Three Challenges You Might Meet in a Culinary Career

Actually, these are issues that probably do come up for discussion during the course of a culinary school education; it’s just that there is no formal educational preparation for them. That’s because what is required is internally generated abilities: situations and instances where you will need to bring forth your strongest emotional and intellectual discipline.

1. The food service establishment with three generations (or more) of tradition. What we’re referring to here are restaurants that have enjoyed many years of local popularity and are a quick recommendation by many of the city’s hotel concierges. Many times, restaurants like this have been in the same family since they were founded.

More importantly, they’ve got the same menu that was popular when the doors were opened. If you are hired into a place like this to cook a shift or provide professional assistance to an on-the-job cook that’s part of the family, it’s going to take extraordinary diplomatic skill to begin to make menu changes.

Take some time to earn their appreciation for your kitchen efficiency; eventually that will earn a little respect. Then begin to suggest changes you think would update the menu. Some you’ll win, some you’ll lose.

2. The restaurant that’s part of a chain. Here, we’re referring to full service restaurants with a limited number of locations. These are often the result of a single restaurant that has enjoyed major success and attempted to extend that magic to other sites. Once again, the original site may be a family operation where the intangible that drove the success has been the family members that run the place.

Now you’re managing a kitchen at one of the remote sites, your menu is identical to the original and you’re not achieving the traffic you want or the return business you need. Many times that may be because the restaurant is located in an area where the clientele is going to be younger (or older); a little more (or less) affluent than at the original restaurant.

Your creativity is going to be challenged because you’re going to have to maintain the continuity that tradition demands along with the changes that will make your outpost popular with the locals. It may require you to start with simple changes like different portion sizes and family rates, lighter sauces, etc.

3. Taking over a chaotic kitchen. You may be offered a job as chef or sous chef at a large, established restaurant - perhaps in a hotel - that seems like an opportunity too good to be true. On arrival, you find a kitchen mired in morale problems, beset by union conflicts and devoid of any employee loyalty.

This is going to be a team building exercise. The first step is going to be stabilizing the quality of the kitchen’s output. Every item on the menu has to be the same every time it’s presented, on every shift.

That is a good focal point for opening discussions with the staff about cooperation. Taking it from there, reward what should normally be merely competent performance and begin to build a little respect for your management role.