A few months ago, the Washington Post published an article about the increasing number of college graduates moving back in with their parents for a variety of reasons.  Many are saddled with high student loan balances while others have been confronted with a dwindling number of well-paying entry level jobs for the newly college educated.  According to the Studnet Monitor spring 2008 recruitment study, 73 percent of today’s graduating seniors will leave college with an average student loan debt of $23,000.  In a recent online poll from CollegeGrad.com, results show that 77% of 2008 college graduate job seekers reported that they planned to move back home with their parents after gradation.

By completing internships, culinary or otherwise, college graduates can leave college with a job in hand, or at least with a much clearer idea of exactly what kind of job they are looking for thanks to the real world experience and mentoring internships provide.  Steven Rothberg, Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com inthis article for TheStreet.com advises employers to plan on hiring 74% of their interns on as full-time employees.

Chef2Chef is offering culinary students and graduates the chance of a lifetime–to intern with Chef David Gilbert in his new Dallas restaurant set to open in January, 2009.  What better way to get a jump start on your culinary career–whether you are living with mom and dad or not.

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Chef2Chef.net recently launched The Dish a new culinary student blog centered around the educational adventures of five culinary students. The blog covers everything from student life to class room encounters.

Below you can see one of The Dish’s bloggers,  Sweet Kell, who is studying at Johnson and Wales University in Denver, CO. Kell’s background in baking and pastry arts has been the topic of most of her posts so far; we’re looking forward to reading more in the future.

Other bloggers include Shun Slinger, who just completed his freshman year at Johnson and Wales University, Charlotte; SaucyA, who is currently in Level 4 of the Classic Culinary Arts Program at the French Culinary Institute; Miss Meingue, enrolled in the Classic Pastry Arts program at the French Culinary Institute in New York City; and Culinary Canary, another French Culinary Institute student.

We’re hoping that they will share some great internship stories in the future. Please check out their blog entries and let them know what you think.

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The food internets are still buzzing over Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema’s treatise on the noise level of restaurants “No Appetite for Noise” published last week. Sietsema, who now includes a sound measurement in his restaurant ratings (something the San Francisco Chronicle has been doing for years). The modern design inspired slick surfaces and cavernous spaces of new restaurants are turning them into echo chambers. I remember noticing this phenomenon for the first time while trying to eat at Arlington’s Clarendon Grille soon after it opened. Conversation was absolutely impossible thanks to the hellish din created by its concrete floors, metal tables, high ceilings. The diners screaming about the atmosphere didn’t help either.

Pity the restaurant workers who have to put up with with damaging assault on their hearing day in and day out:

Exposure to noise may be hardest on restaurant workers, who spend more time in a dining room than do the people they wait on. “Theoretically,” says Robert W. Sweetow, director of audiology and professor of otolaryngology at the University of California in San Francisco, “the sound levels over time are loud enough to get impaired hearing.” (Otolaryngology is the branch of medicine dealing with ear, nose and throat disorders.)

Noisy restaurants affect more than just the ears. Loud sounds can elevate blood pressure, increase breathing rates, intensify the effects of alcohol and make sleep difficult — even after the noise ceases. At certain elevated levels, some people can experience dizziness and even nausea.”

But working in a kitchen can’t be that much quieter than working on the floor (unless that kitchen belongs to Thomas Keller)? At 85 decibels, your average kitchen blender and garbage disposal noise can cause noise induced hearing loss, so imagine what the constant noise of a commercial kitchen could do? How do culinary schools address preventing noise in the workplace in their curricula? Do they address the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss with students? I imagine, if nothing else, all culinary programs and kitchens educate students, chefs, and aspiring chef interns about the OSHA guidelines which require a “hearing conversation program” when employees are exposed to 85 dB or more in an 8-hour day. Many restaurants operate at noise levels much higher than that as noted in Siestema’s article.

