First of all congrats on wanting to take the next step in your journey! I will tell you how I got into a professional kitchen and how you can aswell.
Start by talking to someone in the field, maybe a friend or family member and ask them how it is, the stress, hours and passion you need, it’s important to know what to expect because it is a stressful especially in a busy place. You can also watch YouTube videos of people working in the kitchen, it’s not exactly how it is in real life but it can give you an idea.
Cook at home, the most important thing is to know at least what foods and equipment is called, so that you have a basic understanding of the kitchen, cook some dishes, see what you did well and what to improve, It’s also good to say in your interview that you have some skill and experience from home. Get others to try your dishes for some feedback!
Apply everywhere, if you want the best chance of getting in apply to lots of restaurants in your area, if this is also your first kitchen job, don’t be surprised if their gonna want you to be a dish washer at first, take that job and work your way up, start making deserts and help cook whenever possible to show you care, in my experience if they have someone to replace you then you won’t be a dishwasher for more than 2 months.
So you got an interview, what now? Be yourself dress nicely in a shirt and tell them about any skills that might be relevant, like cooking at home or maybe you played sports and you have communication and teamwork skills. Read the job profile before hand and know what to expect about working there and they might ask you why you picked that specific restaurant. Use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method to answer questions, ill give you a real example I used personally so they asked me if I have managerial experience because that was the original place I applied for, I had an example from McDonald’s that I used, so the situation was that the managers left for a meeting, the task was that I was left to run front of house, the action was that I communicated with the kitchen to shift man power where needed and made sure food was coming out quick and up to standards, the result was I got appraisal from the managers and the customers were happy with the restaurant running smoothly, and that’s it, it landed me a kitchen job.
I hope this post helped, stay tuned for the next one!
