Is Being a Chef Worth It in NZ?

 


I get asked this more than almost anything else. Usually by someone standing at a fork in the road — finish school and go to culinary school, or do something "sensible" instead.

I'm not going to give you a yes or no. I'm going to give you what nobody gave me.

The honest cost side

Long hours. Weekends gone. Christmas and New Year's Eve — some of the busiest nights of your working life, not your personal one. Your feet will hurt in ways you didn't know feet could hurt. You will get burned, cut, and yelled at, sometimes all in the same service.

The pay, especially early on, will not reflect the effort. I've written before about what chefs actually earn in NZ — the short version is that the title looks better than the payslip for the first several years.

Relationships take a hit too. Not everyone understands a partner who's never free on a Saturday night.

The honest reward side

There's a version of satisfaction you only get from finishing a service where everything went out right, on time, plated the way you wanted it. It doesn't happen every night. When it does, it's addictive.

You'll build a kind of resilience that transfers into everything else in life. Very few jobs teach you to stay calm with six things on fire at once — literally, sometimes.

You'll work alongside people from everywhere. NZ kitchens are some of the most genuinely multicultural workplaces in the country. That does something to you, in a good way, if you let it.

And eventually, if you stick with it, there's a ceiling that's higher than people assume — head chef, exec chef, your own place. It's just a longer road than the cooking shows make it look.

Who it's actually worth it for

It's worth it for people who like the chaos more than they hate it. Who'd rather be tired from something real than bored doing something easy. Who don't need the applause — because most nights, nobody claps.

It's not worth it if you're doing it for the Instagram version of the job, or because a TV show made it look glamorous. That version doesn't exist on a Tuesday night at 9pm with a broken dishwasher and four tickets in.

My honest answer

Was it worth it for me? Yes. Would I recommend it to everyone? No. I'd recommend it to the ones who read this whole post and still want to do it anyway.

That's usually the only test that matters.

— The Chef

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