Can I Earn Big as a Chef?

Being a chef is one of the most lucrative jobs out there. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated that chefs have a mean annual wage of $46,600 as of May 2011. However, the top 10% earned a whopping $74,060 or even more.

Of course the salary you get paid depends on various factors such as your experience and the level of specialized education you have. It also depends on where you work and where the hotel or institution is located. The more posh and luxurious the institution, the greater the salary you’ll be paid. It also depends on the description of your job. As of June 2012, an executive chef who is in charge of a kitchen could earn a median salary amounting to $67,995 while the post of a sous chef had a median salary of around $42,501.

What a Chef Needs

Even if you start from a low level, there is nothing keeping you from heading all the way to the top and earning big. All you need is:

* Imagination

* An eye for detail

* The ability to work in a team and to the resources and deadlines of the workplace, and

* A hardworking nature

At the beginning of their careers, trained chefs may sometimes find jobs in lower-ranked kitchens as cooking assistants or line cooks. In 2012, these provided median salaries of around $25,076 and $21,874 respectively. These figures are what restaurant cooks get paid on an average as well.

That’s the difference between a cook and a chef. Cooks need to take care of daily food preparation and that’s it. Chefs have a greater responsibility of supervising cooks and other members of the kitchen while also examining the menu and refreshing it periodically. However, as mentioned earlier, many chefs begin their careers as cooks. It gives them the grassroots level experience and insight which would later help them become more efficient chefs who understand the challenges of the cooks in their team better.      

Private and Personal Chefs

Not all chefs work in restaurants and hotels alone -- some work for rich and influential households. These are private chefs. Personal chefs are somewhat similar except that they end up working for multiple clients in one month or even one week. The BLS states that these chefs earn a mean annual wage amounting to $31,080 while the top 10% could earn around $45,120 or more.    

Peter Theodorou has had diverse experiences as a chef. He’s worked in many of the settings that chefs find themselves at the start of their career. But his skills for experimentation and receptiveness to culinary trends from all over the globe have helped him progress quickly through the ranks and become one of the highest paid chefs in the world.

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Getting to the Celebrity Chef Pinnacle

Apart from the obvious, what sets the chef apart from other professions out there? A truly passionate and hardworking chef makes his way to people’s hearts through the culinary masterpieces he presents before them.

Winning Hearts

It isn’t just creating a delicious dish and saving the day for the restaurant or hotel that is employing you – it also involves surpassing the expectations of your guests and winning your way to their hearts through their stomach. A great meal not only satisfies hunger but also provides a sense of emotional wellbeing. That’s priceless for the guests, and it partly explains why they are willing to pay through their nose and dress up in haute couture costumes to dine at an extravagantly expensive restaurant. It’s mainly the chef that makes it all worthwhile. Are you willing to be that individual?

That requires innovation and a taste for that special something that would set your creation apart from others. It also requires gleaning new ideas from the cuisines of the world, and even from some unlikely sources. Innovation involves grasping new menus and techniques and then applying your creativity to them.  And if that exceeds expectations, you build up your reputation.

Making Guests Talk about Your Cuisine

This is the age of celebrity chefs. Gordon Ramsay is just one of the many out there who have become absolute stars. And while restaurants may not have the most famous chefs working for them, they do like to brand their chef. Often, customers look for big names when deciding where to dine with their esteemed guests. With innovation and sheer capability, you can attain that celebrity status. You can write a few books and attend live shows and get into the hearts and minds of people. But before you get there, you need to do it firsthand. There’s nothing like word-of-mouth propagation by your guests. It contributes to building your reputation initially.

Becoming a Much Valued Consultant  

And when you have gained significant experience, you can earn by being a full-time chef at a restaurant and also earn enough from being a consultant chef where you’re called by various high profile destination restaurants to improve their menu. These restaurants would then brand their menu with your name to gain leverage from your celebrity status.

To reach that level, where restaurants simply crave for your involvement in sprucing up their menu, you need to have already impressed guests with your distinctive culinary styles, years and years of experience, and also effective communication with the customers of the restaurants you’ve worked with. All that contributes to making you a celebrity chef, enabling you to earn enough to live a luxurious lifestyle.

Being a chef is a very rewarding job since you not only earn money, but also goodwill and reputation. Celebrity chef Peter Theodorou has managed to do that from humble origins, and so can you. Impress your guests with your dedication. They’ll remember you when you appear on TV years later!