Is Culinary Arts the Career for You?

Loving food isn’t enough to thrive as a chef. Passion and curiosity are essential, but success in the culinary world also depends on resilience, adaptability, and a strong work ethic.

Culinary Arts & Industry

Many are drawn to the creativity of cooking—crafting beautiful, flavorful dishes with their hands. But before committing, reflect on how your personality fits the demands of the industry. The job offers instant gratification, but also intense pressure.

School Or Work?

Before investing in culinary school, get real-world experience. Cooking at home is very different from working in a professional kitchen, where nights, weekends, and holidays are standard.

The Kitchen Environment

Professional kitchens are physically and mentally demanding. Expect long hours on your feet, burns, cuts, and constant multitasking. The environment can be hot, cramped, and chaotic. Success requires stamina, focus, and the ability to stay organized under pressure.

Improvisation is key—equipment may be lacking, ingredients may run out, and you’ll need to adapt quickly. Those who thrive are problem-solvers who stay calm and flexible.

Work for the Best - Seek a Mentor

Not every kitchen is welcoming—some chefs, managers, or coworkers may be difficult, and issues like substance abuse or toxic behavior can affect the work environment. But there are respected chefs and restaurateurs who foster professional, respectful kitchens. These are the mentors you want—leaders who value growth, reject hostility, and attract like-minded teams. Seek them out to build a strong foundation for your culinary career.

Adapting to the Kitchen Pace

Kitchens are unpredictable. Cancellations, last-minute changes, and special requests are the norm. Great chefs stay calm and flexible, adjusting on the fly without losing focus. Adaptability is essential.

Passion and Pride

Chefs take pride in hands-on work and constant improvement. No task is beneath them—whether it’s prepping vegetables or scrubbing pans. Mastery comes from repetition, attention to detail, and a shared commitment to excellence. The reward? Creating something truly exceptional.

Success in the Kitchen Requires Focus

Success in the kitchen requires discipline and curiosity. Hone your senses—sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. Be open to new ingredients, techniques, and flavor combinations. Learn from others, stay organized, and work collaboratively.

Top chefs build a mental library of flavors and textures, allowing them to create intuitively. Dining out, staging in other kitchens, and attending workshops can accelerate your growth. Observe, taste, and experiment. Make what inspires you your own.

Experienced chefs build a mental library of flavors, textures, aromas, and colors, allowing them to instinctively know what works on a plate. This intuition is sharpened through constant tasting, experimenting, and learning.

Dining out, staging in other kitchens, and attending workshops or classes can spark creativity and accelerate growth. When you eat, analyze the flavors—note what works, and try to recreate and personalize those combinations. Stay curious: explore global cuisines, new techniques, and emerging trends.

Cook with intuition, not just recipes. A solid grasp of culinary math, ratios, and food science gives you the freedom to improvise and adapt. Mistakes are part of the process—and often lead to breakthroughs.

Creativity thrives when grounded in knowledge and skill. With both, you’ll be ready to handle challenges and craft exceptional dishes.

Fueling Your Culinary Passion

  • Do you love cooking and enjoy engaging with people?

  • Are you curious about culinary science and math?

  • Do you regularly practice and refine your techniques—even on your days off?

  • Do you wonder why ingredients behave the way they do when cooked?

  • Are you up to date on top chefs and food industry trends?

  • Do you read culinary books, magazines, or follow food news?

  • Do you have a personal culinary library or follow food content online?

  • Do you watch cooking videos or tutorials on YouTube?

  • Do you connect with local chefs and seek mentorship?

  • Are you fascinated by kitchen tools, equipment, and new techniques?

  • Do you visit farmers markets to learn about ingredients firsthand?

  • Do you attend culinary events to network and grow?

If you answered “yes” to many of these, you’re already on the path to becoming a dedicated culinary professional.

Getting Up to Speed in the Kitchen

Station Setup

  • Develop a prep sheet and timeline for execution and completion.

  • Determine priorities for what items need to be started first and what items are secondary.

  • Be active and engaged while in the kitchen, and move with a sense of urgency and purpose.

