Food professionals say many jobs exist for trained chefs

ANDERSON -- A 3-year-old girl stood on a small stool in the kitchen of her grandmother's house.\nShe watched her grandmother prepare the meal. Eagerly, she waited for the hot skillet to cool some so her grandmother would let her cook. She learned to put a piece of cheese on a cracker and let it melt.\nToday, that child, Amy Barnes, 27, is a pastry chef at Anderson Country Club.\nBarnes is one of many young people who take their love of cooking to the professional level.\nOpportunities in the culinary arts are unlimited, said Carl Behnke, hospitality and management chef at Purdue University. Often, the impression of a chef's life is misguided.\n"If you go in thinking you are going to be the next Emeril on TV going 'Bam!,' that's only about 1 percent of the chefs," Behnke said. "But in terms of cooking, we're the fastest-growing profession out there."\nChefs have to love to cook and know how to work hard, he said. The days are long. Cruise ship chefs work four months on and four months off. But they are working almost non-stop for the four months on board, cooking nine meals a day, getting only shift breaks and an occasional shore leave. They rarely get a day off.\n"I don't know a chef that works a 40-hour week," Behnke said. "I worked 75- and 80-hour weeks when I was in industry."\nBarnes is a chef on a 40-hour week, but her boss, executive chef Raul Roges, works the long hours Behnke mentioned.\n"I'm a hard worker, but I love food," Roges said. "The hours are long, but you have to have a vocation to serve people -- that's what it's all about."\nRoges, 39, supervises a staff of about 12 during two shifts. He used to work in the family's electronic retail business in Venezuela, but he always liked to cook. At 15, he had a chance to take a cooking class. In college, he took a year out to take classes in French cooking.\nAs an executive chef, he manages people and plans menus for parties and for the club's restaurant. He continually reads trade magazines to keep up with the trends so he can experiment with new flavor combinations.\nFusion is big right now, Roges said. It's the mixing of more than one cultural dish. It's that kind of experimentation that makes the job exciting, different and fun.\nThe financial rewards can be huge too. The median figure is about $50,000 a year. But executive chefs in a four-star restaurant will make six-figure incomes. Their wages often are tied to performance.\nStudents can expect good job security.\n"Unlike retail, there are no layoffs," Roges said. "It's hard to find qualified people."\nBarnes said her college crammed four years of classes in just under three years. Students went year round.\nThe Culinary Institute of America offers four- and two-year degrees, said Stephan Hengst, senior communications manager. Students are expected to already have experience in a traditional restaurant as a line cook or something more than with a Burger King or McDonald's.\n"We want them to understand what they are getting into," Hengst said. "Culinary arts are something they pursue because they have a passion for food and entertaining."\nChefs often are working when others want to go out and relax, he added. It's not uncommon for a chef to work until 1 or 2 a.m., depending on the career path. But there are other jobs that are the traditional 9 to 5, working in corporate communications and other food industry jobs and in education.\n"There are so many career paths," Hengst said. "There are a lot of opportunities because our society has a lot of foodies that are looking for the next new exciting thing that's out there."\nExecutive chef Roges suggests anyone considering a career as a chef should do a personal inventory of his desires. A person must want to serve others and be willing to make sacrifices.\n"You sacrifice holidays," Roges said. "You will be working when everyone is having fun"