Reddit reviews The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection

Soul of a Chef and Making of a Chef.

Michael Ruhlman

http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-Chef-Journey-Perfection/dp/0141001895


http://www.amazon.com/Making-Chef-Mastering-Culinary-Institute/dp/080508939X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373354322&sr=1-1&keywords=making+of+a+chef

Soul of a Chef - Michael Ruhlman

Always be 5 minutes early, study your craft, be professional and constantly look for new skills to learn. You have to be eager to build your resume and your repertoire and that means making lots of mistakes. Make sure you learn from every single one.

And read The Soul of a Chef

I've done both. There are a few differences, but the skills you'd learn in one will transfer to the other.

The largest difference is in pace. When you're cooking in an a la carte kitchen, the chaos level his higher once service starts. The ticket printer starts chattering, the expediter is shouting off orders, and you won't stop moving until the last table is done. You've got waitstaff needing things fast because they forgot to put the order in, people yelling at each other, plates dropping... Chaos... My parents never understoond why I was so tired at the end of the day until they saw me work the line. 5:30 PM to 10PM, I was moving. The chaos can be fun, and the feeling of accomplishment you get when you hear the crazy number of covers you knocked out can be pretty nice.

Banquet work, or catering is a completely different beast. You know what time you need the food done, and you have a really close idea of how many covers you'll be doing. You'll prep what you can, and then when service hits, You'll go into assembly line mode. We used to have long prep tables with six to eight people standing around them. One person would lay down a plate, the next would place the starch, the next would place the protein, then one for the vegetables, one person for the sauce, one person to wipe the plate, cover it, and put it in the hot box. You could crank out thousands of plates that way in a really short period of time. There was none of the line chaos, just a little pressure to get it done, and done right at a reasonable speed.

If you want a good idea of what kitchen service is like, pick up The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I think his description of a night of service at Lola really captures the essence of what a restaurant kitchen feels like. Either way, you'll still be doing good work, and gaining great experience.

Great book that follows a group of chefs going through the eight day process of becoming certified master chefs. Also follows chefs Michael Simon and Thomas Keller. Excellent author to read as a culinary student.