Everything you need to know to be a professional chef | CIB

If you have reached this page, it is because you probably still have a couple of excuses to finish making the decision about whether you want to study to become a professional chef.

Questions such as: What does it really mean to be a professional chef? What does it take to be a chef, or what requirements are there to be a chef? What should I study, or where to study the profession of chef? Why should I be a chef? Is being a chef really difficult?

The chef career is no longer as it was many years ago. Kitchens have evolved, transforming and adapting to the globalized and digitized world in which we now live. A chef no longer only needs to know basic recipes or techniques, now a chef needs skills that allow him to adapt to the new paradigms of gastronomy, and to the new business models of restoration.

Throughout this guide we will reveal the secrets and tips you need to know to become a successful chef. Studying cooking requires new teaching methodologies that allow your learning to acquire value in the kitchens of the 21st century.

The word chef or cook has many associated connotations, and like all professions, its definition adapts and changes according to the context. During an interview with Ferran Adrià, they asked him if he was a cook, to which he replied:

In the past, gastronomy was not recognized worldwide as it is now. The kitchen was something from home, another necessity of the day to day of the human being. Now, being a chef goes beyond selecting the best ingredients, creating new culinary presentations and pleasing an audience with a composition of surprising smells, colors and flavors.

What is clear to us is that the definition and meaning of being a chef will be directly related, with everything that the chef needs to know, know and master to function in today's kitchens. We'll tell you then…

Acquiring the vision of the future of gastronomy and the world of restoration and assuming the skills required to be a chef in the 21st century is part of being a Meta Chef.

On the one hand, the Meta Chef must be able to master the kitchen, its techniques, methodologies, and functionalities to be able to design, propose and execute high-level culinary projects and, simultaneously, be trained in financial, logistical, and management. If to these elements you add the empowerment of attitudes and the acquisition of methodologies for the development of creativity and innovation in the kitchen; then you can consider yourself a complete chef.

A Meta chef has such a wide range of knowledge that he/she can practice in any kitchen or restaurant business in the world, knowing how to adapt not only to cultures, but also to different scenarios at the level of product, technology, and contexts, taking precedence over the challenges of the future.

For this reason, those who want to study to be a chef of the 21st century should not limit themselves to acquiring knowledge, but rather to focus their development on the skills necessary to face the paradigm changes that this century holds and promoting certain attitudes that become a true agent of social change.

The possibilities that a chef can have with this preparation will be further boosted if, when studying for this profession, he/she trains with real challenges, he/she becomes capable of creating and developing his own projects or for others; and gets international experiences that enriches his/her background.

Therefore, the tools available to the Meta Chef could be summarized as follows:

 

In an interview made to a Joan Roca by the famous newspaper La Vanguardia, the famous chef comments that twenty years ago he would not have imagined that today there would be so much young talent in his kitchens. Those who lead the world's largest, most authentic and innovative kitchens are no longer satisfied with a cook with basic knowledge and ancient practices.

The trends of gastronomy brings new challenges for those who want to study cooking. In addition to meeting the requirements mentioned in the previous section, cooks must now have additional skills that allow them to distinguish themselves.

Today there are many options to train as a chef. New technologies have even increased the number of self-taught cooks, increasing the reasons and motives for obtaining professional training.

After winning best restaurant in "The world 50 Best Restaurant", Massimo Bottura revealed in an interview that his project of converting an old agricultural estate into a gastronomy university is due to the fact that he is concerned about young people who love this profession, since he believes that they should have more knowledge, culture and responsibility.

Choosing a school to study cooking to become a professional chef becomes a fundamental choice in the future of any aspiring to this career. Taking into account the factors that we have shared with you in the previous sections, you will be aware of the importance of differentiating yourself in the world of gastronomy.

Being different, unique, and daring to do things like no one has done before comes from the security with which you are able to function in the kitchen. And this security will come from the knowledge, skills and opportunities that are presented to you.

For this reason, we help you with a couple of elements that you should take into account before choosing where to study, guaranteeing that the cooking course you choose will provide you with those knowledge and skills that help you take advantage of the opportunities that are given to you in the road.

1. You must choose a cooking course where knowledge of the product is paramount.
2. In an institution where technologies are the most innovative, and where there are no limits to create new products thanks to them.
3. A learning based on creativity and innovation, where methodologies and processes are taught that facilitate the student to create new things.
4. A training in which the digital news of the sector are contemplated, to know how to adapt to this new era.
5. Subjects that cover not only the necessary knowledge in cooking, but also the lateral skills that a chef must have.
6. Challenge-based learning, having the opportunity to face real life cases, being prepared to face the reality of kitchens.
7. Experiences outside of the classroom, which expand the student's gastronomic encyclopedia while learning about the origin of food.
8. Specialized teachers for each subject, to obtain the true concepts and advice of current gastronomy from each of their areas.
9. Multiculturalism both in its staff and in its students, to enrich gastronomic cultures around the world.
10. The location is very important, since if you study in a place where gastronomy is at the highest levels, and where the most successful chefs in the world are developed, you will have greater access to interact with the best.

If you have already convinced yourself to study to become a professional chef, you will surely want to know what your future will look like once you have finished your studies. The advantage of this race is that you can develop in different scenarios.

Here we tell you a little about each of these so that you can decide which one suits you best:

From north to south, Spain is full of extraordinary places for lovers of gastronomy. Each of its communities represents a totally different cultural and culinary value, but what is clear is that Spain brings together many of the great chefs who stand out worldwide. Studying cooking in a destination like Spain becomes an advantage for those who want to be a chef, and we tell you why: