So you’ve loved cooking since you were little, and now you’re wondering what life would hold if you decided to pursue your passion full-time. Do chefs get paid well? What about stability? Benefits? Would you really be able to do well in life as a chef? Well, here’s a little list to get you psyched up about your prospects!
5. You never starve.
This is the most obvious of the reasons, but it still deserves a mention. As a chef, you always have an abundance of food! And not just any food – if you play your cards right and get hired at a place that serves food you love, you get to be in gastronomic heaven every day! (Just be sure to get a gym membership when you get hired). Seriously, you can get spoiled from all the tasty food you get to sample every day.
4. Pay
Contrary to the popular conception, there are some very handsomely salaried positions out there for career chefs! If you pursue your education and move up to advanced positions in one of the tens of thousands of resorts, hotels, cruise ships, or other hospitality purveyors in the world, you can easily make six figures! Many of my current Culinary Arts teachers have been employed in Executive Chef or Food and Beverage Director positions at salaries well over $100,000 a year
3. Stability
People always gotta eat. That will never stop. (If it ever did, I’d shoot myself anyway). Every person on earth enjoys a good meal. If you can provide that good meal, you’re in business as a chef. Sure, individual restaurants can be affected by economic tides and troubles, but this industry as a whole still provides some of the most long-term stability imaginable. (Unlike record companies and newspapers).
2. Travel
This goes hand-in-hand with the section on stability – people all over the world like to eat! And thus, there is opportunity all over the world for those who like to feed people who like to eat. Want to see the world? Become a chef on a cruise ship. Always wanted to visit Italy? Find an internship at an Italian restaurant. Excellent work experience in a beautiful foreign country you wanted to visit anyway? Can you say “win-win”??
1. Passion
Sure, you can find plenty of good-sounding statistics for any industry, even crappy ones. (Multi-level marketing, I’ve got my eye on you…) But I believe this is what it really comes down to: if you are fulfilling your passion, your greater purpose in life, you will be content. You will be happier than you would in any other field, no matter how great the money and perks would have been. And you will find new ways to innovate and revolutionize the field where you are truly passionate about your work – not something likely to happen when you dread going in every day. No matter how you slice it, it’s just 1000% better if you have the passion for what you do.