Restaurant Internships: What to Expect
If you're interested in becoming a chef, or simply want to see what it's like working at a fine restaurant under a master chef, you might try completing a restaurant internship.
Internship programs range in length from two days to six months. The shorter programs are generally intended for people who might like to cook, but don't have professional cooking experience. The longer programs are generally intended for students who are working on degrees at culinary schools, or who have already completed their degrees, and are looking for work experience.
All kinds of restaurants offer internships, from famous restaurants in Paris, New York, and Chicago, to restaurants in resort areas, to local bakeshops and cafeterias.
At many restaurants, you'll work as a sous chef. You'll spend time at different stations in the kitchen, perhaps chopping vegetables for salads, perhaps grating cheese for sauces, perhaps rolling dough for pastries. At some restaurants you may also have the opportunity to prepare entrees for customers. Typically longer programs will also assign you a rotation to other parts of the kitchen, including the store room and the dish room.
Restaurants are busy places, and your experience is likely to be intense. You'll learn how to efficiently -- and quickly -- prepare food. You'll learn how to effectively interact with other workers in a kitchen, and you'll see how a good chef directs a kitchen team. You'll learn about food safety, and, in the longer programs, about improvising when some ingredient in a recipe is missing. And finally, you'll learn the pleasure of creating a good meal for paying customers.
