what's it cost to be a chef these days?

Well for starters...You can't really put a price on all of the time you will not get to spend spend with friends and family on holidays and weekends.

Also you don't just graduate from culinary school and walk into a chef position, even though they would like you to believe this. Most people will toil for several years making anywhere from 9 to 12 dollars an hour before they gain enough experience to handle the duties of being a chef.

Once you achieve this goal you can expect to make anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000 as a Sous Chef. As an Executive Chef, about $30,000 on the low end to $80,000 on the high end depending on the location and the type of establishment. My best guess would be that an average salary for most Executive Chef's locally is about $40,000. But keep in mind, most of us haven't worked a 40 hour week in years. I average 50 to 60 hours a week myself. And I work most holidays and weekends.

Consider that it costs about $35,000 to attend Sullivan's culinary program and the number of chef positions available at any given time, you really have to have a serious passion about what you do to enter a career in food-service. It's tough business, but for myself, I gain satisfaction knowing that I probably put a smile on at least one persons face everyday....

I've thought about going to a culinary school for years, but when it comes down to it I always chicken out. It just seems like a lot of work to get to the eventual payoff, and even then you still work long hours... then again if I love it as much as I think I will it might all be worth it. The way I've been looking at it lately is just to work in my current field and keep saving and saving and 20 years down the road I can open my own place and hire the kind of staff and run the kind of restaurant I want.

The way I've been looking at it lately is just to work in my current field and keep saving and saving and 20 years down the road I can open my own place and hire the kind of staff and run the kind of restaurant I want.

Have you read Kitchen Confidential(Bourdain)? I cant remember exactly how he put it but something to the extent of "thats a great way to turn a large sum of money in a little one". Its a great read.

I completely agree with Dan. The cost on your family can out-weigh the profession. It cost me $25K to attend Sullivan in the early 90's. Two and one half years of working 50+ hours a week and EVERY weekend and holiday I had enough. Most of my time was in the Counrty Club circuit which is not as demanding in some ways as public restaurant work. I am still very passionate about food, still do some private dinner parties but dont miss the hours. I was older when I dove in (mid 30's) I think it is better to get started when you are young and single. Or the very least, no kids because you will miss every thing they do. There were lots of fun times and I have great respect for the guys on the line. My hats off to all that have stuck it out.

The way I've been looking at it lately is just to work in my current field and keep saving and saving and 20 years down the road I can open my own place and hire the kind of staff and run the kind of restaurant I want.

Have you read Kitchen Confidential(Bourdain)? I cant remember exactly how he put it but something to the extent of "thats a great way to turn a large sum of money in a little one". Its a great read.

No, I haven't read it but I feel confident enough with my years of experience in the restaurant and catering business that I could be successful. In all honesty, opening a restaurant is a big risk no matter what.

well, Dan has pretty much said it all! It takes a hell of alot of time to get to the "Exec. Chef" position unless you are in the right place at the right time. Then, its work work work, and then some. It is a labor of love, constant babysitting, putting out fires while cooking or expoditing, then off to order the next days neccessities hoping that something hasnt been forgotten. You get to work and go, go, go, eat cold food that should be hot9in sperts), deal with searching through product as it comes in the back door only to find most of it is unacceptable, and the wait, for the next truck to come, cook some lunch, while prepping for the night, and on and on! Usually 4 cooks depending on the size of the establishment, making sure that they dont !&#@ up, reading all tickets and dealing with atleast 10 servers. But at the end of a long day, you do get to go home or to your favorite spot, recap the day/night and think about how to get better and better. Once you get into it and find out you really love it, then you have chosen the right career, and I will say there are perks, you get to meet other chefs, world renowned chefs, attend celebrity functions, "people dig meeting chefs" uhm, tour the food network, cook at the Beard House, be on T.V. (heres a goofy story but the guys I bought my motorcycle from like food and they would tease me about being on t.v. and say that I was a celebrity and man I wish i could be on tv, now they are on the WB channel 7 acting like rock stars! hahaha) the list goes on and on! Sometimes we dont know how we do what we do but "we come back the next day and do it all over again as best as we can" Expect perfection everyday, it may not happen but try your damnest to achieve it! Peace

After 15 years in the business I have changed careers into something more stable and suitable to a family life. The first five years were great. Working nights with the fella's and all the hangin out smokin by the dumpster, goofin off, shift beers etc. and of course the joy and passion for putting out a killer product with the kitchen team. After starting a family I did manage to keep day jobs at various lunch cafe's, gourmet to go's / grocer's for ten years, but after repetitive motion injuries, shell shock and frayed nerves my time was just up. Now I have things like Health insurance, real vacation time, lunch breaks and plenty of time to watch my kids grow up. I never went to culinary school but worked alongside many students and graduates who were very frustrated with being in such debt and making $9 hr. Some people just have it in there blood and others don't. I have seen dishwashers whom are more talented than some of the cooking school grads I have worked with. Some employers look for people who did not go to culinary school because of the disillusionment issues of the "flash in the pan" excitement that they seek and other high expectations that they feed off of from watching too much reality T.V.
It's not for everyone , but my heart goes out to all the cooks our there who are working there arse's off putting out the great food that we read about on here.

I am no chef, by any means, but "food" has been my life ever since my first job as a prep cook at Macaroni Grille when I was 16....I moved from there to the line at The Terrace (quite sure I was the youngest line cook they ever had)..I worked under Ed Schweitzer, who is a tremendous resource of knowledge. I now work in a different aspect of the foodservice business, and it fills a lot of the voids that are left from not being in day to day kitchen activities. I feed the rest of that hunger by doing private caterings, and cooking a bunch of dinner parties. With where my family is in our lives right now, culinary school doesn't fit. It has always been a dream of mine to be an "official" chef, and I feel at some point I will realize that dream. When cooking, it is the only time when I feel that I am not truly "working".