FINANCIAL POST, MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2002

THE CANDIDATE

A look at who's hiring whom

The many faces of
a high-profile chef

FIRST REQUIREMENT: TALENT

Winning personality must combine with odd hours, hot work

By DAVID MENZIES

Chefs have emerged as the new celebrities. Indeed, chefs who are as skilled at kibitzing as they are at cooking are among some of the hottest TV stars. Want proof? Just tune into The Food Network.
But there's a lot more to being a superb chef than cracking jokes under tungsten lights or attempting to beat the clock on The Iron Chef.
According to Norman Wolf son of Toronto-based Lecours Wolfson (Canada's leading recruiter of hospitality executives, managers and chefs), being an executive chef means embracing a regime that is a combination of extremely long hours and hard work in the kitchen. This is, of course, in addition to possessing "sheer, raw (cooking) talent, "he says.
Mr. Wolf son says the likes of Humber College and George Brown College both have excellent hospitality and tourism management programs. Formal education will give an aspiring chef insight into such realms as food and labour costing to food safety and administrative tasks.
Once a would-be chef has the required training in the culinary arts, there are many different career paths to pursue. He or she can work at a small restaurant or manage a hotel's expansive kitchen operation. There are also opportunities at large foodservice companies or major food processing firms. Mr. Wolf son recently placed a high profile chef to head up Cara's Swiss Chalet operation. While being behind the scenes of a quick-service restaurant chain might not have the same cachet as working for a critically acclaimed five-star bistro, Mr. Wolf son says such a job requires an impressive (albeit different) skill-set.
"She [the new head chef for Swiss Chalet] has to be able to come up with a great menu that is both teachable and transferable - and [the entrees] must taste exactly the same, whether you're in St. John's or Victoria," he says. "That's not easy."
Being a chef means being skilled in facets other than cooking. For example, an executive chef at a major hotel requires "talent, a passion for creativity, and the ability to manage a brigade [of other cooks] under extreme pressure," says Mr. Wolfson. "Also, it's a reality today that a chef must be able to work with food and beverage costing. Computer skills are a real plus."
As well, Mr. Wolf son notes that the days of an executive chef embracing the management skills of Attila the Hun are over. Indeed, the cliché of the perfectionist chef going ballistic on his kitchen staff is something that is seldom tolerated today. "An ideal chef is one that is good at team-building and having the ability to delegate his vision to others without threatening to cut their fingers off," he says.
Also, in this era of the celebrity chef, many restaurant owners and management types are partial to a chef who "has the ability to put on a clean white coat and interact with the guests after the meal has been served. It helps to be extremely confident and have the gift of the gab," says Mr. Wolfson.
Wages, says Mr. Wolfson, are "all over the board" depending on where the chef chooses to work.
A chef may start at an operation for as little as $30,000 a year just to get his foot in the door. Indeed, Mr. Wolf son knows of some rookie chefs that have worked for free at a restaurant for several months just to gain valuable experience working under a "star chef."
Mr. Wolfson says some of the experienced executive chefs his firm has placed earn more than $130,000 a year. Chefs working for the likes of a large food processing company such as Nestle or Campbell's can expect to earn a salary of $55,000 to $75,000 "plus incentives such as a good benefits program, car allowance and reasonable hours."
Perhaps the ultimate benefit of being a chef these days is rising through the ranks to become a "media darling" to the point that a celebrity chef gets his or her own television show. "If you look at some of the world's top chefs today, hey, they're like rock stars," says Mr. Wolfson.
Financial Post