Skilled chefs are in high demand and an estimated 11,000 vacancies are predicted over the next year across the UK.
With an average salary of £32,700 for a head chef position, and 26,400 people employed in the sector in Scotland, now is a good time to take your next step in professional cookery.
Working as a Chef you would make delicious food for people to enjoy in a restaurant, cafe and bar. You’d cook the food to order and present it for the waiting staff to serve to the customers.
You’d prepare food using a variety of cooking methods. Creativity and imagination would help you present your food attractively.
You can get jobs such as a professional chef at supervisory level, junior management within a catering environment, chef patron/manager, home economics teacher, and assistant food and beverage manager.
If you work in a large kitchen you’d be part of a team and focus on one type of food, such as bread and pastries, or vegetables.
The head chef - also known as executive chef, kitchen manager or chef de cuisine - runs the entire kitchen, plans the menus and manages the budgets.
You’d probably start as a kitchen assistant or trainee chef (also called a commis chef). You’d spend time in each area of the kitchen, learning a range of skills and how to look after kitchen equipment.
With experience, you could become a section chef (also known as station chef and chef de partie) and take charge of an area of the kitchen.
The next step would be sous chef, where you would be running the entire kitchen for the head chef when needed.
You’ll learn through work placement, groupwork, lectures, industry visits guest speakers.
You’ll be taught by some of the best chef-lecturers around. We work closely with employers such as Gleneagles Hotel, The Balmoral Hotel and Trump Turnberry Hotel to ensure you learn the trends and the techniques that employers are looking for.
You’ll gain extensive experience in our partner restaurants and venues. Previous students cooked for Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Boris Johnson and others at COP26 in 2021. With such experience, many of our students go on to work in top establishments.
Previous students have gone on to work as chefs in top establishments such as The Balmoral Hotel Edinburgh, Trump Turnberry and The Gleneagles Hotel.
We offer a range of professional cookery courses. All our courses prepare you for employment in industry or for further training or qualifications.
Anna’s Chef Lecturer, Helen Vass, she said “To think that one year ago, Anna came to my 10 week chocolate night class with no previous knowledge of creating chocolate recipes, and now she is running her own successful business! I am so proud of her and I look forward to watching her business grow.”
