Cook Career

As a cook, you will be required to prepare different kinds of cuisines such as soups, main meals, salads, desserts, different recipes and snacks in food serving establishments such as hotels and restaurants. Though your main task is to cook, you will be expected to perform other tasks such as peeling, cutting, washing and maintaining a hygienic environment for food preparation.

How to Become a Chef

If you are going to be working for a small restaurant or hotel or do entry level jobs as a cook, you do not need a high school diploma or high level culinary arts professional training. A simple certificate or a diploma in culinary arts will do. You will acquire most of the necessary skills on the job.

If you want to become a professional cook, then it is imperative that you get a good college education. This means getting a Diploma or degree in culinary arts. The other option is to look whether the institution you are interested in working in has a program for its cooks. Some restaurants and hotels usually offer private training programs for their cooks.

If you want to become a head cook or chef, you will need years of experience, in addition to your academic qualifications. It is not necessary to become certified as a cook, but certification will give you an advantage over other cooks.

Types, Description, Information

You have a wide choice of career paths to follow as a cook. One of this is by specializing as a cook for a certain food type that you dwell in. For instance, you can be a vegetable cook or grill cook.

You can also become a short order cook, where you work to prepare fast foods which are relatively quick and simple to prepare such as hotdogs, hamburgers, sausages and French fries. You can also become a private cook for people in their private homes.

Qualifications: Courses, Training, Programs

You can begin your cook training program while still in high school. You also have the option of pursuing a training program in a culinary school, an independent cooking school, certification online program or a college or university to attain a diploma or bachelors degree in hospitality management or culinary arts. These programs usually last between 2 and 4 years. A certificate course can last for as little as 2 months.

Cook Schools, Colleges, Universities

Most cooking schools have apprenticeship or internship as part of their training program. If you study commercial Food Preparation as one of your classes, then you will not have to start from a junior position as a cook.

Unless you are doing a degree, most institutions that train cooks will ask for a high school diploma as a prerequisite for admission, and in most instances they will not even ask for it. Here is a list of the top colleges that offer catering courses:

• Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Miami
• International Culinary School at the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago
• Art institute of Raleigh in North Carolina
• Bradford School in Ohio
• Remington College in Texas

Cook Job Opportunities Salaries, Recruitment

The job outlook for cooks’ shows that there will be a lot of jobs for cooks through to 2012 though there will be intensified competition for upscale restaurants jobs. On average cooks earn $9-$19 per hour according to the Labor Bureau Statistics of 2008. Per year the average is 39,000$.