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Do you know a budding teen chef? If yes, can you send them to my house to help me prepare spring rolls for 20 this Saturday? I kid! I kid! No, seriously…

In any case, the Art Institutes is holding a nation-wide competition to find the best of the best in teen chefs. On April 12th, local competitions will be held, and the winners will head to Las Vegas for the Best Teen Chef Final Round Competition on May 17th. Yeah, underage people in Vegas. Cooking. Should be a squeaky-clean good time.

Top prize winners win a full tuition scholarship for an associate’s degree, certificate, or diploma from the Culinary Arts program at one of the Art Institutes locations. Not too shabby. Remember kids, free money is the best money.

According to their press release: In addition to a full-tuition scholarship and the title of Best Teen Chef 2008, the first place winner in the national competition, in partnership with Food Network, will be an “Intern for a Day” at the Food Network Kitchens in New York City. The winner will also receive a tour of the Food Network Studios, dinner for two at a Food Network chef’s restaurant and a library of Food Network Kitchens cookbooks.

Lovely!

I especially love how the competitors at the Local Cook-Off Competition will compete in timed heats preparing shrimp cocktail, sauteed breast of chicken, fresh broccoli, and rice pilaf. I know they’re just young ‘uns, but seriously, is it brain surgery to prepare fresh broccoli?

If you are ahead of the game and already have your culinary degree, why not check out the Chef David Gilbert Intern Search for your chance to work under a top chef?

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Many chefs, the famous and the not so famous, complete internships with professional chefs as a way of learning the skills they need in order to succeed as a professional chef. But internships provide more than cooking skills. Serving an internship under an accomplished chef provides valuable real work experience. Young chefs can learn how to lead and inspire a kitchen team or how to deal with disappointed customers.

Even the most famous chefs have completes internships on their way to the top:

• Famed chef Thomas Keller completed “estagiere” internships with Roger Verge of Les Moulin de Mougins and Bernard Loiseau of La Cote d’Or, Saulieu France.
• Chef Danny Delcambre, who was born deaf and legally blind, faced more obstacles than most chefs. But all that changed when Paul Prudhomme hired Delcambre for an internship.
• World renowned Sushi chef, Ken Kawasumi, began his first internship at the age of 16. according to Sushi or Death.
• Marc-Antoine Careme served as an apprentice chef in his teens. He studied under several master chefs of the time and became a world-renowned chef, who also did some spying on the side for the French government.
• Jacques Pepin became an apprentice at the age of 13. His memoir is entitled: “The Apprentice: My Life In the Kitchen.”
• Wolfgang Puck served an apprenticeship at L’Oustau de Baumaniere in Provence.
• Jamie Oliver served an apprenticeship at Westminster Catering College in the U.K. and is an advocate for apprenticeships, training hundreds of cooks through apprenticeships in his Fifteen restaurants.

If you are looking for an internship with an accomplished chef, apply for an internship with Chef David Gilbert.

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With the deadline for the Chef David Gilbert Internship search getting closer, OnTheLine is taking a closer look at how some of the Food & Wine 2008 Best New Chefs got their start. Most new culinary school grads find mentors and internships to help hone their skills before taking over the reins of an established restaurant or starting their own, like one of the 2008 Best New Chefs, Jim Burke. Burke worked under Mark Vetri of Philadelphia’s Vetri before opening James in 2006.

Gerard Craft, another winner, opened Niche after working under Bryan Moscatello (Bistro Toujours), Mohammad Islam (Chateau Marmont), and Perry Hendrix (Metropolitan).

Image from STLCommerceMagazine.com

And South African-born Koren Grieveson (who came to America by way of Angola, Iran, England and Brazil) worked under Michael Mina (Aqua) and with Paul Kahan Blackbird.

Other top chefs started as interns before hitting it big. Ming Tsai trained in Paris under acclaimed pastry chef Pierre Herme and in Japan with sushi master Kobayashi.

