Education Required To Be Saucier Chef

Former steward finds second career through culinary education

Although he loved to cook, Rudolph Cabuay didn’t follow his instincts when he chose his college course in business administration.

His father, now a retired Army General, suggested an HRM (Hotel and Restaurant Management) degree that Rudolph didn’t follow either. “I didn’t see this as a career before.” Rudolph explains. He was actually waiting for his Dad to ask him to enter the military—but his father never broached the idea.

Since his grandmother once said that one was enough in the family, he left it at that.

For his first job, Rudolph became a flight steward for Philippine Air Lines. Although he enjoyed travel, he eventually yearned for something more. He tried a family business in Pangasinan for a few years.

Then he decided to enroll in a 1-year culinary course (Diploma in Culinary Arts) at the International School for Culinary Arts and Hotel Management (ISCAHM).

It was a turning point.

Rudolph realized that being with industry professionals helped him gain knowledge and that culinary arts could be a good career.

He absorbed much from his mentor and eventually work boss, Chef Norbert Gandler. “He is actually strict but he is like a father figure to me.” He relates how he himself asked Chef Gandler to hire him after school.

Since many of his classmates were getting hired abroad, some people were wondering why he was not pursuing his applications in other countries. He told Gandler, “I actually want to work in Burj Al Arab (7-star hotel). But while waiting for that one, I still want to learn from you.”

Rudolph became faculty assistant to Chef Gandler and eventually opened the school restaurant Aubergine as “saucier” (head of the station handling sauces). Kitchen work was highly stressful. He took a vacation abroad and upon returning to the Philippines, eventually became one of the younger faculty members of the school.

He was also able to attend the US Meat Export Federation Culinary Program in Singapore that has given him some specialty on the meat topic.

You Want to Become a Chef

You Want to Become a Chef

You may dream that you want become a chef. It certainly can be an exciting career. Professional chefs create menus and dining experiences that people love. Some chefs prepare meals for celebrities or even royalty. Today, thanks to television, many chefs are celebrities in their own right, creating culinary product lines, hosting popular television shows, and writing best-selling cookbooks. And if you just want to become a chef to work in a local restaurant, you can find that you’ve chosen a satisfying career that offers skills that make others in your life happy as well.

If you want to become a chef, though, it might help you to determine exactly what type of culinary master you would like to be before you start on your path. There are several different types of chef you could opt to become. For example, an Executive Chef is responsible for directing all restaurant food production. He or she is the one who buys food, creates recipes, plans menus, oversees hygiene and kitchen safety and manages the staff at a restaurant. If the Executive Chef is the one in charge, the Sous Chef or the Chef de Partie is the right hand man or woman to the Executive Chef. The Sous Chef manages the preparation of food and cooks meals. He or she manages staff and helps with preparing food. In smaller restaurants, he or she may also prepare some menus and order food and supplies.

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Perhaps you would like to become a chef who specializes in certain areas. Many restaurants hire a Pastry Chef, or Patissier, a professional who is solely in charge of creating tempting desserts and baked goods. Another specialty culinary arts professional is the Chef Saucier, which is the chef who is in charge of soups and sauces. This person needs mathematic skills, since determining precise measurements can be daunting to someone without this natural ability.

If you are artistically inclined, you may want to become a Chef Garde Manger, or a specialist in food styling. This type of professional creates works of art with food by sculpting and forming foods into beautiful creations. If you are just starting out and really want to become a chef but don’t have any skills built up yet, you may want to get hired as a Commis Chef. This entry-level position involves helping the professionals in the kitchen. You can often work your way up into bigger positions from this one.

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