Thinking about going to Culinary School.
How does the Chef’s life fit with the Ironman’s life?
Read “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain. One chapter is entitled “A day in the life…”. To cut to the chase, all you have time for is the chef bit…nothing else.
Spot
I’m a food and beverage director for a large hotel chain. I typically work between 50-80 hours per week, depending on business levels, 6 or 7 days a week. Hotel Executive and Sous Chefs work about the same +/-. I’ve never found time to train for more than Oly distance and it required I ignore my family more than I should. One of the few advantages is plenty of fresh food to eat, gyms and pools for your use if you are the Executive Chef and good deals on Hotels in other city’s.
You shifts average 11am to 9pm.
Still, it’s crazy and fun.
I was an executive chef for two different places in Indy, both upper scale type places. I found that the more “exclusive” the place, the more your hours got to be “challenging”. I finally left when I got to where I was working 12-11p six days a week and maybe seven if we had a private rental on Mondays. This simply left no time for “normal” life things. It became especially hard with my wife working “business hours”.
O.K. I got to play golf now and again but you can only go a few days on limited sleep…
Paul