Mark Peel of Campanile certainly benefited from Wolfgang Puck’s internship program at Ma Maison. Peel interned at La Tour d’Argents and Moulinde Mougins through the program, leading to a head chef position at Puck’s Spago before opening Campanile in 1989.

Image from The-Fifth-Taste.com

So culinary students and grads, how about you? Does/did your culinary program have an internship component? Did you seek out internships during your program and after?

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The pasta shape identification quiz on AOL will test your pasta knowledge and make you feel like you don’t know your favorite food at all. My grandmother is rolling over in her grave over my results. Going to culinary school or an internship might have helped with that one. HT to Chow’s Grinder.

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Wow, we have already received an overwhelming number of resumes for Chef Gilbert’s internship search from all over the US! Gilbert will certainly have a tough time choosing his 2008-2009 intern.

Even though the applicants come from many different backgrounds, the one thread that seems common is the desire to learn from one of the best. One of the applicants wrote about how honored she would be to learn under one of Dallas’ rising culinary stars. I think Chef Gilbert is blushing.

An internship with a master in the field is not just about an entry on your resume. It’s about experiences you can’t find in a classroom. Meeting important people in the industry. Learning how things really happen in the kitchen. Apply now. The deadline to apply is October 31st, 2008.

Those guys at Moby Dick’s getting up to some mischief…

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Chef Gilbert recently wrote a column about his search for a new intern for his regular column on Chef2Chef called “In the Fire.” From the column:

Our vision is to provide the intern with hands on experiences that he or she could not receive anywhere else. We are committed to transforming this internship serious learning experience, but also an adventure. My team is dedicated to ensuring that the experience is challenging, motivating, and educational. It is up to us to provide the winner with real life kitchen experience and to develop the fundamental skills that he or she needs to be a leader in this industry; I firmly believe that grooming young cooks to be great chefs is critical to the future of the industry.

The column contains several testimonials from Chef Gilbert’s past interns like this one from pastry chef Ngoc Trinh:

Chef Gilbert provided a versatile and challenging environment to allow my skills to grow and advance in a professional kitchen. He gave me the opportunity to find a home for my creativity and is a leader who guided me in the right direction. I had the freedom to allow my mind to create pieces of art work on plates for the guests. His diligence and sense of perfection are the sole reasons why I am skilled in culinary/pastry arts today. It was a true to life classroom with the heat of a natural kitchen!”

The column also includes a very useful Q & A section, along with a pick into Gilbert’s creative process and leadership style. If you are interested in an internship in a new restaurant with one of the most promising American chefs, you should read “My Quest for A Culinary Intern” and apply for the internship.  The deadline to apply is October 31st, 2008.

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Newcomers to the culinary field looking to advance quickly and attain high-level positions are finding that more and more importance is being placed on new, highly-specialized skills. Today it is no longer enough to have a culinary degree in hand, and a resume with top-notch real-world experience, internships with influential chefs or restaurants are the only way in to many premier culinary positions.

Culinary schools like the French Culinary Institute have career services that help place students in internships and jobs right out of culinary programs. Other internships, usually with major corporations, are posted on online job boards. Some “celebrity” chefs, including the NY-based Chef DJ, have a number of interns rotating in and out of their kitchens at any given time.

Chefs look for very different things in their interns. While Chef DJ is looking for “aggressive, hardworking, and charming” interns, Chef David Gilbert desires interns with “passion, personality, and a relentless drive for perfection”.

What can you expect from a culinary internship? It all depends on the chef. According to Chef Gilbert, “It all depends on the student’s dedication and how quickly they grasp the concepts and tasks put before them. I typically start all students with the basics because without a solid foundation they can not achieve the next level. Once the basics are mastered then I make sure there is always the opportunity to move forward into another role in the kitchen.”

For more information on becoming a chef and internships in general, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s website on chefs and cooks. Or, if you know you’re interested in an internship, fill out the application for an internship with Chef Gilbert.

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