Thursday, March 24, 2011

Looking for the next Journey

Yesterday I went to a job interview.  It was a very, very strange to do this.  When I left Arrowhead Water, I tried for 16 months to get a job interviews in logistics or warehouse management.  I had one interview in all that time.  You get out of practice.  When culinary school came along I told myself, "This is just for me, I'm not going to work in the industry".  Well, never say never.  I won't know the result for a few days.  The Executive Chef was very young,  but I could feel he had a very good grasp of what he wanted to do at the galley he oversaw.  I say galley as he is the chef at a private yacht club here in Long Beach.   I took some chocolate covered candied orange peels I had made and gave to him to try.  That's something you really can't do looking for a job in a warehouse.  Some may call it a bribe, I prefer to call it a resume.

If you ever decide to go to culinary school or work in the culinary industry, you should know two things.  One, it is very hard work and two, it pays next to nothing to start.  Paying $25K to $50K to go to school to start out making $10 or $12 bucks an hour is something they tell you before you start school.  So why do it?

People gotta eat!  And, you get to meet people like Tyler or work at a private yacht club.  Not everything is about money.  Sometimes, its about finding the next journey.

3 comments:

soon2baRN said...

Well said and much luck to you Uncle Tommy!!!

hbfindog said...

Tom, I really enjoy your 2nd life journey. I work with Chris and enjoy cooking(sometimes). I find it hard to enjoy cooking at the firehouse. 1st obstacle is the budget...$10 for lunch and dinner per guy. I have to be creative. But I think the hardest thing to overcome is the varied tastes of the guys. They seem to like when I cook a nice dish but they also like a "shoe-leather" steak just because it is steak! I have thought alot about learning more for personal enjoyment but I'm not sure I want to dish out the money for an expensive school. I have found some individual specialty classes offered by Sur-la-Table and Williams Sonoma that are reasonable. Do you have any experience with these classes and what do you think about them? jeff

Denise said...

One of my new favorite quotes is from you, "Sometimes, its about finding the next journey." I think, at a certain age, it's all about the journey. Glad to be at that 'certain age' and share it with you! Buon appetito!