Uncompromising positions

The job Chef

The status: Now is a finger-lickin’ good time to be in the New York food biz, with a total of 222 new restaurant openings in 2006 (only 102 closed) and a whopping 49.8 percent increase in job postings on food-world mainstay StarChefs.com since July of last year. “The industry is booming,” explains Antoinette Bruno, editor-in-chief and CEO of StarChefs, adding that this expanding job availability is most noticeable at the bottom of the food chain, among line-chef positions. “The restaurant industry is a meritocracy,” Bruno says. “When you prove yourself in a kitchen, you can move up quite quickly.”

The game plan: If you’re taking the time to read this, you’ve already got a leg up: “Two thirds of job seekers in the food industry don’t know the standard procedures for getting a position,” says Bruno. This means that if you do your homework—which includes eating at the restaurant you’re applying to, reading everything Google has to offer about the chef and coming up with specifics about why exactly you want to work there—you’ll already be ahead of the game. Oh, and skip the other kind of homework: Going to school won’t give you much of an edge. A 2006 national survey found that executive chefs who went to culinary school earned $63,500 annually; those who didn’t made $61,500—“and yet school costs $50,000,” Bruno points out. “You can work anywhere you want—kitchens look for people, not paper,” says Robert Truitt, a chef who cooked his way, sans schooling, into a post at Spain’s heavy-hitting culinary utopia El Bulli. “I don’t think I’ve ever used a résumé.” So skip class and take a vacation: “It really sets you apart to have been immersed in another culture and cuisine,” says Bruno. “Take two weeks abroad and cook for free in someone’s kitchen.”

The hookup: Owner of the ever-expanding BLT franchise Laurent Tourondel likes balls. Not meatballs—he’s a steak guy—but cojones. “Sending a résumé is not a good way to go,” he says. “Go the restaurant, knock on the door and say, ‘I’d like to talk to the chef.’ ” Zero kitchen experience? You’re in luck: “It doesn’t mean anything—I’ve had people working for me who came from big Michelin-star places, but the guy with no experience was doing a better job.” Nerve will get you pretty far, it seems, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have some food knowledge, too. “You have to know product: the difference in taste between frozen vegetables and fresh ones; a good steak compared to a bad steak,” he says. Above all, though, it’s passion that gets Tourondel going: “I’m looking for the guy who comes to me and says, ‘I need a job because I need to learn from you.’ ” Practice that a few times in the mirror, and then go to timeoutnewyork.com/jobhookup for more about your chance to land an interview with him.—Kate Lowenstein