Chef: Sweating it out for big bucks

If you are attached to details, have an engaging personality and can respect deadlines, then becoming a chef can be a serious option. However, you will have to overcome some challenges: work under pressure to deliver within the scheduled time without sacrificing quality throughout the process, standing on your feet for long hours, endure cuts and burns, heavy lifting, noise, heat, smoke and fumes, working evenings, weekends and holidays and almost at any time when the rest of the world is not working. Let us take a look at how to become a chef. Being a chef has become increasingly trendy nowadays thanks to the heightened popularity of culinary TV programmes such as Hell’s Kitchen, Top Chef, Kitchen Nightmares, etc. So says Karmaraj Nosib, acting Training Centre Manager of MITD – Ecole Hôtelière Sir Gaëtan Duval. “Culinary programs on TV have helped portray chefs as stars. Far from the glamour and glitter, the work of a chef is very demanding. If youngsters are inspired solely from TV shows, they may be in for a shock once they step into a kitchen. However, there are lots of prospects if someone chooses this profession with the perks. For Mauritius, the hotel industry remains the main employer for chefs. Cruise liners and catering also provide openings,” he says. Prospects abound in Mauritius but yet, cruise liners offer much higher pay packages, as the workload tends to be much more demanding. “The basic salary needs to be reviewed if we want youngsters to stay in the profession. The disparity is too high between the wages paid to an expatriate chef as compared to a local one. Salary depends on experience; sometimes qualifications and the category of hotel. Wages vary from as low as Rs 12,000 for a qualified cook to more than Rs 200,000 if you are the executive chef in a big hotel.” In-house chef at the Deer Hunter restaurant in Constance Belle Mare Plage hotel, Patrick Travady, explains that all Mauritian cooks should aspire to become a chef one day. “We must realise that we have many restaurants and hotels in the country. Mauritius is a much-appreciated and safe tourist destination: with the growing number of visitors, all these establishments need cooks and chefs. We don’t have to go abroad. On the island itself, we have different kinds of outlets: from gourmet restaurants in luxury hotels to small restaurants, and even restaurants with regional cuisines,” he reveals. Chef Patrick Travady affirms that generally luxury hotels pay more because they look for talented chefs. “Earnings start at Rs 30,000 and once you have the required experience, you can earn much more.”

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"14635","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-24451 alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"248","height":"332","alt":"chef-avinash-2"}}]]Avinash Shah: “I started as a kitchen assistant”

36-year old Avinash is currently in Melbourne, Australia, working as a chef for Qantas Airways. He is a graduate in BSc (Hons) in tourism and hospitality management from the University of Technology, Mauritius. He has been a chef for almost seven years. “I have been working in hospitality from August 2008 since I moved to Melbourne. Cooking is my passion. I got the virus from my family as my grand-parents and parents have always been in the food business. It has been so from generation to generation. I am the 4th generation in the cooking business. I have always enjoyed my job and love doing something that I am good at. In addition, I like looking after customers and being hospitable with everyone.” Avinash started his career as a kitchen assistant. “I started as a kitchen assistant in a small French café in Melbourne. From there, I never looked back and kept working hard and learned how to become a better cook. After the café, I started working at the Crown Entertainment Complex (2009 – 2012) in Melbourne. It is the largest casino in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. Working there was a truly great experience and I have enriched my knowledge and enhanced skills such as management and confidence. I was awarded Employee of the Month and other awards in Customer Service Experience.” He believes that prospects abound for chefs worldwide including Australia and Mauritius. “Food is everywhere and we all love eating. We just have to enhance our inborn talents and deliver something magical on a plate.” He encourages the young generation to be creative and be passionate about food and cooking.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"14636","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-24452 alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"248","height":"440","alt":"chef-cristel"}}]]Christel Darion: “Won the first place at the Austafe Culinary Trophy”

