On Aug 20, 4:17*pm, notbob > wrote:
> On 2010-08-20, Giusi > wrote:
>
> > slave these days as an apprentice for 10 years before they actually cook
> > anything?
>
> Nonsense. *
>
> The current head chef of Brasserie Les Halles, Tony Bourdain's former
> job, was a Mexican immigrant who started at the bottom, there, and
> worked up to exectutive chef in only 8 yrs. *Tony profiled him on one
> episode of his show.
>
> On the other hand, I worked with an aspiring cook who was already a
> line cook for a former Iron Chef America contestant and that chef, his
> boss, recommended the young man go to Johnson and Wales, a rather
> pricey school and the chef's former school. *I thought that was pretty
> weird advice, but the last I heard, the young cook left cooking in the
> chef's restaurant is now at J&W. *So obviously, some chefs have
> different hiring/training criteria.
>
> nb

J&W is not one of the commercial schools. I've seen their graduates
go on to some rather well known places (one worked in the World Trade
Center restaurant. Don't know if he'd moved on before 2001. he was a
FOAF)

A librarian friend works for the Cordon Bleu school in Boston (No
relation to the one in France), a for-profit school, and while she was
excited to get the job, she's been disturbed by the caliber of the
students they accept. If you're a good student with a go-getter
attitude, any school can teach you the basics of a trade that you can
then build on as you work in the trade, but you'll have a hard time
paying back those private college sized loans on the starting wages
you'll earn.

maxine in ri