A Personal Message to Greg.

[Shegokigo]

I've been avoiding asking this question since I joined the RL Forums, which was the day I finished reading all the archives and alot of the news posts.

I'll keep this short and simple: Why'd you (other than the obvious "Comic as your life was your dream") turn off the path of culinary chef?

The reason I ask this, is that much of my life is very parallel to yours, from your early days (working at the airline refueler) to where you decided to go to Culinary School. That's where I stand at the moment, lots of dead-end, go nowhere jobs (that I needed to have to keep life going) have kept me from getting anywhere in life. I'm 27 now and I know what I "want" out of life, I just didn't know how to go about it. I want to "chef". I don't want to "cook". I've worked as a waitress many years and definitely don't want to be a "line-cook" at an Olive Garden/Red Lobster. I want to work in a restaurant that works together as a team, I want to be a cog in the clock. I want to learn to make plates from scratch. I want to know why things taste good with others. Food has always been my passion (Alot of people say they "love" food but every bite I take from anything I eat is simply a marvel for me). I know culinary is my future, but when I saw you drop out of it, I began to second guess myself too.

I guess I just need to know Greg, why? If this is too personal I apologize and I'm not looking for "Tell me the answer to my life". I will still do what I know is best in my heart, but I've just got to know....

[Negative Polarity]

My guess would be, and I can only vouch for myself of course, that Greg did what everyone should and found a job doing what he truly loves. I mean, that's why I've basically completely forgone what I got my degree in to follow my passion for repairing computers. Eventually I may go back to being a biologist, but due to my lazy nature, it'll most likely not be until I have no choice, or a really sweet job just falls in my lap (that's kinda how most of my life works)... or I could be totally, utterly wrong.

[bagheadinc]

A Personl Message

...

*bagheadinc shrugs and continues on his way.

[Mav]

Greg has an attention span of a humming bird.

[Mae Dean]

The truth is, once I got out of school and wound up doing my 3-month externship at La Folie, I realized what a HELL I would be in for. The hours were poop. 11 am to 12-1 am. It's impossible to have a real life at those hours. It would be easier if I would have been making the big bucks, but HAD I gotten paid (I WAS offered a job after the externship, which I turned down) it would have been at $10 an hour - and that would not have gone up until I became Sous Chef, which was unlikely. Even then, not much. Now, I know that's not the case amongst every restaurant, but the hours and low pay are a constant amongst most fine dining establishments. I had an offer to come back to Dave's Gourmet at $20 an hour, and I still got to use my Culinary Training. It was awesome.

The job isn't for everyone. Some people love it. I wasn't a fan. *shrug* Either way, I got my degree, and I got it in a year.

[rkitect]

Either way, I got my degree, and I got it in a year.

More than I can say after 8 years of schooling.

[Shegokigo]

The truth is, once I got out of school and wound up doing my 3-month externship at La Folie, I realized what a HELL I would be in for. The hours were poop. 11 am to 12-1 am. It's impossible to have a real life at those hours. It would be easier if I would have been making the big bucks, but HAD I gotten paid (I WAS offered a job after the externship, which I turned down) it would have been at $10 an hour - and that would not have gone up until I became Sous Chef, which was unlikely. Even then, not much. Now, I know that's not the case amongst every restaurant, but the hours and low pay are a constant amongst most fine dining establishments. I had an offer to come back to Dave's Gourmet at $20 an hour, and I still got to use my Culinary Training. It was awesome.

The job isn't for everyone. Some people love it. I wasn't a fan. *shrug* Either way, I got my degree, and I got it in a year.

Well I have alot of concerns with the job. For example, my partner has two children and I have one, so it's a family of five. She's studying for a math teaching degree and will be done in less than 2 years. My plan is to study and gradutate within that time limit. $10 an hour is what I'm making now, and I'm not interested in moving up this company.

My question is, why do you think you wouldn't have made Sous Chef? Not wanting to put in that kind of time? Cause honestly I have trouble putting in 40hrs at my current job without feeling bored beyond belief (of course I don't love this job as I feel I would in the culinary arts). Was it mostly the money that turned you off? You said you were working 12hrs a day, was that 4 days a week or 6? Were those extern hours or full chef hours? Sorry if this is alot, but like I said, I saw alot of myself in you in the past, wondering if we "split paths" here.

[Lizzegirle]

Me too.

[FireAza]

Come to think of it, I had no idea Greg had quit the way of the chef. I need to step-up my stalking.

