Chef Jobs And Training

my boyfriend has culinary training, and currently works for a hotel as the food and bev supervisor. he is thinking about taking a job as the seux chef at the hotel, if the pay is right. does anyone know what a seux chef gets paid on average? thanks!

~Jane
sorry, the spell check didn’t say anything about the spelling… and he is already creating menus and making them happen.
basically, i need to know if it would at least equal a $16/hr job

Sous chef (note the spelling! literally "under chief.") would be a step up from his current position, and is the next step to executive chef. This assumes his ambition is in actually running a kitchen and creating the menus.

Pay varies wildly depending on city, type of restaurant/hotel and location of same.

Myself, if I were to "go pro,", a sous chef position would be something special.

EDIT: I wouldn’t accept $16/hr. Assuming an 8 hour day (HA!) I’d want a minimum of $18, but would be looking for a guarantee of bumps to $19 then $20 at 3-4 month intervals with a renegotiation after a year. Plus benefits; sick time, vacation and health care. Profit sharing and a 401(k) would be nice, but aren’t a deal breaker.

All this is assuming that we’re talking about a "good" restaurant.

Go to salary.com. It’s genearlly overpriced by about 10% (because it uses information reported by people who tend to overstate what they make) but gives you a good idea. Average base salary for Executive Chef in Boston is about $80,000.

For a year.

As of like September 2004, when you first start off its lke $57,524.

I know if I wanted too work in a resort or something I would have to go to school for it….
but I just want to open my own bakery in cali
and hire someone that has gone to school for it
but also do some of the work myself
is there anyway I can find a pastry chef train under
I mean not to get paid for working for them
just do it to pick up some skills
My fiancee told me to do whatever I wanted
and his father said he would pay for my schooling
but I dont want to do that
what do you think?

I am a former chef myself, and training with a good pastry chef is essential, and school is to, I would train with the pastry chef now, and in a few years go to school, here in Canada we use the same type of system as the Europeans, it is called and apprenticeship, were you work, go to school, work and go to school again, fill the rest of the required time for your period of qualification, then write an exam and get a certificate for the trade.

Now in the US it is different, so work a few years get the training, and then let your fiancees father pay for your schooling the pre school training will give you an advantage over the others.

My partner and i have always discussed moving close to the sea, we both love the sea. We love Melbourne, but would love a change, not immediately as we need to find the right area. We have always planned to retire by the sea, but melbourne is becoming too hectic, battling peak hour on roads is crazy etc, we would love to do the change sooner than retirement (we are no where near retirement age), hopefully in next 1-4 years.

Any suggestions of nice coastal towns in Victoria, that are not largely populated, reasonable real estate prices, employment opportunities for a chef and nurse and will need to consider kindergarten/school for baby son in a few years.

Would prefer to stay away from major tourist towns, but would appreciate any ideas for us to look in to. Distance from Melbourne is not an issue.

Thanks in advance for any ideas/suggestions.

Port Fairy,a beautiful little place with friendly people.

http://au.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=Port+Fairy&fr=yfp-t-501&ei=UTF-8

http://www.whereis.com/VIC/Port-Fairy#session=MjA=

http://www.portfairyfolkfestival.com/

Why would a chef or any other cook be lecturing in Australia?

Im a junior in high school and I have decided that I want to be a pastry chef when I get older. Im thinking about going to J&W culinary university , is this a good school choice and is it hard to get into? or Should I go to a real college first and then culinary school? Is there anything I can do right now to get practice? Can anyone who is a pastry chef tell me where they went to school/learned to be a pastry chef, about their job and what its like and, if they dont mind, how much they earn? What would the salary of a pastry chef be at a hotel? Thanks!!

I will assume you mean Johnson and Wales University. I hate to break your bubble, but J&W is a REAL university. They offer Bachelors degrees in several academic disciplines.

I would choose them over CIA simply because anyone can get into CIA it is all about money.

I was a chef or many years and held the title of Executive Chef for most of my 30 plus years in the business.

Now for the real world. I really wouldn’t recommend becoming a chef to anyone. It is one of the hardest most time demanding fields in the world. The hours rank with those put in by physicians. I had friends who would talk about deadlines in a week or a day.. I always laughed. I had a deadline every 30 seconds and if I missed one the whole night could come tumbling down.

I am a rare drinker, because I saw so many of my chef friends who became alcoholics. I am not 60 and I have attended the funerals of four close friends who drank themselves to death, all but one was younger than I am.

I know only one chef who isn’t divorced. I wouldn’t have been but I had a tragedy in my life. My wife loved the businees as I did.

The hours a pastry chef works are even worse then normal since many start at 3 AM.

Now for the good parts. The money for a GOOD pastry chef in a major hotel ( and upper end major, like the Fairmont Orchid or the Four Seasons in Hawaii) would be in the range of 80,000 and up. The is the Chef as in the deptment head.

If you really want a career in cooking don’t limit your thinking to just pastry. You may find it is just a start, and the Excutive Chef will always be paid the higher salary and there is a ladder to go up, on to F&B Manager and up.

I loved and missed the creativity of the kitchen but I don’t miss the hours or the politics.

I hope this helps, if you want to know more about the real business feel free to email me with your questions.

as a verbal agreement, i’m allowed to have 2 days off every week. but then he changes the schedule and demands all the chefs to work 7 days straight because he just fired 2 chefs. is this legal?

There is more than one issue involved here. Yes your employer can change your schedule without notification.
No you do not have to work seven days a week there are laws that govern not only minimum wages and overtime pay, but regulate days off.
I do not have all that information at my finger tips, but the fact that you are salaried does not exempt your employer from following wage and hour laws, in all but a few exempt industries you must receive at least the minimum wage and receive time and a half for overtime. If you are salaried you employer can pay you more that what you would receive under those laws but not less.

Currently I have no culinary experience, I just love cooking.

a cooking school of some sort would be ideal… but if you could get picked up as an apprentice or sous chef at any nice restaurant, that would help more than culinary school, but it depends on who you know to be able to get that type of opportunity.

Can anyone help me, I am looking for a Qualified Chef, pref, experience with Italian cuisine, and a general cook, Any assistance would be most appreciated, I don’t really want to use an employment agency.
Thanks

Depending on your location, check the local culinary schools. Most instructors are professional chefs that often moonlight at below market rates. Some are retired with many years of services. You can even check out their top grads. The culinary schools are a great source to get recommendations.