Station Chef Interview

I interviewed the lady whom I usually am trained by, her name is Janice and she is a Station Chef at the Sheraton Parkway Toronto North Hotel. She told me when she was a teenager, the world of work meant she could help pay rent and other family bills, which was one of the main reasons she began working. She began work as a dishwasher at age fourteen as she had experience in the kitchen, helping her mom cook. Janice said she didn’t want to be a cook and rather become a medical secretary. As she continued through high school, she continued working as a cook. However she quit night school because work as well as night school was too strenuous. Janice’s parents didn’t play a big role, however her mother supported her aspirations.
Janice originally …show more content…
Majority of time spent at work is spent using tools such as; knives, whisks and scales and using machines such as; ovens, grills, fryers and other miscellaneous kitchen equipment. Communication is a big part of being a station chef as there are a lot of people in the kitchen and communication with the waiters is just as important. Organization is one of the biggest and most important roles within the kitchen. Organization makes ingredients easier to find, equipment easier to find and helps to ensure every task is getting …show more content…
The Sheraton Parkway offers flexible hours. However there’s no working from home or daycare facilities. I was most surprised when Janice told me she didn’t attend college. She explained how she worked her way up the culinary ladder, which I found unexpected as I previously believed you would get nowhere without completion of college. I don’t believe my interview with Janice has changed my career plans as I still have a burning passion to be a chef. She made me realize there’s a lot of work to getting where she is. However my dreams were reinforced when she told me how much she enjoys working at the Sheraton Parkway. I enjoyed getting to know Janice more. I think she is an excellent person to work with and teaches me really important things about the field. She also shows me tricks such as opening an egg with one hand. I really liked talking with her and finding out more about the culinary arts field. I learned that experience is one of the biggest factors of the culinary arts field, which is something I was not aware of. I believed with college, it’d be more less and easy and straight forward road. However there’s no such thing as too much