Baker: Being a Cook Rules, Dude

Introduction
To become a baker, chef, line-cook, etc., etc. is not a particularly difficult thing to do. One road to go is to attend culinary school—if you go that way you will be able to find work at an upscale restaurant or hotel and make good money. The road I took, the road most people take, is to just get a lower level kitchen job and work your way up. Start as a prep-cook, even a dishwasher, and come in on time every day—very soon they will be showing you more and more, advancing you to line-cook, then perhaps sous-chef, and maybe then head-chef. Most likely you are not going to start at one place as a dishwasher and end up as head-chef, but you can acquire skills one place and advance your position at another.

Job Function
This is the best job in the world. Cooking is great, the work is fast paced and fun, and a kitchen staff is almost always one of the best groups to have to associate with: there is always one or two guys who will make you laugh at every moment, there’s always a revolving assortment of attractive waiters/waitresses, and there’s always at least one guy who sells pot (if you are unsure which one he is—it’s the dishwasher with the Cadillac). Every kitchen I’ve worked in was a blast, it’s all jokes and food fights, with Slayer on the radio (even if Slayer, or metal in general, is not your thing, you will quickly find that it is the perfect accompaniment to kitchen work). Lifestyle
As I said before, the job is fun, the people are great, and it is, overall, a pleasure to go to work. But there are downsides, long hours being the worst of them. If you are scheduled to work 40 hours in a week, be prepared to work 60. Nights go on past when they should: the restaurant is closing at 11, and at 10:45 a party of 12 comes in: you are not getting out at 11. People call in sick a lot, and you have to cover for them. There are a million little things that come up that make it so you are there longer then you want to be. This issue will vary from restaurant to restaurant, some bosses are stingy and will do anything to avoid paying you over-time, at these places you will not be doing any work past your 40 hours; others are workaholics who expect the same from you, and in a place like this you are liable to get fired for refusing to work extra hours. Find a place with a good boss, that’s the most important thing of all, it makes or breaks the job.

Additional Information
Knowing how to cook, and doing it well, will get you laid. The ladies swoon when you titillate their taste buds, as do men, I assume.