Training: A Way of Life

Since I started working in the restaurant field I had noticed something consistent about the places that I have been employed at. Every establishment I have been trained with a variety of styles. The first restaurant I worked at, at the age of 16, I started as a dishwasher doing simple jobs at a small independently owned Mediterranean restaurant. Being a student enrolled in the culinary arts program at my technical high school, I was a little bit annoyed with the fact that I was doing such menial tasks, but that really is the only way to start in the culinary field and I understood that. I was asking a lot of questions and getting a lot of direction in exactly what I needed to do. Over time I learned the daily tasks and how the place ran which allowed me to start taking the initiative and show that I wanted to learn more. Before I knew it I was learning on the line, then eventually I was working dinner on the line.

At my second high school job I was assisting the executive chef at Wesleyan University in the dining facilities which were run by Bon Appétit. This company had many standards, rules, regulations and precise recipes. Working here I received better pay than the restaurant, but unfortunately I lost a lot of independence and creative freedom. Training was learning about how the company did things in the kitchen and how they wanted you to do them. I had to do things like make stock the exact way the company specifications were stated. I saw how unions were run and how the workers in the union functioned along with how they were trained. It really opened my eyes to a more corporate, formal style of training.

My externship, at Abigail Kirsch Catering was all about learning and being trained. Because the company was so well known, large in size, and consistent, there were some aspects about it that made training seem very corporate and maybe a little simplified. But being an independent catering company, it seemed to still have a much more personal approach to the majority of training in the kitchen. A lot of recipes were passed around from others which were always a little revised from the actual set recipe manuals, but usually more perfected. I really enjoyed learning in this setting, and also from a wide variety of sous chefs. Training has always been part of the routine for starting a new job. I can’t see how any employers could actually function with not really training a new part of the staff. Training is essential in my eyes to a smooth running kitchen and front of the house.