Becoming a Chef, With Recipes and Reflections From America’s Leading Chefs
by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 352 pp., $29.95 paper)
Based on interviews with 60 top American chefs, this now-classic volume describes career stories and provides advice to those starting on a professional culinary path.
Careers for Gourmets and Others Who Relish Food
by Mary Donovan (VGM Career Horizons, 143 pp., $9.95 paper)
Includes hard-to-find information about career options outside the restaurant kitchen. Also contains a helpful section on determining if you are suited for a culinary career.
Guide to Cooking Schools 2001
edited by Dorlene Kaplan (ShawGuides, 417 pp, $22.95 paper)
The annually published, comprehensive reference collection of information about professional and recreational cooking programs in the U.S. and abroad. Includes locations and sizes, program descriptions, degrees/certifications offered, tuition, etc.
Guide to Career Cooking Schools: A Free Online Directory
from ShawGuides with 496 Career Cooking Schools Worldwide (cookingcareer.shawguides.com/)
The handy online version of the professional portion of the ShawGuides’ Guide to Cooking Schools.
If You Can Stand the Heat: Tales From Chefs & Restaurateurs
by Dawn Davis (Penguin USA, 336 pp, $16.95 paper)
More career stories and recipes from professional chefs, targeted toward a nonprofessional audience.
Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain (Bloomsbury, 307 pp., $24.95)
A fast-paced, realistically gritty, and often hilarious account of one chef’s education and adventures in the restaurants of New York.
The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America
by Michael Ruhlman (Owl Books, 320 pp, $16 paper)
A journalist’s well-documented adventures as a student at the grande dame of U.S. culinary institutions.
Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2000-01 Edition
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor: Chefs, Cooks, and Other Kitchen Workers (stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos161.htm)
Restaurant and Food Service Managers
(includes Executive Chefs): (stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos024.htm)
Department of Labor sites about career information for traditional culinary occupations, including employment projections, required skills, and salary ranges.
Peterson’s Culinary Schools 2000: Find Out Where to Train for a Career in Cooking
(Peterson’s Guides, 384 pp., $24.95 paper)
Another reference work containing basic information about professional culinary programs worldwide.
Peterson’s Culinary Schools
Convenient online listing and description of 70 top professional cooking programs in the U.S. and around the world.
A Woman’s Place Is in the Kitchen: The Evolution of Women Chefs
by Ann Cooper (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 312 pp., $29.95 paper)
A history of women in the culinary professions, as well as career stories and advice from notable women chefs in the U.S.
This article appears in January 19 • 2001.
