So, You Want to Be a Chef?: How to Get Started in the World of Culinary Arts (Be What You Want) - Softcover

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J. M. Bedell spent her childhood daydreaming in hayfields, talking to cows, and finding her heroes between the pages of books. She is a full-time writer of historical fiction and nonfiction for children. She received her MFA in creative writing from Hamline University in Minnesota. She lives with her husband and two Siberian huskies in Portland, Oregon. Visit her at JMBedell.com.

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So, You Want to Be a Chef? 1 Choosing a Career in the Culinary Arts


Choosing a career in the culinary arts begins with an interest in food—but it doesn’t end there. You may love food and love to eat, but focusing your life’s work in the culinary field is a big decision and requires some thought. There are many paths that you can take, and honestly assessing your interests and personality traits will narrow your options. Think about the five passions listed below. If one of them makes you scream, “Hey, I think that’s me!” then you may want to earn a living with food.
Reasons You May Want to Work in the Culinary Arts

A Passion for Cooking Food

Do fresh fruits and vegetables make you smile? Does a list of ingredients send your mind spinning with new recipe ideas? Do you scribble down menu plans as you walk through the farmers’ market? Does the smell of freshly ground spices make your tongue tingle? A passion for food combined with a passion for cooking is important if you want to pursue a career as a chef, a sous chef, a pastry chef, a baker, a caterer, or any of the other careers for which the kitchen is your workplace. Besides cooking, these careers require that you be creative and artistic. The jobs are physically demanding. Expect to work long hours standing on your feet.

A Passion for Writing about Food

Do you see a beautifully designed plate of food and immediately think of creative adjectives to describe it? Does an excellent meal end with you sharing your opinions about it with friends? When you hear about a new food product, do you immediately look for more information and want to share it with others? Do you love to experiment with recipes? If your love for food is expressed through writing, then consider a culinary arts career in publishing or other forms of media. Your future may lie in becoming a food critic, a food journalist, or a cookbook author. You may also pursue a career in television or in advertising.

A Passion for Capturing the Physical Beauty of Food

Do you look at a baked apple pie and see a thing of beauty? Does the image of a perfect cluster of grapes mesmerize you? The artist’s eye is required if you’re going to succeed as a food photographer or a food stylist. An understanding of color, texture, and form is also important if you want to excel as a chef, a pastry chef, or a specialty cake designer.

A Passion for Managing People and Events

Do you make lists? Does the thought of organizing a big event send you into squeals of delight? Are you a person who can multitask, manage people, and take charge in any situation without falling apart, getting angry, or collapsing under the stress? If so, then owning or managing a restaurant might be the culinary career for you. Those skills are also important if you want to own a catering business, run a food truck, or work in television. Chefs should also hone these skills if they hope to run a happy and efficient kitchen.

A Passion for Improving the Food Supply

Does the idea of preservatives in your food make you cringe? When you hear about a salmonella outbreak, does it make you want to figure out ways to prevent it from happening again? Does your heart ache for those who go to bed hungry? Not all culinary careers require that you work directly with food. If you would rather work behind the scenes or in a laboratory, consider working as a food scientist. Food scientists create new recipes, discover new ways to package foods, strive to keep the nation’s food supply safe, and conduct research to improve food quality and productivity.

25 Places Where Culinary Professionals Work

1. Airlines

2. Assisted-living facilities

3. Bakeries and pastry shops

4. Breweries

5. Catering companies

6. Commissary kitchens

7. Correctional centers

8. Cruise ships

9. Development kitchens

10. Educational institutions

11. Hospitals

12. Hotels

13. Magazine and book publishing houses

14. Military bases

15. Nursing homes

16. Private households

17. Public relations and marketing firms

18. Resorts and spas

19. Restaurants

20. Retirement communities

21. Sales offices of restaurant equipment or ingredients

22. Specialty food stores

23. Television and radio stations

24. Test kitchens

25. Wineries

As you start thinking about a career in the culinary arts, it’s important to consider the many ways your dream can come true. You may go to culinary school, you may be tutored by one or more mentors, or you may be trained through a variety of different jobs. In the following interview, Roland Mesnier tells how he started out as a poor, small-town boy in France and worked his way up to one of the highest culinary positions in the United States, executive pastry chef to the president.
Seasoned Profile


Name: Roland Mesnier

Job: Executive pastry chef, the White House

Awards: Antonin Carême Medal; French Knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit; Légion d’Honneur, the highest honor bestowed on a French citizen; member of Chocolatier magazine and Pastry Art and Design magazine’s (merged and renamed Dessert Professional magazine) Hall of Fame

Education: Doctorate of Culinary Arts, Johnson & Wales University, South Carolina

Outside the Kitchen: Author of many books, including Dessert University; Basic to Beautiful Cakes; All the Presidents’ Pastries: Twenty-Five Years in the White House, A Memoir; A Sweet World of White House Desserts

Quote by the Chef:

“You must make things happen for yourself. Don’t rely

on others. If you want it to happen, open the doors and do it yourself.”

Quotes about the Chef:

“During our White House years together, Roland could work his magic for a small family gathering or a dinner for six hundred. Everything he ever prepared was made with love and an unfaltering dedication to the art of pastry making and the highest standards of his profession.”

—Hillary Rodham Clinton

“What does Roland Mesnier make with seven pounds of chocolate, six pounds of butter, and lots of imagination? Pure perfection!”

—Laura Bush

When did you discover a love for baking and want to focus your career in that area?

I was born in the tiny village of Bonnay, France, as one of nine kids. We were very poor, with no electricity and no running water. We only had what we grew in the garden and raised for meat. Both my parents worked all day to bring home enough money for us to live. But we were loved. They were great parents, and we were a happy family. I had two older brothers in the food business. One was a baker and the other owned a pastry shop. When I wasn’t in school, I had to work. I spent my summers working at the pastry shop. There I saw all kinds of pastries being made. I was mesmerized by the transformation that happened when you took ingredients, mixed them together, put them in the oven, and pulled out a beautiful cake. I was blown away by that. I was about twelve when I knew I wanted to be a pastry chef.

Tell about your journey from working in a pastry shop in France to accepting the position of executive pastry chef in the White House.

When I was around fourteen, I left school and the pastry shop to get an apprenticeship in a bigger town. I wanted to work for someone who made really good pastries. I signed a three-year contract to work as an apprentice at the Bonnot Pastry Shop in...