looking for some career advice - again
Thread Starter: murdrobe Started: Sun 13 Jul 2008 Replies: 9
i posted on here a while back asking roughly what to do when finished with my NVQ level 2 catering course and got some helpful advice but i wanted to update my situation and see if anyone else had anything to offer.
i have now finished college (waiting for my certificates to come through for both the NVQ2 and lvl 2 food hygiene)
i applied to go onto the level 3 course but was simply told i wasnt fast enough around the kitchen. my level 2 course contained a total of 1 real production lesson and no work experience, our class was stuck doing the prep work for it for the whole year, basically the college messed up and our class has to suffer for it as now i have no practical experience on which to look for a job and this is my problem.
at home i am teaching myself basic molecular gastronomy and doing things like trying to perfect my own recipes. but i need to find work or something so that i can carry this on as some of the equipment is rather expensive and there is nowhere that actually teaches this stuff that i can find by searching the internet.
i live in the north west of england i have some good restaurants on my doorstep like northcote manor is roughly 3 miles from my house, this is another part of my problem as appropriate chef jobs are hard to come by up here, especially with being told that im not fast enough in a kitchen.
basically my confidence is shaken, im very confident in my techniques, ingredient knowledge and stuff but i need something that would teach me how to behave professionally, and give me the confidence to do just that.
i believe a chefs job to have to be enjoyable to counteract the hard work, what i do not find enjoyable is being stuck working in some little grotty pub, cooking food i wouldnt serve to a pet nevermind a paying customer. i have been in this position allready and it just gave me the "cant be bothered" approach to it.
im like fighting with myself at the moment because its seeming like im trying to run before i can walk but i dont know what else to do. is there no way to get around working in some horrible place to gain the piece of paper saying i have experience?
i have an enormous passion for food that i just cant describe and i dont want to waste it, however i dont know what to do. i cant get a job without experience and i cant get the experience without a job.
what i would like to get into is just being a developer of food as i feel thats what i am, i could imagine myself living in a feran adria style laboratory and designing menu's for high class restaurants all day long, playing with new exciting ingredients, that would be my ideal job in the long term aspects of things.
i dont have any experience to say wether there is even a job title that falls under that nevermind how to get into it, im just wondering can anyone give me some advice as to what to look into doing as a next step towards that goal and how would i go about it?
i really just want something that gives me some freedom within the kitchen, every chef dreams of "making something theyre own" and of course my other option would be to look into starting something of my own but doing that with no exerience is 1 hell of a daunting task, i think i could do it but getting the backing for it with no experience is another task entirely.
