How old do you have to be to become a sous Chef?

Is it possible for me to become a chef?

• i know the food industry is difficult and i understand that it would take lot of dedication to make it a good career but i would like your advice on whether it is possible for me to actually achieve this career goal! i am 14 going onto 15 this year and i always have changed frequently my career choices in the past. now i only have just recently realized i want to become a Professional chef but i don't know if it is to late for me to pursue that passion! this may sound a little silly, i only think this because my parents told me to become a chef, that is a passion you need to born with, but the problem with this is though that i am a person who always changes her mind and loves a lot of things in life not only one particular passion! i know that isn't necessarily a good thing but i can't help it!!! also another problem standing in my way is that at my school we choose our electives at the end of year 8 and get stuck with the same ones until year 11, so i wont be able to start taking proper classes until year 11. i mean i could always go to after school classes of some sought but i don't really have the money and i am not aloud a small job to earn the money either (don't ask why). so i was wondering if i start in year 11, and i am starting as an amateur, is it possible for me to ever become some sought of chef and if so can you give me more detail on what i should do to get experience etc. and also how long it would take for me once i leave school to actually start my profession? thanks heaps!!! p.s. extra info like processes of what i should do to one day become successfully, sites that could help, what i should do for extra learning etc. that would be really great!!!

• Answer:

  It is never too late to decide what you want to be and besides that who says that if you do choose to become a chef you can't turn around and say to yourself a few years from now that this is not what you want. I went to regular college graduated and got out and had no clue what I wanted to do. I told my parents I was thinking about culinary school and I decided to go. Graduated and I have been a chef for the past 20 years or so. It is true that the earlier you get into the field the better off you are. I went to become a chef and had no experience at all, pretty much went into with blind faith. I know when i was in culinary school other people had been in the field for a while which is a good and bad thing. People had already picked up bad habits from working in the field which made it even more hard to change. Culinary school is typically a 2 year degree to get your associates in applied science that is what it is called. I will tell you that if you expect to get out of culinary school and make 50,000 you had better think again. Typically cook jobs pay very little. And while Chef jobs do pay a decent salary you can pretty much expect to have to be married to your job. I Work in a hotel in a large banquet kitchen and on average we feed about 1000 people a day. Tommorrow I have 4 parties equaling 2000 people. One thing I suggest is to actually get some experience in the field before you make your choice as to wether you want to do this. Go to a restaurant and ask them to put you to work. Tell them you will work for free as long as they are willing to teach you. I know for myself I had to do a 6 month internship while I was going to culinary school and I got paid absolutely nothing not one dime. It just happened to be that the particular restaurant I chose to work at did not pay internships. Hope I helped Kevin