If you have a flair for treating people with your mouth watering delicacies and also make a living out of this, you can take up the career as a chef. To come up in this career it is better to have a four year degree or a three year diploma in catering and hotel management from a reputed institute. You must have passed your school and eligible to register yourself for a degree course. You must be prepared to work on weekends standing on your feet in hot environment, taking cuts and burns, working in an environment full of oil fumes, get surrounded by various vegetables, meat, fish and chicken. Cooking is an art. If you love cooking take up cooking as a career. You must have lot of patience and endurance as a chef. You must always be alert in the kitchen and prepared to take decisions fast. There will be many people working in the kitchen along with you and many items are being prepared simultaneously, but you must concentrate on preparing the food as per order only and must not get diverted.
The food prepared by you is consumed by a lot of people. So, as a chef you are expected to be of good habits and maintain personal hygiene. You must know how to keep your working place tidy and free from any dust and foreign particles. You must ensure that the ingredients that go into the preparation is properly cleaned and is fresh. You must take special care with regard to non-vegetarian food. The meat and fish should properly be cleaned before cooking. You must have creative ideas to cook different types of food in the least possible time. You must have the ability and bent of mind to resolve any conflicts that may arise among the people working with you. You must also know the value of money. You must not waste or allow other workers to waste any ingredients that go in to the preparation of the food items.
If you want to achieve success as a chef you must learn to work under stress. You must have excellent communicating skills as you will be working with so many other cooks in the kitchen. Once you gain experience, you will get promotions with higher salary and perks. You can also join Catering institutes as a faculty or can write books about catering .The experience gained by you can be used to take big assignments of supplying food to air lines, large canteens, and factories.
