Getting older

I have just celebrated my 60th birthday and with the help of my family, particularly my wife and daughter, it has been an absolute blast but it also brings home the fact that, yes, I am getting older and that is not something I can do anything about.

Now in the restaurant/restaurant kitchen environment this can, despite experience or training, ring the death knoll for someones “career” aspirations of working in a kitchen and cranking out killer food to appreciative customers. Also there is absolutely NO WAY a hiring manager will tell you your age is stopping you from getting hired because it’s against the law to discriminate based on age.

So what, then, is a body to do especially when they have spent month after month in a class room learning to be a better cook?

The most logical answer is to “keep swinging for the fence” in hopes of landing a job and therefore making the hard work and stress of school life worth it. There is an other option however…..  START YOUR OWN PLACE…… 

Now I know this option is not ideal for the majority of us who want to work in a commercial kitchen, especially since we don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to get off the ground, however it is an option and maybe, just maybe, the kitchen gods will smile down on you and say “here’s your chance now what are you going to do with it?”  What I mean by this is that there is a small restaurant near me that is currently up for sale. It’s not very large which suits me just fine however they have it extremely overpriced for the type of place it is and the amount of business it does. On the plus size this particular establishment has been in business for close to 40 years and the current owners are only the second set of owners this place has had so it definitely has something going for it.

Looking at all of this I now have a clear plan of attack, at least for the immediate future, and that is to put together a Business Plan with the intention of purchasing the small restaurant once the price comes down and in the meantime I’ll keep “swinging for the fence” and hope I land a full time job in a kitchen.

That’s it for now my friends and until next time……….

BON APETITE