Alex Houfek
Sep 8, 2018 · 2 min read

Becoming a Chef

Ever since I could remember I wanted to become a chef. I wanted to learn how make delicious food. Doing research in school about about it I knew that I would probably end up working really long hours and work every holiday and weekend but that didn’t deter me from following what I wanted to do.

A month after graduating high school I moved to New Jersey to go to culinary school in New York and start my career. Soon after that I got a job at a fine dining steak house where I started on garde manger. Making salads with someone else or by myself sometimes for a full restaurant for 5 hours straight. I had to learn how to move quickly and make sure everything that i made was perfect or the chef would tell at me for those 5 straight hours. If I didn’t get enough stuff prepped which was a challenge in itself. I was 18 this was my first real job in a kitchen. I was going to school 4 hours a day 5 days a week and working 9-10 hours a day. Had and hour and a half commute and was lucky to 4-5 hours of sleep. It was probably the most stressful thing I have done and I wouldn’t have changed it for anything. I knew that in order for me to get where I wanted to be I needed to go through that.

I liked it there because of the camaraderie between all of the cooks and chefs. Everyday an hour before service we would have a family meal prepared where everyone went to the dining room and ate together. We became one big family because you see them more than your actual family.

The kitchen is also cutthroat. Depending on the kitchen you’re at people will sabotage you to make themselves look better for the bosses. You have to work super quick while maintaining the high quality. The greatest lesson I learned through this whole experience is that one night I was talking to one of my chefs and he told me to never think that your way is the only way make something. I have a few years experience under my belt now and I believe that way more today than I did back then because I have learned so many different ways to get to the same end result. I truly believe that lesson can be transferred into and other aspect of life in general.

Alex Houfek

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