hotsnack: top stage for $100,000?

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snackblog

February 8, 2007

I know a cook: let’s call him Bob. Bob is heading to Europe to do a stage at a BIG three-star Michelin spot. He does not speak the language, and he does not know anyone in town. He’ll make little money, but that’s okay, because he’ll be working so many hours that he won’t have time to spend any. They will break him down, then build him back up. He’ll come back to NYC a better chef and bilingual to boot. I’m envious. I wish I were going to a foreign land to stage as well. Reminds me of my days in Paris. Good times. It seems fewer and fewer cooks go abroad to stage, and I can’t quite figure out why.

If I were Top Chef Ilan Hall (not that I know him, nor is he seeking my humble opinion) and I were really interested in becoming a great cook, I would take my Bravo bonus, head to Europe, and spend a year cooking and eating, then come back after the reality-TV dust had settled. Really, what else are you supposed to do with $100,000? That barely covers the attorney’s fees to set up a new restaurant in Manhattan.

UPDATE 2.26.07: Now we know what you do with 100K. Head to Madison Avenue.

2 responses to “hotsnack: top stage for $100,000?”

Louisa Chu

February 8, 2007

Your friend “Bob” will actually make money during his stage? And if he’s staging at a “BIG three-star Michelin spot”, when will he find the time to get bi-lingual?
Fewer and fewer cooks go abroad to stage because it costs a lot of money. We’re not just talking airfare, rent, food, transportation, extra medical insurance – mandatory for a lot of stages – and the occasional beer. Overseas they want you to stage at least a month – in France it’s three months. It’s not like in the US where you play in a kitchen for a day and call it a stage. So you also have to either sublet your current apartment or store your stuff or rent your house – plus there’s the economic cost of what you lose in already meager cook’s wages.
The simple answer to why American cooks don’t do it so much anymore is because it’s a hard fucking life being the immigrant in the kitchen.
Having said all that, I would do my stages at El Bulli and Ducasse all over again – and double the time. I strongly encourage serious cooks to stage abroad whenever and wherever they can. Even Ilan. Was he the one who said Marcel should just go to Spain and France and eat and stage?
I totally agree with you – I do hope he puts his money where his mouth is.

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mme snack

February 8, 2007

Sounds like you’ve had the experience first hand. And yes – it is not easy to do, but I think benefits outweigh the hardships, financial and otherwise.
As to the bilingual – Bob speaks English – which is not the language being spoken in the BIG kitchen. Thus he will learn a new language on the job, faster than you can say berlitz.

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