Job Seeker Dylan Connelly has always loved cooking as a creative outlet. He put it this way, “Being involved in restaurants runs in my family. My mother helped run a restaurant and my cousin is a really good chef.” That passion for home cooking – making tasty Italian dishes like Arancini – led him to want to learn about a career in culinary arts. Through PPRC Connect, Dylan visited the downtown Ottawa restaurant, Supply and Demand, for an informative conversation about finding a job in food preparation.
PPRC Connect is the mentoring service offered by Performance Plus Rehabilitative Care Inc. The service connects job seekers with disabilities, like Dylan, with mentor guides who can help them solidify a career goal and learn what working in a particular employment sector is like.
Supply and Demand is owned by Jennifer (Jen) and Steve Wall, who opened their restaurant after several years working in the industry. Both agreed to act as mentors. Dylan learned that making the transition from home cooking to working in a professional kitchen is a big step.
Jen related that working in a professional kitchen is certainly not like a dramatic Gordon Ramsay episode, but it does involve a lot of hard work and pushing yourself outside your comfort zone to hone your skills and learn to work more quickly and efficiently than a home cook. To succeed professionally, you must also be able to handle feedback on your performance and not take it personally. As mentor Jen emphasized your attitude needs to be “Chef, I will do this better tomorrow.”
Flare and creativity are definitely a part of culinary arts. Dylan’s taste buds were set alight when Mentor Steve spoke about the multi-stage process of making delicious desserts like a Baked Alaska or a rich chocolate gateau from scratch. Nevertheless, jobs in cooking necessitate physical stamina. Steve noted that preparing food involves standing on your feet for long periods of time and enjoying physical activity. He commented, “I never have to worry about getting out of shape. I love that.” The ability to multitask, problem-solve, and critical thinking skills matter too.
Specific to food preparation, Jen observed that in small high-end restaurants like theirs a team of cooks do all the food preparation as well as cooking menu items from start to finish. They don’t hire anyone just to do food preparation. To find the type of job that Dylan wanted he needed to be flexible in his job search. Jen advised, “I would highly recommend a larger place than a smaller place … larger places tend to have larger infrastructure and better training … Don’t underestimate the power of getting experience in a chain restaurant.”
Food preparation was the specific job that Dylan wanted to learn about. In discussing his goal with Jen, he discovered there is another entry-level restaurant job that he might like to explore, a service role. This role involves plating the food for each order. It entails slicing ingredients on the plate and adding things like sauces and garnish. The dish is then ready for the wait staff to deliver to the customer. Dylan was pleased to find that this role could be another job for him to consider.
With a career that requires working hard, including evenings and weekends, Jen still recommended what she does: “I get to work with my friends … We laugh a lot. We celebrate a lot … I think that is not unique to us. I think it’s a special thing in restaurants. I think restaurant workers have a wonderful camaraderie in general.”
After all the information he received during his mentor match, was Dylan still passionate about entering the restaurant sector? Yes, he was. As he thoughtfully concluded: “I am hoping to find a place that would offer something like this.” Our goal is to help Dylan find a job that helps him make the transition from home cooking to working in a professional kitchen.