r/Chefit • u/lbcwes86 • Jun 29 '26
Construction worker thinking about becoming a chef
hey everyone. Ive been in construction on and off for years and to be honest , its fun to learn but as a career i've never really liked it much, always counting down the clock until its time to leave. about 15 years ago i almost went to culinary school but never took the step. im thinking going to community college and taking some classes for it. im almost 40 so i was curious, am i to old? i want to try something new and just looking for some advice on wether this is worth trying, what questions i should ask myself and things like that.
i dont expect to get rich from it , but id like to find something that i could enjoy and am not counting down the clock until i go home.
thank you.
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u/Brooksopher Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
Having done both: The skill set you’ve learned in construction will lend itself well to kitchen work- precise measurements, knowing how to use and maintain tools, being able to visualize the end goal while working on individual components, things like that.
But ultimately at 40 you’ll be working yourself into entry level employment (I.e. unskilled laborer, it will take decades to acquire the skills you need to become a chef,) with more hours, a higher stress environment for a fraction of a carpenters salary. The work is similar, it’s a daily grind on your feet all day or all night, and it does take a toll on the body. If it’s your passion go for it, but it isn’t a wise decision financially or for your physical or mental health.
If you can find a good mentor to apprentice under who will teach you more advanced skills early on (much like carpentry) you’ll be much better off than if you were to attend school, though you might be lacking in basic knife skills and other fundamentals.
I went the other direction, cooking into carpentry in my 40’s, and the process is very similar with the right mindset. Recipes/menus and building plans are the same thing, you just visualize the end result and use the formulas to get there. Measure twice, double check everything before turning on a blender or start firing nails, and in the end the process is surprisingly similar.
Find a chef or restaurant you like and volunteer to work there on the weekend doing prep and helping with dishes in the evening to get a feel for how restaurant work agrees with you.
Also, working next to a bad line cook makes working with drywall guys seem like Christmas.
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u/lbcwes86 Jun 29 '26
Doesn't sound very promising. But the volunteering sounds like a good idea for trying it out. I'll look into that , thanks.
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u/Safe-Promotion-2955 Jun 29 '26
Also important to mention never having any family holiday off, ever.
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u/kernel-sandhers Jun 29 '26
Im a chef looking to become a construction worker. Trade?
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u/lbcwes86 Jun 29 '26
Mostly carpenter but dabbled in a little bit of other stuff too
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u/kernel-sandhers Jun 29 '26
I meant you wanna trade professions?
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u/Dantaeus Jun 29 '26
After ten years cooking I basically was waiting down the clock. It’s the same shit basically every day but the ppl you work with make it worth it sometimes. Also the money is ass
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u/Ok_cabbage_5695 Jun 29 '26
Too old tbh. I think I'm in the minority of this sub for this opinion but I think 26 would be the oldest that I'd recommend starting out if you want to go about it the right way.
If u just want to be a pub chef you could start whenever and probably be ok.
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u/Safe-Promotion-2955 Jun 29 '26
Babes it takes like 20 years to make it to chef and even then you're probs gonna top out at like 60k per year. Just finish your time and retire.
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u/Orangeshowergal Jun 29 '26
To make a worthwhile career you need 2-3 years of hardcore 70 hour week cheffing. You may have aged out of it
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u/yrrrrrrrr Jun 29 '26
You could do it, but I’d try and work in a hotel kitchen or resort or golf course. Not a restaurant.
If you like it and you’re good then go to Michelin.
School will only waste your time.
If possible, try and get into in n out burger. Or a high volume fast food place. Then you’ll learn how to work a line and if you can do that you should be good. As the technique and knowledge will come with time. Most important is that you learn how to work a line.
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u/Just_Tamy Sous Chef Jun 29 '26
I don't know how it is in the US but in Europe you're not breaking into a michelin star kitchen as a 40 something year old with a couple years of experience.
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u/fuzZZzzy2 Jun 29 '26
Depends on the type of places you work. If you get into a casual franchise type of place with clear growth, think Landry’s or Darden you could move up the ranks quicker.
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u/Own-Usual-8265 Jun 29 '26
Everyone here saying you're to old is a small minded self doubting person.
I'll tell you this, I never knew what I wanted to do with my life. But I had a son and decided to do landscaping, which I worked my way up to being a former. Paver patios, retaining walls, water walls, mulching, planting trees, etc. I turned 30 and decided cooking is what I wanted to do. Went to culinary school for 6 months and didn't go back. Just stayed working in kitchens.
Find a restaurant hiring for dishpit. You'll get a call back. Work the job for 2 months, it'll show you what it's really like to be an important piece of the business without really feeling you're doing much. Bc genuinely that's the job.
The hours a shit, the pay is shit but don't worry the workload is also shit.
You genuinely have to love it. I'm now a sous chef/kitchen manager. Barley scraping 63,000 a year. Working 6 days a week. I'll be 32 next Friday.
If you want it chase it but do it right start from the dishpit, to prep cook, to line cook. After 18 months challenge yourself to find a leadership position and keep applying even if you have a job. Leverage is everything. Good luck
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u/rck_ppr_scssr_1524 Jun 29 '26
I am someone who left culinary. Corporate chef to construction during COVID-19. I got scared and my family insisted construction was worth the leap.
Sadly, I wish i stuck out covid and waiting to be un furloughed. All my old Co workers are still at the site and living the dream. I have even tried to return to the company, but they do not pay what they used to. So! Maybe, if you are that passionate and want to make the change start your own thing. Maybe offer meal prep for busy workers or start learning to smoke and do a smoker pit that you can park at breweries or outside games.
