Becoming A Chef
Some chef positions warrant more than just a casual, glancing interest. Here are a few unusual positions chefs hold that exemplify what is possible out there in the Big Wide World for those inspired by the culinary arts:
Walter Scheib III – White House Executive Chef
The White House Executive Chef position does not necessarily change during each Presidential administration and is governed by the First Lady’s office. The current executive chef, Walter Scheib, has been the Whitehouse chef since 1994 and hopes to serve there until retirement. Scheib won the position over 4,000 applicants, undoubtedly due to his extensive and impressive credentials: formal training at the Culinary Institute of America, executive chef of the Capitol Hilton in Washington, DC, executive chef at Florida’s Boca Raton Club and Resort, and executive chef of the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.
Chef Scheib supervises five staff members that work full-time and up to 20 part-time staff. He travels with the president to prepare food for official state functions and often remains on-call in the event he is called at home, picked up by a White House car, and requested to prepare an off-hours meal.
Becoming a freelance chef does not mean that just knowing how to cook automatically qualifies you to go into someone’s home and cook for them. Obtaining the necessary industry (yes, it is an industry!) knowledge through a comprehensive training program puts you way ahead of the game. Knowing how to market yourself as well as how to go about everyday business functions like accounting, price-setting, scheduling, menu-planning, customer relations, and more can very well dictate whether or not your freelance chef business succeeds or fails.
Two of the biggest organizations in the business of training and bestowing accredited certifications to personal freelance chefs are the United States Personal Chef Association (USPCS) and the American Personal Chef Association (APCA). Both organizations offer information regarding liability insurance, software to help with scheduling and menu planning, tools and equipment, and local chapters provide coaching, advice, and other support for members.
So you want to do it all, do you? It’s not enough to put in sometimes 70 hours a week on your feet lifting heavy pots in 95-degree temperatures. You want more stress than that of figuring out what to do when both the sous chef and the garde manger call in sick. Well, then, you sound like the perfect candidate for your own chef-owned restaurant. Congratulations! You’ve just joined the ranks of a few crazy-as-a-fox chefs who feel just as you do – and to find out a little more about some of them, read on . . .
