CHEF SKIERS??

TheChosenOne

TheChosenOne

Member
I am drawn to the culinary arts as a proffession, it would be kick ass to be able to be a cook at a nice restraunt at a ski resort, so I am thinking of attending culinary school. But im conccerned that with such a proffession I will not get to ski as much as I like.

SO my question: are there any chefs out there that are also skiers that can give me any advice. Can I still ski a lot and be a chef or should I just be a ski bum and work in a little ski shop?
 
My friend Mitsubishi Suzuki is a habachi master at a local sushi resturant about 5mins outside Okemo so yeah, its very possible
 
To pursue any profession seriously as a career, you're going to have to make sacrifices in the beginning. Being able to ski lots right now is great, but being able to ski lots in the next 50 years of your life is better.

Go to culinary school. Learn from as many good chefs as you can. Then bring your talents to the resort restaurants.

Most of the head chefs/sous chefs I knew didn't ride much. A few did, but most spent their days in the kitchen.
 
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I spent a week out in Jackson two years ago, and one of the guys I skied with used to be a corporate chef, ie he worked for a company that would cater for corporate events all over Boston and make absolute bank (for a chef). He eventually got fed up with that life style, moved out to Jackson, started his own "company" where he caters to the rich and famous of Jackson, and skis when he is not cooking.
 
Well, I saw him every day for a week. He usually gets slammed during a few periods (Christmas, March, summers) and then the rest of the time he skis.
 
I would think being a chef anywhere nice you wouldn't be able to ski loads, but even with culinary school you don't start as a chef and the first few years I would think you'd have time to ski.
 
The scool i would go to has an internship program where i would work at restraunts at keystone and breck as part of my schooling
 
Ok I've actually done what you're looking to do. Your hours are going to be fucked for normal people, but not for skiing. The majority of your time will be nights and weekends. The days you'll most likely have off will be Mon, Tues, or Wed. You'll be working holidays. The way to look at it is you'll be working all of the peak skiing hours. This may sound great for skiing, but keep reading.

Your hours will be crazy. some days 6am-10pm. some days 11am-1am. So when you get a day off, you're gonna want to sleep. A lot. You won't have the ability to call in when it dumps. You'll have to suffer. Everything I just said will go three-fold cause you'll be a lowly peon in the kitchen and no one cares about what you want to do outside of the kitchen.
 
my buddy is working as a chef in whistler this season. I haven't talked to him since he left but he posts a lot of sweet instragram pics. good luck op lol
 
Ah man, good luck. I did something very similar and made it to an assistant manager position at a big hotel at a resort. And it fucking sucked. So bad. And you get paid shit. Ended up quitting to work in ski school because it was way more enjoyable. If that's what you want to do go for it, just my experience.

OP one of my good buddies is a sous chef at the resort I used to work at. He really enjoys the job, but as mentioned, his hours are insane. Goes in around noon everyday, so he has the ability to get a few hours in in the morning, but, he's usually working super late into the night and just ends up sleeping in most days.
 
well i want to get into the hospitality/travel industry, i should say. id like to work in a hotel to get a feel of how things run, then hop into corporate travel game. my mom is a director of sales for a corporate travel firm and makes some good coin for sure. she manages/does travel for a bunch of companies, both big and small. like some berkshire hathaway companies, too.
 
this is what i do, and its been working out great so far. finding the right place to work is key. we very rarely open before 5, so i can ski everyday. we don't even have day time prep cooks. some nights we'll have a guy in the back working away at night, but normally we come in at 3 and get prepped for service at 5:30. There can be some somewhat late nights, but normally nothing longer than 12 or 1. only really sucks when you wanna wake up at 7:30 to go shred pow, but still not all that bad. the thing about cooking to, is that anywhere in the world that you go, people will be hiring cooks. you wanna go live on a 70 foot yacht in the caribbean? get a job cooking on one, that what my aunt used to do. You wanna live in the backcountry? get a job cooking at a hut. i know some euro style backcountry huts/hotels are being build in whistler, i might look into that once they are built. you could even get a job at a heli op too, although i have never been clear on how much heli time those guys actually get. can be kind of shitty sometimes though seeing your friends working construction, making a lot more money than you, and then taking the whole winter off. but whatever, i like cooking, i wouldn't be as happy doing something else.
 
this is what i do, and its been working out great so far. finding the right place to work is key. we very rarely open before 5, so i can ski everyday. we don't even have day time prep cooks. some nights we'll have a guy in the back working away at night, but normally we come in at 3 and get prepped for service at 5:30. There can be some somewhat late nights, but normally nothing longer than 12 or 1. only really sucks when you wanna wake up at 7:30 to go shred pow, but still not all that bad. the thing about cooking to, is that anywhere in the world that you go, people will be hiring cooks. you wanna go live on a 70 foot yacht in the caribbean? get a job cooking on one, that what my aunt used to do. You wanna live in the backcountry? get a job cooking at a hut. i know some euro style backcountry huts/hotels are being build in whistler, i might look into that once they are built. you could even get a job at a heli op too, although i have never been clear on how much heli time those guys actually get. can be kind of shitty sometimes though seeing your friends working construction, making a lot more money than you, and then taking the whole winter off. but whatever, i like cooking, i wouldn't be as happy doing something else.
 
you definitely don't have to go to culinary school to be a cook at a ski resort restaurant. just get some restaurant experience, prove you're a good competent worker, and you should be able to get into most restaurants at/near ski resorts. this comes from lots of experience in said industry. last winter I walked into $12/hr coldside cooking having only dishwashing/prep and front of house experience. my recommendation is if you're liking it then go to culinary school--I know a few guys in the same position who dropped out of culinary school cause it's a ton of money to get the same position a lot of people just work themselves into.

Try it out for sure! if you haven't worked in restaurants before, it's usually a pretty crazy mix of interesting people looking to have a good time riding and partying. make sure to keep a good attitude and avoid the drama that comes about naturally, no matter where you're working at. it helps no one and is childish. plus it's free food, which is always benefit enough.
 
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