27-year old Chistel lived in France for 16 years and moved to Mauritius in 2004. She is currently working as chef for a fine-dining Italian restaurant. “My dad is a chef and so were his father and grandfather (at the State House in Réduit). So I am the 4th generation of cooks. When I was around five years old, my father used to pick me up after school and as I did not have a babysitter, he used to bring me to his workplace. At that time, he was a chef in a bistro in France and I remember how he would often put me on a bench and talk to me while he was cooking. I would get a chance to sample different flavours, even now I still can remember the smell of that kitchen. I think that’s how I caught the cooking passion. Even though I never thought of it as a career, once I grew up, I was always in my dad’s kitchen, smelling and tasting everything.” In December 2015, she finished her certificate level 3 and 4 in commercial cookery. “It was not a dream per se, but it was inside me. I always liked to cook, especially baking cakes and making sweets. Hard work, odd hours, little sleep and sweating it out were my daily tasks but I still like it! My journey was amazing, full of unforgettable moments. I started my course in July 2014 and my passion grew further thanks to my teacher and mentor Daniel Bolla who encouraged me to enter my first competition and I never regretted it. I met great people there, awesome chefs who are internationally recognised and I made very good friends. I still can’t believe how much I achieved in a year and a half.” She won the first place at the Austafe Culinary Trophy regional finals in July 2015. “I competed along with the other Chisholm students and I was selected to go to the national finals to compete with the best students from ten different cafés from the state of Victoria. I came out first once more and also received the award of best culinary student of the state of Victoria and was selected for the national finals in Perth in October 2015 to compete against all the other states and finished second. So, I got the Second Best Culinary Student of Australia award.” Recently, Christel was selected as finalist for the Fonterra Proud to be a Chef mentoring program. Scheduled over four days, this program allowed her to pay daily visits to dairy factory, farms and fine dining experiences in the best restaurants of Melbourne. Participants had master classes and chats with chefs like Scott Pickett, Josh Pelham, Peter Wright and Anna Polyviou.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"14637","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-24453 alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"239","height":"264","alt":"chef-chris-gopaul"}}]]Chris Gopaul: “I was so honoured to prepare food for football players”

Chris Gopaul lives in Dublin and is a professional head chef at Slatterys. He has been a full time chef since 2006. “At a very young age, I was very passionate about good food and very often, I would cook for my family. I grew up in a family involved in the food industry with my parents who were supplying Indian sweets and Mauritian delicacies for weddings, functions and celebrations. As a child, my dream was to become a football player in the English Premier League but as the years passed by, I grew passionate to be like the chef I admired the most Michel Roux Jr. At that time, I wanted to join hotel school to pursue my dream career but faced some financial predicaments. I understood my family's constraints but I was always looking for an opportunity.” He still remembers the first opportunity he got to work at Portmarnock Hotel & Golf Links, one of Ireland's most prestigious hotels where Ireland's national football team always stays for international game fixtures. “I was so honoured to prepare food for celebrity football players who I only saw on TV since my childhood like Roy Keane, Robbie Keane, Steve Finnan and many more. Since then, I started climbing the career ladder but it was not easy as I faced many challenges and also, the job of a chef involves long working hours, daily focus. No matter what situation I faced in my personal life, I had to maintain the standards, discipline, organisation and show perfection in my work.” He won the Chef of the Year award in 2015 among 10,000 participants. “This career has good job prospects, especially in Europe. I have great respect and praise for the work of Mauritian chefs.”

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"14638","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-24454 alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"247","height":"224","alt":"chef-kritesh-2"}}]]Kritesh Halkory: “Working alongside a chef with a Michelin star was wonderful”

30-year old Kritesh Halkory works at the Constance Le Prince Maurice Hotel. “Actually, my father also works in the hotel industry as receptionist at One & Only Le Saint Geran Hotel. After finishing school, I chose the same industry as my father. I joined a course on food production at the Ecole Hôtelière. I did my first training at One & Only Le Saint Geran Hotel.” Kritesh has won the Festival Culinaire Bernard Loiseau 2016. “I had to work hard for the competition. Working alongside Michelin star chef was just wonderful. It was dream for me to be someone well known through such events.” Through his journey, Kritesh has won several awards like the Best Fish Main Course while participating at the Internal Kitchen Competition 2010, awarded Best Main Course in the Chef Challenge 2014, and winner of Chef Challenge 2014 and 2nd place of Young Chef Challenge 2015 for Kitchen Skills as coach. According to Kritesh, there are some very good chefs in Mauritius who can do a better job than foreigners. “I have worked for Princess Cruise and let me tell you that Mauritians are reputed for their hardworking nature. So for sure, if you are good, you can easily find a job anywhere around the world. Being a chef open lots of opportunities, as you travel a lot with cruise companies. If you really want to do this job with love, you can climb up the ladder speedily.”