Anyone have any ideas or experiences to use our new-found freedom to train as a chef in some cool place (France/Mexico, etc.)?
Any ideas for not breaking the bank? Or just accept that it will? My question is: Does anyone know any professional chef courses that they recommend or think look good?
To be clear, I am not looking to work as a chef. I have a very lucrative online legal gig.
This is just out of my personal interest.
Pre-empting all the “Just do cooking classes way cheaper, bro” comments. For sure. I just love the idea of being a professionally trained chef and the possibility that there is another option for me if all of this comes out from under me some day.
I trained to be a professional pizzamaker in Italy ~6 years ago, but as mentioned if you do not have a right to work in the EU you will inevitably have problems when it comes to finishing the apprenticeship. If it’s learning “just for fun” then by all means I don’t think you’ll have any problems with cooking classes.
Professional chef courses are for people training to be chefs and working full time in that industry. These are not cheap courses as people are investing in their career.
This isn’t something you study on the side, get your qualities and perhaps use later.
The closest to a chefs training will be Cordonbleu, they have short courses, again not cheap due to their highly trained, well-known school and teachers
https://www.cordonbleu.edu/programmes/en
-ex Chef
Current chef here, culinary school is usually in the local language so do you speak, read and write any language besides English? Second school is generally an all day affair so you will need to dedicate 8 to 10 hours a day to it. Third cooking is physically demanding, you’re on your feet all day, lifting stuff, squatting and generally running around.
With all of the above how will you do all of that and still do your regular work effectively? When I was in culinary school I would sleep maybe 4 hours at best a night because I had to work a full time job at night. It was a total nightmare and shitshow.
You will need to speak the local lingo and if you’re just doing it as a lark a serious chef may be insulted
Becoming a certified chef usually means completing a full-time (+overtime) several-year programme that you pay for. Are you okay with that? Then, basically any restaurant in France or Germany will take you in as an apprentice.
you say you want a course but no cooking class? What’s the difference to you?