The common image that we have of chefs is brought about by popular media. In the movies or on television, we see chefs as people who wear tall white hats, white clothes and talk in a strange accent. However, you should realize that all people have the potential to become chefs.
If you want to know how to become a chef, here are a few tips:
1) Patience – The key to cooking is patience. Many people find out that if you follow a recipe without hurrying anything along, you will end up with something delicious or at least, edible. People who want to learn how to become a chef need to learn patience as this will help them cope with the wait that comes with great food preparation.
Patience is not only useful in cooking. It is also useful in learning how to become a chef. Many people eager to become world-class chefs tend to try and skip ahead to the more complicated lessons without first mastering the basics. Patience is essential since many of the advanced cooking techniques require people to master the most basic steps first.
2) Study – Of course, an important step in learning how to become a chef is learning how to cook. You need to be taught to become a chef. Some people think that you need to go to a culinary school to do this. However, you should realize that going to a culinary school will merely enable you to become a certified chef. A culinary school will allow you to have a piece of paper that says that you are a chef. However, the heart and soul of being a chef still lie within your cooking. Because of different media like the internet and television, a person today can learn how to become a chef without the need for certification. You have at your fingertips different networks which tell you how to prepare dishes from different parts of the world.
3) Practice – Of course, knowing how to become a chef entails practical as well as theoretical knowledge. Practice what you learn to truly master it. Do not expect to become a chef after watching one episode of Iron Chef. You need to learn from experience. The key to becoming a chef is becoming a chef. To learn how to cook, you must cook. It doesn’t do you much good to read cookbooks and then declare that you know how to cook. You might be able to recite the entire procedure of cooking Jambalaya, but the question is: would you be able to do it?
4) Honest judgment – To learn whether you can cook a dish properly, you need to have it tasted. People like to try it out on their family or themselves. The danger is that they might not receive a clear image of how good (or bad) they cook. To truly learn how to cook, you need to ensure that you receive honest feedback, whether it is positive or negative. You need people to tell you what you did wrong for you to do it right the next time.
5) Passion – The most important ingredient in learning how to become a chef is passion. You need to pour heart and soul into a dish to call it truly yours.
