Apropos of conversations in this thread last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to get more of what I want out of a culinary career, and how to accelerate the pace of my own career, without getting bogged down in regrets about giant student loan payments left over from school and prevailing wages of scale.
I’ve chosen to scale back my commitment to L&N in hopes of getting three or four part-time jobs to replace one full-time one. I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out. You see, I think I’ve identified a niche market for my skills…
I know there are restaurants out there that want to offer house-made desserts on their menu – but they can’t justify the cost of a full-time pastry chef. Consequently, many times by necessity, they either order desserts in from a local outside shop or buy frozen ones from their purveyors. But what if you could have someone competent in your kitchen, making your own in-house desserts, for just enough hours a week to supply your demand? Then you’d have the prestige of offering house-made desserts, without the cost of a full-time pastry chef.
I’ve got a nice resume and five years crammed with experience (I was a career-changer.) I’ve worked at Limestone and Jack Fry’s and Jarfi’s and the Chef’s Table (now Carly Rae’s) and most recently at L&N (Nancy and Len were wonderful to work for, and they’ve given me a nice letter of reference to attach to my resume). I’m excited about getting into more kitchens and meeting more cooks and learning new things.
The only downside I can see is that I *might* be forgoing benefits, but only in corporate chain situations; sadly, it is practically unheard of for even full-time kitchen staff (hourly level) to be offered benefits – even after years of service (and I can’t picture myself working anywhere besides an indie restaurant, anyway.) But I figure if I have to work for low pay and little or no benefits (speaking generally here, not taking a shot at any of my former employers), then I at least want to take control of when I work and how I work.
So, come on, innkeepers, restaurateurs, sous chefs and kitchen managers – you know you’ve been wishing for a reliable, super-part-time employee to make desserts or fill in a gap in your kitchen staff schedule. Or how about that drawer full of recipes with hand-scrawled revisions that you’ve been meaning to re-type and organize into a binder, or run cost analysis on? Or that pesky weekly/monthly/quarterly inventory you never can seem to get to? I can (and have) done those things, as well. Send me a message or post to this thread if you’re interested!
Finally, I’d appreciate everyone’s thoughts on this leap of faith I’m making, even if you don’t have a job for me right now. And thanks to Robin for letting me post this – while it is an appeal for work, I think it also fits in with our discussions about the state of the industry in general.
