How to Become a Chef? Steps, Courses, Jobs, Salaries, Recruiters
Chef as a Career Path
In order to pursue and attain a career in cooking delicious meals for people to appreciate is a dream many individuals share. Choosing the path to become a chef is a long but rewarding journey for aspirants looking to break into the culinary field.
There are numerous skills besides cooking skills that are required to be held by chefs such as maintaining a willingness to learn and having a keen attention to detail. To match these soft and technical cooking skills, chefs can also pursue undergraduate and postgraduate courses such as BHM in Culinary, BBA in Hotel Management, PGD in Culinary Arts or BSc in Catering Science to be provided with valuable experience and knowledge.
There are jobs such as Head Chefs, Sous Chefs or Banquet Chefs that aspiring culinary artists can look to pursue to live out well-paying, satisfying and enriching careers in the field. The average salary working in the field ranges between INR 4 - 17 lakhs per annum depending on a chef’s overall skill-set, job role and experience.
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How to Become a Chef: Highlights
The following table showcases the necessary details students need to know when pursuing a career as a chef:
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Steps to Take to Become a Chef -
Students can take the following steps as a general idea on the path to becoming a chef:
- Pursuing a Short-Term Certificate Course: Doing so can be a benefit to those wishing to become a chef, especially for those still in school as it can help provide some foundations that can be useful later on. Short-Term courses include certificate courses in Baking, Food Production or Cooking Fundamentals.
- Basic-Skills: Students must hone-in on their basic cooking and soft skills at the earliest to be the best chefs they could be before their 10+2 finishes.
- Bachelor’s Degree: Upon meeting the required eligibility criteria, students can pursue a bachelor’s degree in relevant courses such as BHM in Culinary, BBA in Hotel Management, BSc in Catering Science, BSc in Hospitality or Hotel Management or a BA in Culinary Arts. Such
- Postgraduate Degree: Postgraduate degrees such as MHM, Masters in Culinary Arts or PGD in Culinary Arts help build up and specialize further on the knowledge acquired during their undergraduate as well as can provide better opportunities for students.
- Internships: Students aspiring to become chefs should take opportunities to work under more experienced chefs to help learn, develop and gain invaluable experience. Internships could be in restaurants, hotels or other institutions.
- Jobs: Students up on completing the relevant courses and gathering enough experience under their belt can look to get into culinary jobs that cater to their interests or wants. Students can find jobs in fields such as restaurants, hotels or catering companies where they may work as Head-Chefs, Sous-Chefs, Banquet Chefs or Restaurant Consultants.
How to Become a Chef?
To be eligible to pursue a career as a chef, students must meet the following eligibility criteria:
- Aspiring chefs must possess adequate skill in the field of cooking and culinary.
- Students looking to become chefs must also have finished their 10+2 years in school with a minimum 50% score. Having studied home-science or a related subject would also be helpful.
- If applicable, students must prepare for and appear for a university’s designated entrance examinations such as the NCHM JEE that is conducted by the National Council for Hotel Management. Students must clear the exam by attaining their university of choice’s required rank or cut-off criteria to be considered eligible.
- Students aspiring to pursue culinary as a profession must also have finished their undergraduate degree in Hotel Management, Culinary Science or a related field with a minimum 50-60% score as well to be considered eligible to become a successful chef.
How to Become a Chef: Step by Step Process
To become a Chef in India, the candidates will have to go through the below-mentioned procedure -
- Get a Diploma in Culinary Arts: After one completes the 12th class, he/ she will have to pursue the Diploma in Culinary Arts course.
- Pursue Bachelor’s degree: Post the diploma course, one will have to pursue a degree of Bachelors in the field of Hotel Management, Culinary Arts, etc.
- Study Master’s Degree: Those interested in pursuing a career in the Culinary Science can also study a master’s degree to hone their skills as well as knowledge.
- Take Internships: Internships are a great way of gaining industry experience. Through this, not only will the candidates gain skills but also build also get knowledge about the industry.
Skills Required to Become a Chef -
The process to become a chef requires students and aspirants to possess a lot of skills and be willing to accept that there is a high learning curve in this process. Aspirants to culinary field need to possess and/or working on further developing the following skills:
- Willingness To Learn
- Creativity
- Food Safety and Hygiene
- Planning
- Knowledge of Ingredients
- Teamwork
- Communication Skills
- Organizational Skills
- Time Management
- Leadership
- Attention to Detail
How to Become a Chef: Job Responsibilities
Chefs' undertake the responsibility of providing well-cooked meals to customers. However, besides just the responsibilities with relation to the act of cooking, chefs bear a lot more duties than just that.
The following are some responsibilities that chefs have to adhere to:
- Kitchen Maintenance: In particular junior chefs have to take care of the kitchen equipment and utensils as well as properly clean them.
- Supervising: Senior chefs help in supervising junior chefs to ensure a smooth cooking process. Also helping out wherever required.