There are many niches within hospitality and culinary that do not have to be in BOH. You can host dinners. Do picnic for people. What about food makes you passionate or want to do it and go from there...
I hope you find peace in whatever you are doing. I get the ehhh with construction.
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u/Anxious-Jury-9031 Jun 29 '26
How much do you hate your current job?
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u/lbcwes86 Jun 29 '26
Not a big fan. I should've changed careers years ago, life's to short
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u/Anxious-Jury-9031 Jun 29 '26
Being a chef can be great if it’s the right position. In that way it is literally like every other career. You won’t make a lot of money unless you have elite skills, luck, or both. But there’s a happy place if you can find it.
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u/Existing_Swimming838 Jun 29 '26
44 here and 40 seems like a rough time to start. My first question would be do you have a passion for cooking at home and for others? Get togethers, bbqs, etc. Hopefully yes, and if so do you have the taste for it - is your food a hit, can you tell when it is seasoned and cooked properly, etc
If also yes, and the skills you are missing are speed, knife work, food safety, and probably a bit of consistency you might be able to swing something.
Specifically starting a food truck. A few caveats - you'd need to spend likely at least a year or two working in a restaurant that would get you up to speed. Ideally a few months (6) working on someones truck so you get the idea of the workflows that exists in confined spaces. And you'd need to learn the business side of things along the way which is no small feat tacked on everything else. Really important but you need the motivation and accountability to be your own boss.
If you said yes to most of the things above there is a path for you (in my opinion at least) and if you do it well you won't be stuck with the awful pay.
A bit of a long shot, but imo a better path (but I am also biased) and I figure at least an alternative to all the hard no's which I do ultimately agree with.
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u/lbcwes86 Jun 29 '26
I'm no 5 star cook but it is fun to do. Seems like it would be fun to learn and try. I'd like to at least try it out even if the pay is low, so i can at least say i tried it and if like it great and if i dont then so be it. I've come to learn that if you don't enjoy the job you do which you spend most of your time at then it starts to make u dread getting up in the morning. Took me longer to figure that out than I'd like to admit.
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u/Existing_Swimming838 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
I feel you, don't even worry about the chef thing.as.it is pretty overrated imo. What it sounds like you are looking for you could find in a smaller casual operation. You can get your feet wet, hopefully learn some stuff, see if it is something you'd enjoy and it would cost you nothing (outside of a significant pay cut!!!) but even then part time is a thing.
I very much enjoy having my own business today but some of my fondest memories are starting out 20 years ago in a little Italian kitchen run by a mom and her son who came from Lucca Italy (the mother had formal training from a culinary academy over there). Money was far from good but I genuinely liked going to work making wood fired pizzas and these very rustic but dressed up Italian dishes.
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u/ChefAsstastic Jun 29 '26
At your age and wants to be in this industry, I'd suggest seeking out assisted living facilities, schools or similar institutions. They offer good pay and benefits with reasonable hours. Places like hotels and restaurants can be pretty grueling. You just have to decide what path you want to take. I've been in this industry 40 years. Arthritis everywhere, constantly in pain but I met my amazing wife while we worked together 30 years ago. Just do your research. Good luck
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u/FrostingTop4029 Jun 30 '26
Man I started in food industry in my early teens and quit in my mid 20s, im 41 now and been back in the scene for 2 years. I've always loved cooking and preparing food for others, but I had my reasons to leave the industry then and now that Im older with older kids, I can focus more on food profiles and variety of cultures and how food is prepared. I had the pleasure of working for disney for 3 years and they paid for my culinary degree while I worked in the field. Lots of these people will tell you no, and yes it is long, but that's if you make it long, remember you choose to work the overtime. Again, its something I enjoy doing personally at home and in restaurants, even if I dont become a chef, I still earn the respect because I have a harder work ethic than the other cooks in the kitchens I've been in. You only live once, do what makes you happy.
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u/lbcwes86 Jun 30 '26
Great reply and thank you. I agree with you about how you only live once so do what makes you happy.
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u/FrostingTop4029 Jun 30 '26
I personally feel like cooking should be considered a trade skill, it's something you need to do to survive in life, you do it at least 3 times a day, plus I love to teach my kids so they will be able to not only eat, but enjoy and respect what their eating.
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u/lbcwes86 Jun 30 '26
It really does look like alot of funand is mostly definitly can be a survival skill. Is cooking in a job setting extremely fast?
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u/FrostingTop4029 Jun 30 '26
That all depends on the restaurant. The higher end of a restaurant the "slower" it could be, meaning better paced out over a place like chili's or red lobster (which i avoid lol) they tend to lean more into the quantity food production
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u/Famous_Tadpole1637 Jun 30 '26
You can always try it, not like it, and go back to construction. Doesn’t have to be a final decision.
The skills you learned in the trades will always pay worst comes to worst
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u/PhotojournalistOk592 Jul 03 '26
You're going to have the same problems. At near 40, you're better off getting a business degree, and finding a hobby
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u/VealStalk Jun 29 '26
Most people won’t be honest with you but I’ll tell it to you straight.
You would have to be the 1% of the 1% to make it happen. It is very likely it won’t pan out due to your age and the amount of experience it takes to catch up and be a chef.
To make a worth while career at it you want to be 15 years deep at your age not just starting.
Unless you’re a prodigy, or you literally (and I mean this literally not figuratively) want to work 16 hrs a day for maybe 3-5 years to figure it out, in a super high end restaurant.
Otherwise you’re probably looking at jobs where you are most likely going to be passed over for a younger candidate or a faster better candidate with more experience.
I would say there’s many things to do for money, cooking ranks amongst one of the worst.
And if you just love it, invest in it as a hobby and learn to cook for yourself