  • Set up your station properly starting with your cutlery set, cutting boards, and sanitation bucket.

  • Keep containers at your station for waste, usable trim, and compost.

  • Don’t forget to sharpen and steel your knives regularly. If you have your knives out you should always have your steel out.

  • When beginning your prep work in the kitchen, take as many things you can gather for your mise en place at one time to your station.

  • Never walk anywhere empty-handed. If you are going to the storeroom or walk-in, what can you take back to storage?

  • Eliminate trips to the walk-in cooler, dry storage, or dish room by getting enough things to keep you busy for a while but not so much that it creates clutter, disorganization, or food safety issues.

Begin Production

  • Make sure your equipment is turned on and pre-heat broilers, ovens, etc.

  • Assemble all of your tools and small wares for service.

  • When firing food, learn what to start first, what can be started and somewhat ignored, and what needs constant attention.

  • Remember that items taking the longest to cook should be started the earliest (stocks, soups, sauces, braises, and stews).

  • Choose larger tasks or preps that don’t require 100% of your attention the entire time so you can complete smaller tasks in between (dicing veg can be done in between braising or sauce prep).

  • Start two or three projects at once that you can monitor and rotate through as they are developing or cooking.

  • Combine like tasks for faster prep and use the same movements for all the items. For example; peel all vegetables at once, dice all onions for multiple preps at once, and blanch all vegetables at once.

  • Place a pile of small items like mushrooms or green beans on your cutting board for prepping rather than picking them out of a container one at a time.

Check-In & Check-Off

  • Ask the chef, sous chef, or other cooks how long it typically should take to do preparation or to set up your station.

  • Check the time when you start a project. See how long it takes to complete and work to beat that time during the next opportunity.

  • Focus on not wasting movements

  • Think of the whole prep work process as a huge puzzle and as you become familiar with your station all the pieces will come together.

  • Consistency is important; if you have the speed but produce a subpar product you will lose time fixing it.

  • Practice and repetition will make you faster and more efficient

  • Be better tomorrow than you were today, and better still the day after tomorrow

Working the Line

Teamwork & Communication

  • Communication with the culinary team is important during service time

  • Special requests will always create problems if you aren’t paying proper attention to details

Working the Rush

  • Speed often results in sloppy work especially if you have to spend extra time to redo it

  • Take time for plate presentations

  • Taking a little extra time to complete an order is often forgiven if you deliver quality food

  • Having sufficient mise en place, par levels, and backups will help you stay out of the weeds

  • Practice repetitive motions for minimal movement

Review & Replenish

  • Keep hydrated

  • Step back occasionally to get a better focus on your orders

  • Periodically ask for an “all-day” so you make sure you haven’t missed any orders

  • It’s better to under-cook a steak a little because it can always be cooked more. If it’s overcooked you have to throw it out and start over

  • Don’t forget to taste sauces and other preparations prior to the start of service.

  • Don’t forget to season foods properly; taste as much as you can during service to maintain consistency

  • Don’t get discouraged when multiple tickets are called in, just keep focused

  • Don’t be too proud to ask for help if you get in the weeds!

Organization
Look at the big picture - Mental Focus

  • Be knowledgeable about your workstation and understand how it integrates with the rest of the kitchen and the entire operation.

  • On your way to work before you begin your shift, plan and visualize your prep from start to finish.

Personal Mise en Place

  • Sharpen your cutlery prior to the start of your shift.

  • Organize the tools and equipment you will need at the beginning of your shift.

Planning Your Prep

  • Plan out a prep list of your station and know before you get in the door exactly what you will need to do to get your station set up in time for service.

  • A prep sheet includes the par stock of each item needed for the day.

  • Set up order sheets if it is your responsibility to order food for your station.

Station Organization

  • Always follow through and finish up your prep; don’t leave things half done or not cleaned properly.

  • Return food and equipment to their proper storage place.

  • Don’t leave your prep work for others to do.

  • Practice multi-tasking and work simplification.

  • Keep a clean station and periodically stop to clean up and re-organize yourself.

