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Becoming a chef is hot, physically demanding and emotionally draining. You may have to be on your feet, working in a hot, hectic, noisy kitchen for as many as 12-14 hours. It's a high stress work environment.

That's the downside. The potential rewards are amazingly good as well. You might become a gourmet superstar like Emeril Lagasse or Bobby Flay or a television star like PBS TV's "America's Test Kitchen" chef Sara Moulton. Maybe you'd like to be the owner of a great gourmet bake shop or confectioners. The only limits are your desire and willingness to work hard.

Deciding what's right for you may seem a little daunting. A helpful tool is Culinary Institute of America's E-recruiting web sites where executive chef, sous chef or other positions may are be found. The opportunities are many and global in scope. As a professional chef you can work literally anywhere in the world. In major hotel chains jobs are open from Beijing to Brownsville.

Other Internet recruiting web sites are Star Chefs, Chef2Chef or chefjobs . These are good places to begin your search. Searching chef jobs will find more helpful sites. Star Chefs is especially good if you want to work in hotels.

Now you must make a choice. You might work in someone else's restaurant or open your own. Depending on your specialty you could open an up-scale bake shop or gourmet chocolate shop. All of these have been done successfully and have brought their chef-owners great fame.

How about going into culinary education as a trainer? Become a consultant to restaurant owners and make lots of money by helping them to get their kitchens operating properly. There is a great need for this service and you would be able to travel as well.

Food service management is also a good career choice. Companies such as Aramark, Sodexo and Canteen pay very well for Executive Chef and Food and Beverage Director positions. This will entail directing food service operations in Industrial or Education environments.These jobs are very challenging as you are often required to produce maximum results with more limited resources than you'd find in a gourmet restaurant.

These are just a few of the opportunities available to a culinary school graduate. There are many more including a military culinary arts career or even, becoming a food writer or critic. or working as a chef in a four star hotel in locations around the world. Maybe you could work in Hawaii or Singapore or even your own home town. The jobs are there waiting for you. Go out there and do something great, you've earned it.

Learn more about this author, Ronnie Daniels.
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