Graduation is an emotional roller coaster for students, family members, and faculty alike. Students feel victorious, parents proud, and faculty members are a mix of everything including relief. Ah, but our job is just beginning. The education we have all been part of is just a baseline, a beginning, a step in the right direction. Walking across that stage is not a moment of completion, it is a validation of the responsibility that should never end. So, let’s embrace this reality.
For the student: Your education has just begun. To become the chef you hope to become, it requires a vastness of knowledge and skill. It requires a belief in the power of food and its importance to everyone who walks on this planet. You have chosen a career that will remain challenging, will provide limitless opportunity, and will magically help to bring people together in understanding, appreciation and celebration. If you really want to become a chef who makes a difference, then you must always be open to learning more about people and their cultural differences, the ingredients gracing the earth, the teams working with you, and the guests walking through those restaurant doors. You must be a constant student of food, people, process, and your role in improving people’s lives. Yes, it is that big and important!
For the parent: Your pride at graduation now requires an understanding and appreciation of the job your son or daughter is about to undertake. This is not, nor will it ever be a predictable, “normal” career. Your son or daughter is connected to something bigger, and they will likely be “all in.” Sorry, as much as we might want it to be different – the nature of the restaurant business is to serve people when they need and want to be served. Try as we may to make it better, and we are constantly trying to make it better, it still requires more than parents and friends might understand or want. You have supported their dream so far, try to support them in the future.
To faculty members: You have done a great job of helping students understand the foundations of a kitchen career. Their skills are light years beyond where they began. They are confident and competent, but they still have so much to learn. They know and trust you and respect all you have done to bring them to this point. When they walk the stage, you can’t sever ties and let them float on their own. Each of you has a responsibility, a vested interest in seeing this thing through. They will struggle at times and stumble; they will discover what they don’t know and find it hard to be that star student when the dining room is full, the rail is full of tickets, and the range is full of pans demanding their attention. They took that class in menu planning, but it is never real until they take on that first sous chef or chef position. All your case study examples in management class will seem shallow when they find it difficult to relate to a disgruntled employee or are perplexed about a food cost out of whack. They will always need a person to call for help, offer advice, and show them the way. Be there for them. This is your job as a teacher. Teaching is a life commitment – you are their forever mentor, a breath of fresh air, comfort at the end of an impossible day, and the voice of reason when they just don’t have the experience to know what to do.
Someday, each student will find their groove. Some will become chefs, many may not. They have the foundations now and it is up to them and their support network to build on that. Someday, you will receive a call like this (you know, the one from a former student):
“Chef, I just wanted to call and say thanks. I was just promoted to chef of my property and I am so excited. I know I’m ready thanks for the support I received. You made a difference in my life, and I don’t know how to ever thank you enough.”
The call will come to a supportive parent, a teacher, a mentor chef, or a friend. It will come and then we can look in a mirror and say, “Job well done.”
Happy graduation! It’s just the beginning.
PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER
Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC, president of Harvest America Ventures, a mobile restaurant incubator based in Saranac Lake, N.Y., is the former vice president of New England Culinary Institute and a former dean at Paul Smith’s College. Contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..