  • Carry an instant-read thermometer and a kitchen towel with you at all times

  • Use a timer to remind you when you have things in the oven.

  • De-cluttering will improve your work space immediately.

  • Organize your space to allow for the most used items to be in easy reach. Organize your walk-in and reach-in areas similarly, making sure you label all allocated space - dry, cold, freezer, etc.

The Big & Small Picture

  • The key to productivity is not equal load-sharing but cross-trained people who can support more than one station. This is where training and coaching is critical.

  • Rushing doesn’t help if you have to do the job over again because it creates sloppiness and poor quality.

  • Pay attention to the small details that will make you a better culinary professional.

Culinary Skills

What every culinary professional should know

The Foundation

  • Mise en place skills, set up, service, breakdown, and cleanup

  • Culinary math and science

  • Sanitation

  • Knife Skills

  • Classic vegetable cuts

  • Basic cooking techniques, sauté, grill, roast, fry, braise, bake, and poach

  • Herb and spice identification

  • How to season

  • Classic ethnic flavor profiles

  • Flavor layering

Stocks, Soups & Sauces

  • Stock preparation

  • Soup, clear, consommé, cream, puree, and bisque

  • Sauce Preparation, grande sauces, small sauces, beurre blanc, coulis, pan sauces

  • Cold sauces, vinaigrettes and emulsions

Proteins

  • Understand meat cuts to apply the appropriate cooking technique

  • Butchering meat, poultry and fish

  • Egg cookery, omelets, boiled, poached, fried

Veg Prep

  • Properly cooking vegetables to maintain good color and texture

  • Cleaning and handling fresh greens

  • Garnishing salads

  • Cooking grains and legumes

  • Pasta dough from scratch

Pastry

  • Basic pastry doughs

  • Basic cakes including sponges, angel food

  • Ice cream and sorbet preparation

  • Quick bread and muffins

  • Yeast dough

  • Dessert sauces, custard, caramel, chocolate, fruit coulis

Math & Science

  • Know culinary math and study the science of cooking.

  • Know your measurements and learn to convert them from memory.

  • Learn how to cook less with recipes and more with ratios and percentages.

  • Know your techniques so that cooking becomes intuitive.

  • Pay attention to what happens in the cooking process so that you can repeat successes and avoid failures.

  • Keep a log or journal when you are testing recipes or techniques.

Improvisation

  • Learn to improvise cooking equipment, tools, and methods

  • Recognize that things change rapidly in food service.

  • Know how to substitute ingredients if you don’t have something in your kitchen.

  • Know how to set up makeshift equipment in case of power outages or equipment breakdown.

  • If the customer wants a substitution and that’s the policy, don’t complain about it just do it.

Team Work

  • The culinary arts is a team sport.

  • Cross-Train so you can assist in other areas of the kitchen as needed.

  • Help kitchen team members when they are in the weeds.

  • Have informal meetings during your shift to discuss kitchen production.

Temperament

  • A great chef has the stamina to keep going for long periods under high pressure

Career Planning

  • Stays focused on professional goals, and understand that all experiences will ultimately help in shaping your career.

  • Recognize that you may have to settle for less pay and do tedious work when you start out so you can learn and practice your craft.

  • Practice every chance, at home, at work, in your dreams, on your day off.

Be Physically & Mentally Fit

  • Stay physically fit because tedious prep work can make your back and feet ache.

  • You must be able to think on your feet and improvise when need be.

  • Be flexible when it comes to prep and service as things change at a moment’s notice.

  • Have outside interests to relieve stress; get to the gym for a workout, run, or meditate.

Stay Out of the Weeds and Avoid the Cliff

  • Don’t let the sound of another ticket coming in discourage you or stress you out.

  • Never compromise quality just for the sake of putting plates out.

  • Recognize immediately when you make a mistake and quickly identify if you can fix it without sacrificing standards.

  • Keep a cool head because there will be times when it is going to get rough and you will need to work through it.

  • Be curious, have a willingness to learn, and never get complacent.

  • Stay cool and calm through anything a prep day or service can throw at you.