time so that when you do finally get to that top position or chef position, where you have a really solid foundation, it gives you the confidence to be creative. If you have, you can develop your technical skills. If you know how to sharpen your knife, if you know how to roast, and saute, and butcher, and do all these different things, you gotta know that stuff. It's like walking before you can run. That's the only regret I have is that I didn't work in more places and kind of see more things before I started being the one saying, okay, this is how it is. 

Exploration

Susan Spicer Highlight

My mom's a great cook. She was always a good cook and always cooked a lot of different kinds of foods for us when we were growing up. And I'm one of seven kids and we're all big eaters. One day it would be meatloaf and the next day it would be Indonesian Bami Goreng and it might be Danish roast pork and red cabbage, you know. Then she might just make, like, waffles for dinner one night, you know? >> [LAUGH] >> So it was always kind of like a mystery what she was in the mood to make and, you know, we just always liked her cooking. And she always seemed to enjoy it. And so I think that kind of made an impression. Being the sixth of seven kids, I sat on the kitchen counter a lot, watching her. 

Family

Learning to Cook

The food community in general in New Orleans in terms of other restaurants, other chefs other cooks. There's a lot of interaction, there's a lot of camaraderie. Some of it can be more competitive I guess and I'm sure there is that, but here, it just seems to be about really having a good time, trying to do great stuff, and kind of helping each other. It's just really good, I've always enjoyed that and I like people that tend to work in the hospitality industry or tend to be pretty colorful and kind of wacky and interesting which I like sort of. Even though I'm a little bit more of a straight arrow, I guess. I kind of enjoy being around people like that. 

Community

Food Community

I really enjoyed the process of collaboration, especially after being the boss for 30 years. I really liked not having my own ideas just recycled a thousand times >> [LAUGH] >> Or a million times. So I've always incorporated my chefs and sous chefs into the process of the menu creation, and learning from them, and what their experience is, and what their ideas are. And just kind of learning from them. Because once you stop having a mentor, once you're the boss, you know you've got get new ideas from somewhere. And so it's fun, kind of seeing what their experience is, and what they bring to the table. And it helps develop their talents also. >> Yeah. That seems a common team among all different creative careers, and people that we talked to so far in the trip. So, I mean, it must make, do you feel like it enhances the creativity in the. >> Oh, yeah. >> In the selection, in the? >> I think so. I think so. And I think it's good teaching and passing on what I know, you know, is really important. That's how, you know. So, it's a great exchange. It's a nice, nice process. 

Talent

Process of Collaboration

How do you define success for yourself, in your life, and in your job? >> I define success by the fact that we are still in business [LAUGH]. >> [LAUGH] >> For 24 years and a lot of competition. That I provide employment, a livelihood for lots of people and that I still actually like coming to work, meeting and talking to the people in the dining room, tour guests. A lot of our guests have become regulars, and a lot of regulars have become friends, and almost family, and I think that brings a lot of happiness. 

Susan Spicer

Chef

Videos

Susan Spicer

Milestones

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Business

Food

Accomplishing Goals

Interviewed By

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