- Monitoring: Monitoring the overall stock of food and notifying when a problem arises.
- Menu Planning: Designing menus that customers will find appealing and managing the cooking portions with minimal food wastage. This also requires the changing of recipes or menus due to customer preference or cost management.
- Hygiene: Ensuring that food is cooked in hygienic environments with staff’s adherence to industry hygiene standards.
- Inspections: Conducting inspections on ingredients’ freshness and whether they are fit to cook or not.
- Appeal: Ensuring food serves to customers is appealing aesthetically as well as tastes good.
- Training: Helping younger chefs and chefs in training get acquitted with the restaurant and help in their overall development.
How to Become a Chef: With No Experience
While it is possible to pursue the career of a chef with no prior experience, being well-versed in the basics of culinary, cooking and such is important for students looking to pursue this profession and field. Aspirants looking into undertaking diplomas and suitable internships to help gather some experience in the field.
Looking into developing the previously mentioned skills as well as one’s culinary abilities all can help in the process of someone wishing to pursue a career in this field without prior experience.
How to Become a Chef: After 10th
To become a chef after the 10th, the candidates should pursue courses related to Culinary Arts. Moreover, the list of the courses can be found below: -
Name of the Course | Course Fees |
Certificate Course in Food Production | INR 1,65,000 |
Certificate Course in Bakery | INR 85,000 |
Certificate in Food Production | INR 10,000 - 1,20,000 |
Craft Course in Food Production | INR 30,000 |
Courses and Qualifications to Become a Chef
There are various qualifications and courses students may need to undertake during the process of pursuing a career. These courses can be taken at a level of no experience, undergraduate level and postgraduate level as well -
1. Certificate Courses to Become a Chef
Certificate courses and short-term cooking programs can help students broaden their horizons when it comes to becoming a professional chef. They also help in boosting a student’s overall portfolio and can help in university admissions and employment prospects as well.
The average fees can vary depending on the length of the program and from where the student is pursuing it. However, generally the fees range between INR 30,000 - 1,00,000 but students can find numerous free courses as well which issue certificates.
Students can aim to pursue courses in the following fields to help in the process of pursuing a career as a chef:
- Cooking Fundamentals
- Craft Course in Food Production
- Indian Culinary
- Bakery
- Food Production
2. Undergraduate Courses to Become a Chef
Post a student’s 12th standard, they may wish to pursue the culinary field for their undergraduate. Pursuing an undergraduate degree with this career goal in mind allows students to gain a lot of valuable experience, knowledge and connections with faculty and peers alike. All of these factors can prove to be massive pillars of support for students looking to work in this field.
At an undergraduate level, students expect to pursue the following courses to become a chef:
3. Postgraduate Courses to Become a Chef
Postgraduate courses help in providing better opportunities and build upon the strong foundations students have had established in their undergraduate or prior academic prospects.
The following are some postgraduate courses students can aim to pursue as their postgraduate education to become a chef:
Entrance Exams to Become a Chef
Certain universities require students to undertake and clear designated entrance exams to gain admission to them. The following table is a list of some entrance exams that students can give to be granted admission to universities that require entrance exams:
Top BHM in India to Become a Chef
Getting admission into some of the top institutes in the country is important for anyone pursuing the goal of becoming a chef. Institutes with better faculty and prestige allow for a wider array of opportunities to open up for aspirants and boost their overall portfolio as well.
The following are some of the top colleges students can pursue to get into on their road to develop a career in culinary:
Read more - BHM Colleges in India
Chef's Salary in India: Different Job Roles and Salaries
The job position an aspiring chef can hold varies on their overall experience and interests. There are various different job roles that chefs can play that cater to these two factors. The jobs held by employees and the salaries earned also depend on where a chef is working, be it an institution, hotel or restaurant. Regardless, with enough effort, improvement and experience, most chefs have a lot of scope to pursue this creative and fulfilling job position while also earning more attractive salaries as well.
The following table lists out some job roles held by chefs, some brief descriptions on the job roles and their average salary per annum:
Chef Salary in India: Experience-Wise
Experience plays an important role in the job of a chef. The table below showcases a breakdown of salaries chefs can expect based on their overall experience:
Chef Job - Top Recruiters
Due to good food always being in demand, regardless of public or private sector, there are numerous recruiters looking to hire well-trained and educated chefs to help provide a top-level culinary experience for clients. Chefs are in demand in industries such as hotels, restaurants, food delivery-apps, cruise liners, flights and catering companies amongst a list of other industries.
The following are just a few top recruiters that aspiring chefs can strive to work for:
- ITC Hotels
- Thomas Cook
- JW Marriot
- Zomato
- Swiggy
- Compass Group
- Hyatt
- Four Seasons
- Taj
- Sodexo India
- Olive Bar and Kitchen
- The Leela
- Carnival Cruise
Chef Salary in India: Company-wise
When recruited by some of the top organizations, chefs can expect the salaries listed in the table below:
