AlleyGator wrote:

> "Bob (this one)" > wrote:
>
>>Did some things at the food show that I hadn't seen or done before.
>>
> OK, Bob, I'm not exactly the brightest bulb on the tree, but after all
> these years I have come to the conclusion that you're probably an
> actual chef. The thought of pursuing that line of work actually
> crossed my mind a number of years ago - then it occurred to me that it
> would be kind of like hoping to be a rich, big-time football player.
> Pretty much a one-in-a-trillion chance of going beyond mere survival.

Not really. I was paid 6 figures when I ran a country club feeding
operation a few years back. That's not terribly rare. But country club
operation is also *extra* grief in an already hard business. Everybody's
the boss and everybody wants irrationally personal service and kitchen
tricks. If you're thinking about that whole celebrity chef thing, then
it's fairyland. You need to take lessons about how to deal with media.
How to work with cameras. How to get other people to write books you put
your name onto. How to come up with the $350K to get your tv show going...

Educated cooks make decent money. $50K or $60K isn't at all unusual in
restaurants, and more in places whee cost of living is high.

But chef has a specific meaning in foodservice. It's not a more
knowledgeable or experienced cook. It's the person who runs the kitchen.
The full title is "chef de cuisine" or, loosely, chief of the kitchen.
The chef is responsible for menu planning, staffing, purchasing,
pricing, training, hiring and firing and everything else a manager does.
Oh, BTW, he needs to know more than anyone else in the kitchen about
food. And he needs to know who to ask when he doesn't know.

> And the work must be a WHOLE lot harder than one would think at first
> glance.

It is grueling. Hours are long and benefits are generally poor. It's a
peculiar combination of mental and physical work. The mental can be
enormously complex - food cost forecasting, marketing analyses... like
that. While chopping mushrooms to make todays duxelles. The chef is
usually the guy who chooses the quality level the operation works from.
Is everything from scratch or are there some convenience items. Many
convenience items? Mostly convenience? All convenience? Ethnic cuisine?
Continental (whatever that means nowadays)? American (you know, pasta,
sushi, bouillabaise, schnitzel, lutefisk, empanadas...)?

It's a high energy, high stress, high satisfaction job. And it gets
worse by a factor of 10 when you own the place and better by a factor of
50 - if you can make it work. I had one that was a perfect idea in the
perfect location and it bombed. Talk about stress - I went for about
$150K and that was after selling everything in the building and then the
building. But I figure one strikeout out of 11 tries ain't bad.

When I got out of my last one in 2001, I thought I'd cruise and just
take it easy. But a funny thing... I had a big hole in my weekly
schedule - like 80 hours. So now I write a lot of articles and pieces
for encyclopedias and collections and the like. I do radio and tv. I
make foods that I sell in various local markets and am about to start
selling in a local (large) farmers' Market here in the Shenandoah Valley
in a couple weeks. I used to sell these things there and stopped for
some reason I don't recall. I lined up a restaurant kitchen to make the
stuff in and I'll be cranking out vinegars, oils, curds, hot sauces,
spreadable chocolates, brine mixes and who knows what else.

The Kid has announced that she's going to France next year with a school
trip. I asked how she was planning to pay for it. She said, "We're going
to sell stuff at the market."

"What do you want to sell," ask I.

Says she, bath salts, body lotion, hand creams (custom scented while you
wait!), fizzy bath cookies, lip gloss (organic with beeswax and
flavored/scented oils) and other, similar girly stuff.

So we'll be selling two distinct product lines - food and cosmetics.

Should be instructive. And fun. So about 35 of those 80 hours are now
filled. I can lie on the couch and watch the Gilmour Girls reruns with
her at 5pm everyday and not feel guilty.

Pastorio