[Shegokigo]

Just looking for a couple answers to see if my own intuitions are on spot or just off base.

[Lizzegirle]

Well I have alot of concerns with the job. For example, my partner has two children and I have one, so it's a family of five. She's studying for a math teaching degree and will be done in less than 2 years. My plan is to study and gradutate within that time limit. $10 an hour is what I'm making now, and I'm not interested in moving up this company.

My question is, why do you think you wouldn't have made Sous Chef? Not wanting to put in that kind of time? Cause honestly I have trouble putting in 40hrs at my current job without feeling bored beyond belief (of course I don't love this job as I feel I would in the culinary arts). Was it mostly the money that turned you off? You said you were working 12hrs a day, was that 4 days a week or 6? Were those extern hours or full chef hours? Sorry if this is alot, but like I said, I saw alot of myself in you in the past, wondering if we "split paths" here.

The three months Greg was at La Folie were some of the most stressful on our relationship. Greg would wake up at 11am and would call me to pick him up somewhere between 11pm and 2am for 6 days a week. He would come home, and we would have dinner then maybe spend an hour watching television or working on the comic before it was time for bed and doing it all over again. On his days off, he was so tired that he never wanted to do anything or we would do all of the errands that we couldn't do during the week together. I saw very little of him and had to change my personal schedule in order to see him at all.

He had to work every holiday, which meant I either went to parties without him or stayed home by myself. Either way, he felt bad because he was either missing out on having fun or being the cause that I wasn't having fun. Holidays are important to our little family, and will be even more important once we have children, as you probably already know. Imagine working on Christmas (or pick your special holiday) and not being able to spend it with your wife and kids. Well, that's what we were looking forward to, and neither of us liked the idea of it.

At work, the kitchen was very hard on Greg, especially at first. Once he would step inside the door, he would be running non-stop (at a very quick pace) until he walked out the door again that evening. It was usually about 12-14 hours of pushing your energy to the brink and past it every night. No one took breaks except for the family meal they would eat before service started. Not only that, the people there were kind of rough on him (mostly because he was a noob) at first or if he made a small mistake. He had to deal with a crazy French chef who would get a bug up his ass to do something and keep everyone around after their shift to do it. It was extremely stressful.

When it came to the end of his 3 month stint, he was offered a job at Dave's Gourmet that paid twice as much as La Folie and worked normal hours. At that point, I think Greg had just realized that he wasn't cut-out to be in the kitchen. Even the Sous chef didn't make $20 an hour because he was asking Greg to put in a good word for him at Dave's. When Greg was in school he realized he didn't want to open his own kitchen because of the failure rate and that catering wasn't his forte. What he did like was product development that Dave's offered him. So that's the direction he went. He still does work for Dave from home, so his degree hasn't gone to waste, and atleast he knows that he accomplished something and had a degree to his name.

As far as the culinary industry as a whole, I think it's great for unmarried men or women who don't want to settle down and have a family with someone for a very long time or at all. With the hours, it would be difficult to meet someone, and it would be especially tough to date since you only get 1-2 nights a week and it's usually in the middle of the week. Some of the time, people turn to drugs as a way of helping them with the fast-paced life-style or to help them come off of the high from the night. The people who are in kitchens are also not the highest caliber of people as one would think they are. Greg always says that it's a good thing that customers can't see into the kitchen because they wouldn't want to know what happens back there.

All-in-all, the kitchen life-style (it's really a life-style) just wasn't for Greg. It might be perfect for you, but you'll have to make alot of sacrifices for your job.

[Blackie]

As far as the culinary industry as a whole, I think it's great for unmarried men or women who don't want to settle down and have a family with someone for a very long time or at all. With the hours, it would be difficult to meet someone, and it would be especially tough to date since you only get 1-2 nights a week and it's usually in the middle of the week. Some of the time, people turn to drugs as a way of helping them with the fast-paced life-style or to help them come off of the high from the night. The people who are in kitchens are also not the highest caliber of people as one would think they are. Greg always says that it's a good thing that customers can't see into the kitchen because they wouldn't want to know what happens back there.

All-in-all, the kitchen life-style (it's really a life-style) just wasn't for Greg. It might be perfect for you, but you'll have to make alot of sacrifices for your job.

That definetly sums up the kitchen experience. I've been working in a kitchen for the last 5 years now. And you would not believe some of the things I have seen, and to a lesser extent I have done. I havn't been totally sucked into that life style as of yet and probably won't ever, but it is really interesting to see.