How To Become a Cook: Complete Guide
Wondering how to become a professional Cook? Working in a professional kitchen can be a rewarding and fulfilling career.
If you think you have what it takes to start working as a Cook in a restaurant — you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we talk about how to break through in the restaurant industry, even if you have no previous experience.
How To Become a Cook With No Experience
There are many different ways to learn how to become a restaurant Cook. Here are five steps you should consider:
1. Get a job as a back-of-house staff
The first and most important step is to try to get any type of job in a kitchen. Many Cooks start their professional careers as Dishwashers, Line Cooks or Prep Cooks.
Once you get a kitchen job, you can get a better idea of what it takes to be a Cook at the same restaurant. You can show interest in learning, and you’re likely to be given a chance to advance to a Line Cook or Prep Cook position in due time.
See Also: How to Become a Line Cook
2. Get culinary education
Some people prefer to spend some time in culinary schools before they apply for a Cook job. There are many culinary schools across the U.S. with great programs that teach students how to become a good Cook. Here are five notable culinary schools:
- Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts
- Johnson & Wales University
- Kendall College
- Institute of Culinary Education
- Culinary Institute of America
We have a great article where we talk about the best culinary schools and the programs they teach. Long story short — all five schools on our list will teach you how to become a Cook at a restaurant. Aspiring Cooks and Chefs who want to advance their culinary careers and become Sous Chefs or more should definitely check it out.
3. Get certifications (optional)
If you don’t have the time and means to attend a culinary school and are wondering how to become a certified Cook, then this step is just for you.
Completing a course from the American Culinary Federation will reward you with a valuable certificate. The two most popular certifications for beginner Cooks are:
4. Video guides and tutorials
You can also spend time at home learning how to cook and what it takes to become a good cook by watching tutorials and video guides. There are thousands of useful videos and tutorials online that you can take advantage of.
For example, here’s a great video on how to become a good Cook for beginners, where YouTuber and Chef Joshua Weissman shows you 100 useful food hacks that he learned by working in restaurants.
Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay also has a great channel with videos providing useful advice for beginners.
His Ultimate Cookery Course is a great one for beginners. In this video course, he teaches everything from basic cooking skills to simple recipes, how to cook with spice, slow-cooked dishes and more. Check it out below.
5. Cooking books and culinary blogs
Cooking books and culinary blogs are also great sources of information you can learn how to become a better cook from. Some great cooking books for beginners are:
- How to Cook Everything: The Basics
- Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
- Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
- The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity
- America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook
The reason these books are great for beginners is because they focus on teaching skills rather than recipes.
Besides getting the aforementioned books, you can consider learning from culinary blogs.
Daisie has a culinary blog where they teach you how to become a better cook in 30 days.
Recipe Tin Eats is another great blog where you can find a ton of great recipes to experiment with.
For aspiring Bakers and Pastry Chefs, Sally’s Baking Addiction is a great source of knowledge and recipes to learn from.
Frequently Asked Questions on How To Become a Cook
Becoming a Personal Cook is a long and challenging path. More often than not, it involves completing a culinary arts program from a renowned culinary school and spending a few years working in a restaurant.
You’ll need to make a name for yourself if you want people to ask you to become their Personal Cook. That being said, you’ll also need to do a lot of networking and develop a brand for yourself.
Everyone can become a home cook. All you need to do is follow the steps we talked about above and you’ll learn how to make delicious home-made meals for yourself and your family in no time.
It depends. Some people already have great cooking skills that they developed throughout their life, so they can become Cooks in a few months.
Others, however, will need to spend at least a few months learning and developing basic cooking skills, as well as some time working as Dishwashers, Kitchen Porters or Prep Cooks before they can be considered for a Cook position.
In order to become a Cook in the army, you’ll need to take the following steps:
- Talk to a recruiter and discuss your goals
- Complete boot camp
- Complete training that involves classroom instruction and hands-on experience
If you want to learn how to become a cook in the military, you can check out what the army’s looking for in a Culinary Specialist.