Tom Colicchio taught himself to cook by studying the cooking manuals of Jacques Pepin. Mario Batali worked as a dishwasher at a New Jersey
pizza parlor. Emeril Lagasse learned the art of pastry at a local Portuguese bakery.Everyone has to start somewhere.If you’re thinking about starting a culinary career, but aren’t quite sure how to make it to the ranks of Top Chef, look no further. We’ve broken down the culinary ladder into three basic rungs that, with the right training, you’ll be able to climb. Check it out:

Step #1: Enroll in Culinary School
It takes a lot to be a chef. Chefs have to know how to sear a piece of tuna, sauté fresh asparagus, and reduce a sauce down to perfection-sometimes all at once. In addition, they must know how to oversee an entire kitchen staff, handle knives without losing any fingers, and keep the refrigerator at the right temperature so the meat doesn’t spoil and the desserts don’t freeze.

To learn all of this (and a few other tricks that come in handy), most chefs start their career by going to culinary school. There, you’ll get the hands-on experience you need to make your way around the kitchen.

Step #2: Get Some Experience Under Your Belt
Despite what the reality shows say, no one graduates from culinary school and becomes the next Gordon Ramsay. First, you have to prove that you can hold your own in front of a char grill on a busy Friday night.

When you graduate culinary school, use the connections you made their to find a position as a chef de partie, also known as a station chef or line cook. Yes, it will be grueling and consist of long hours, but it’s a great way to get the experience you need. Many restaurants rotate their line employees through different stations, which allow you to perfect your skills and handle any complicated order that comes your way.

Step #3: Work Your Way Up
Once you feel confident in your culinary skills, what’s next? There’s a variety of positions underneath the executive chef that will allow you to climb the culinary ladder.

Expediters work to coordinate all the different entrees and ensure that they come out on time. (They’re sort of like an orchestra conductor, but of the kitchen.) Head cooks oversee and supervise the other workers on the line. And Sous chefs are second-in-command to the executive chef, ordering inventory, helping with menu creation, and running the kitchen in the chef’s absence.

Any of these positions will give you the leadership and management experience you need to eventually become an executive chef yourself.

Ready to get started?
Find out more about culinary schools and programs on this culinary degree programs page.

How to Adapt a Recipe

If you are capable of following a recipe, you are capable of creating your own. The best way to start off is by tinkering with an easy recipe that you know you like.

You might have a favorite meat or fish dish. How would that dish taste if you added some Thai spices or served it with pasta and sauce instead of with the baked potatoes or rice you normally use?

You can combine your favorite parts of different recipes to make one new one. For example, if you have a favorite recipe for grilled chicken and a winning white wine sauce recipe, you can use a recipe search to find the perfect vegetable side dish to complete this meal. Of course, a recipe search engine is not capable of creating brand new recipes itself but you can adapt recipes you find and make them your own.

Tips for Creating Recipes

Do not expect every creation to be amazing. It can happen that you use a flavor in a recipe and find that it just does not work out. If that should happen, just chalk it up to experience and try a new approach the next time.

Rather than create a new spice blend and rub it over a whole chicken, why not make a new spicy sauce and cook the chicken separately. That way, if the spice blend comes out wrong, you have not ruined an entire chicken.

The only things required for inventing recipes yourself is a creative streak and a bit of bravery. You do not need to be a gourmet chef or have extensive food knowledge.

Start simply, rather than attempting to create an elaborate meal from scratch. This might mean you change the kind of cheese in a recipe and a few of the vegetables. It might mean you use Chinese spices in a fish dish instead of the Italian spices in the recipe.

Perhaps you have tried this already. Perhaps you have been partway through a recipe before and suddenly realized you do not have one of the ingredients. Maybe you substituted the ingredient with something you did have. This is a kind of recipe creation because your meal was original and different from the recipe.

Using a recipe search engine is the best way to get started because you can explore different kinds of recipes and do a recipe search by ingredient if you have an idea of what you want to use.