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Chef Career Feature


The Role of an Executive Chef
The executive chef of a restaurant is basically the big boss of the kitchen and everything he or she says goes. An executive chef position
is different from any ordinary chef job — more training, more on–hand experience, more years put in, and more responsibilities are
required from executive chefs. In return, there is more prestige, more freedom to do as you wish, and a much bigger executive chef
salary.




The executive chef plans the menu of the restaurant, and adds          minimum training programs. Trainees are usually offered a
and/or subtracts from the menu as he sees fit. This means a            salary, usually only ten percent of an executive chef salary.
lot of research done outside the kitchen, looking at trends in         After “training,” an aide becomes a commis chef, doing small
the market — what’s current, what’s classic, what people are           tasks such as preparing food, slicing meat, peeling vegetables,
looking for. While executive chefs must know how to cook, they         among others. After two years as a commis chef, you may be
are required more to develop the business, to plan the budget          promoted to become an actual station chef, a chef de partie
of the kitchen, and to hire, train, and supervise the kitchen          or a line cook. In Europe, commis chefs take longer to get
staff.                                                                 promoted because of the several levels of commis chef that
                                                                       they must pass first, often taking four years. In the kitchen, a
Definitely, an executive chef does a lot of managerial work,           chef de partie cooks within his assigned station and is assisted
which is why proper and adequate training is key and it takes          by the commis chefs.
several years of work experience to achieve the executive
chef position. It is possible to become a chef even without            After six or seven years as a station chef, advancement to the
a high school diploma, but definitely much easier with some            sous chef position is possible. A sous chef is almost as important
culinary school attendance. Vocational and trade schools,              as the executive chef because while the executive chef is out
and colleges offer three to four course programs of both the           doing market and trend research and financial management, the
lecture and practical sort, where students not only understand         sous chef is in charge of the kitchen. Sometimes, a distinction
cooking theories and learn about world cuisines, they also             is made between a chef de cuisine and an executive chef job.
get to do actual cooking. Formal schooling also provides such          While the job description is more or less the same, a chef de
practicalities that every executive chef should know, such as          cuisine will be in charge of a small café or restaurant, whereas
shopping for and selection of food, the accompanying cost              an executive chef will handle much larger establishments.
control, food handling, sanitation, waste minimization, and
others.                                                                These different establishments are all in need of the executive
                                                                       chefs. The executive chef salary is often determined according
If you want an executive chef position, however, it’s the longer,      to the kind of business being run. An executive chef with little
more elaborate culinary course that you should take into               managerial experience may expect a starting salary of $36,500
consideration. Universities and professional associations offer        per year, increasing through the years. The highest paid
courses that also tackle managerial duties. Students are not           executive chefs receive up to $58,700. Fine dining restaurants
only made to learn supervisory work, but financial analysis,           and five star hotels may offer this much to their experienced
accounting, and budgeting as well. An executive chef job               executive chefs, while government offices on a federal level,
entails assuring the practicality of a particular dish. It may be      non-government organizations, and hospitals may offer slightly
scrumptious, but if it costs too much to make, it will mean the        lower executive chef salaries. Government offices on the state
menu price will be high as well, and perhaps not a favorite            and local levels will pay executive chef salary of only $48,000.
among your restaurant clientele. Determining cost control, a
must in an executive chef position, is often fine tuned in an          Executive chefs who run their own restaurants or catering
advanced chef course.                                                  services make only around $51,400, while those working in
                                                                       restaurant franchises earn around $50,640. Executive chefs
Executive chefs normally start from the very bottom, as                working in universities are paid $51,000, while those in lower
trainees or aides hired straight out of culinary schools or the        school levels make around $45,000.




PAGE                                                       www.chefcrossing.com                                              continued on back
         EMPLOYMENTCROSSING | BUSINESSDEVELOPMENTCROSSING
                              ChEfCROSSING
                  jobs—
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Chef Career Feature

Executive chef jobs do pay well and, aside from having a lot             there will be more people wanting to dine out or take vacations.
of creative freedom and daily challenges, have their share               This will in turn, benefit restaurant and hotel chefs.
of glamour as well. However, to be an executive chef means
certain sacrifices are to be made; you have to work long,                Surveys show that many trainees leave their positions for
mostly tiring hours, there is little concession to error, and you        other jobs, or to go back to schools for adequate chef job
will end up celebrating holidays in the kitchen. However, most           training, leaving a lot of positions open for new trainees. In
executive chefs will testify that all the sacrifices are worth the       a similar vein, chefs in their current executive chef positions
rewards.                                                                 may also branch out to higher paying positions, such as food
                                                                         and beverage management in hotels, or full-time restaurant
Executive chef positions and chef positions in general, have a           management, and/or ownership. In the case of the latter, it is
very healthy job outlook. As the economy begins to improve,              most likely that they’ll be hiring executive chefs of their own.
allowing a higher rate of pay increases for the majority of the
population, and affording more leisure time in the process,




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