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SCMP Reporter

To be a chef requires patience and creativity
Requirements: A passion  for food and cooking. Creativity and ideas about what makes good food are also helpful.
Qualifications: You don't need special qualifications to apply for a job, but five-star hotels expect at least a secondary school education.
It's better to get hands-on experience in a restaurant than spend thousands of dollars and several years at a culinary school.
Average salary: Hotel kitchen apprentices should expect to get paid  less than HK$10,000 a month. Salary increases and promotions depend on vacancies at the restaurant.
Top chefs can earn HK$25,000 a month with a big bonus.
Work prospects: The best starting point to a cooking career is to work at five-star hotels as they tend to have the best facilities.
Working during festive seasons, such as Christmas, is especially beneficial as head chefs enjoy the opportunity to show off their skills.
Expect to start off as a kitchen assistant and perform duties, such as cleaning, slicing and bringing ingredients to other chefs.
Hard-working apprentices usually get promoted to second cook after six months. It takes about 10 years to become a sous-chef, or second-in-command.
Be prepared to work long hours - about nine to 12 hours a day - and to work  shifts.
Cooking is a very specialised profession so you may not have the skills to switch careers in future.
Make sure that cooking is the job for you before you commit yourself to a life in the kitchen.
Long-term prospects: There are different directions qualified, experienced chefs can take. They can stay in the hotel and gain promotions,  or open their own restaurant.
The most important thing is to keep learning from others. Also, always keep an eye open on the world around you in order to get food inspirations.
But life can become quite  uninspiring after a few years in the same kitchen. If you need variety in life and have a real passion for food, you could move to another hotel or restaurant. You could even open your own eatery once you've learned every aspect of the trade after working in a top establishment.
Where to apply: Five-star hotels.
A day in the life of a chef de cuisine
A chef de cuisine, or head chef, like Yan Lu, who runs a seafood and grill restaurant, has to get up very early in the morning. He heads to the wet market to check out what's fresh and choose ingredients for the day's specials.
Then he goes to the restaurant, washes the seafood and leaves it in fresh sea water before preparing for lunch.
He takes a rest for an hour or two, then  gets ready for dinner around 5pm. He sets up the oyster bar, and starts preparing food.
During dinner, he cooks and chats with customers. He starts cleaning around 11.30pm and leaves the restaurant after midnight.



Slice, dice and cook up a storm