Lessons From Early On

If you think first jobs have no impact on lives, think again. That first one, whether at McDonald's or Wendy's can have a lifelong effect, especially on chefs and restauranteurs.These may seem menial and meaningless yet they are meaningful and important. They have formed an entire generation of professionals in the food service industry.

Priya Krishna, author of the popular Indian cookbook Indianish and regular contributor wrote about how those first jobs in yesterday's New York Times' Food section. Many who have gone on to culinary school and opened their own restaurants have spent either their high school or college years in some chain restaurant. This is not new. The famed French chef, Jacques Pepin actually had his first US job at Howard Johnson's. Even though he grew up in his family's eatery and trained in Paris, he also received life lessons during his time at the most famous of chain restaurants. He learned how to can ingredients to keep them fresh when transferred between restaurants, and how to cooks meats sous vide.He employed those techniques when he helped open up another famed restaurants, Windows On The world atop the World Trade Center.Chef Pepin believes that if you open your mind you can learn where ever you are.They can learn at the famed and fancy Per Se but also at the upscale chain Hillstone which receives good marks for its' food and service.

Yet chefs to be can learn these lessons anywhere.What is good about the fast food industry is that it is the only sector regularly hiring.The number of chain restaurants opening rose from 1,000 to a whopping 301,200 in 2017!!! Working at any one can lead to a job in food. Tiffany Derry , the chef and owner of Roots Chicken Shack, in Plano Texas got her start in an IHOP. Working there gave her the business skills needed to open her own restaurants. She learned to cost out a dish, do inventory, make revenue projections and input invoices. She teaches her employees the same. Katsuya Fukushima, executive chef and part owner of several restaurants including Haikan and Bantam in Washington DC started in Wendy's where workers are taught to be polite to all customers and taught to upsell meals. Another famed chef, Cassidee Dabney who creates amazing meals and runs The Barn at Blackberry Farm got her start at Applebee's in Fayetteville Arkansas which was considered a fancy restaurant out there. She made salads and cooked french fries which has shaped her experience at The Barn. Now she hires people with similar experiences. Even the influential Southern chef, Sean Brock, started in Waffle House, a place he loved so much he brought the famed chef Anthony Bourdain.

Working at any chain restaurant can be beneficial, especially to future chefs. It's a great way to learn about the industry and you get paid. It's a job worth considering.

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