Chefs, line cooks, and kitchen assistants, etc are all employed in professional kitchens which can be hot, noisy and stressful places. The ranked levels in the culinary ladder in these professional kitchens in the beginning of the career for anyone starts with being a Dishwasher, Kitchen Porter, Commis Chef, Line Cook, Sous Chef, Head Chef and then finally graduating and moving to the top of the hierarchy with being an Executive Chef.
Let’s focus our attention to Line Cook and the role of culinary school in aiding this particular station to move up the culinary ladder. Line Cook, the term can be interchangeable with Station Chef, Line Chef, and Line Cook. Entry-level positions as a line cook and station chefs are just one more stop to conquer in the kitchen hierarchy.
The current kitchen title-line cook is explained as someone usually in charge of assembling dishes and prepping ingredients for restaurant procedures and specifications and are responsible for a particular area of production in a restaurant. Sometimes in larger restaurants, a Line Cook may have more than a few line cooks, station chefs and line chefs assisting him; however, in smaller restaurants, the Line Cook may work single-handedly and take charge of the particular production/prep work.
One needs to work diligently to be a successful line cook, as the job is highly stressful with long periods of standing time and working on most nights and weekends. The Line Cook must take direction from either Sous Chef or Head Chef and depending on the type of cooking they take up at the restaurant the line cook can either work as a fry cook or a grill cook. Furthermore, the line cooks can eventually take up the next line of work and can surely become a head cook or any chef position once they gain enough exposure and experience.
In addition, if a line cook is armed with a culinary arts credential it can be a sure fire way to fuel the passage to master the gastronomic delights in a restaurant and rise up in the ranks of the industry. A culinary school education simply attests to the line cooks ability and passion for cooking and helps him refine his employment goals in the fast-paced competitive marketplace. It also gives a healthy dose of hands-on business training with proven techniques, if the line cook aspires to run his own kitchen in the future. Culinary training will teach line cooks on cooking techniques to equip them to learn aspects of baking, grilling, sauté, pastry making, garnish prep, menu prep, and safety and business concepts. Experienced chefs will oversee training programs at the training schools to drive hands-on training directly to students from the proven masters. Line cooks can achieve some level of technical competence however a chef’s learning never ceases, and one must constantly learn and unlearn new techniques on the job.
To know about their training programs and other related stories, here are some top culinary schools- The Art Institute, The Culinary Institute of America, Johnson and Wales University, College of Culinary Arts, Le Cordon Bleu and New England Culinary Institute.