A Career in Cooking: It is necessary to train chefs professionally

Student from Restaurant Administration and Catering of Hoa Sen University takes part in an extensive technical practice in the kitchen - Photo: Hoa Sen University

By 2020, will need 870,000 people for the catering industry with labor being increased 7% every year. There are more than 1640 restaurants and hotels in HCMC but many of them have to hire chefs from other countries with all the added costs. Local chefs aren’t skilled enough to fill the positions. That was the message at the conference named “Needs of human and vocational training for Vietnamese chefs” organized by Saigon University on 21/10 in HCM City.

According to MBA Vo Duy Lan (The University of Saigon), the major source of chefs for nearly 20 years come from those who have studied with local business as an intern. These have mainly learned by doing, in order to gain experience on their own without any official curriculum provided by a school. Only a small proportion of chefs have studied in cooking schools. In May 2011 the survey results of the Faculty of Technical Education (The University of Saigon) in restaurants and hotels in HCM City showed that 66.7 % were self-taught by a senior mentor, whilst 33.3 % were trained through schools. Meanwhile, 57 % of restaurateurs and hotels need chefs who have been trained professionally.

Good chefs have to gather factors regarding good health, patience, creativity and imagination Photo: Hoa Sen University

Mr Sanh Ly, Chairman of the HCMC professional chef association said:” Chefs who learn by gaining experience from others will lack knowledge of food preparation and preservation, food safety, chemical products used for cooking or the correct proportions to use. There are though still many skilled chefs working to extremely high standards in traditional dishes.

Meanwhile chefs who trained in cooking schools officially (from three to six months) are usually very well equipped with knowledge as well as having received an official certificate making it easy for them to find a job even though their skills and practical experience is limited. On the other hand, some chefs don’t wish to invest more time in studying and have passion to develop themselves in restaurants. Chefs who can cook good dishes make a good salary and don’t care as much about the knowledge of how to prepare ingredients. They also lack the necessary knowledge about food hygiene as well.

There are many schools training chefs in HCM city now and thousands of chefs have graduated. However, there aren’t any schools specializing in training fully professional chefs. Recently Mint trained chefs to international standards at their Phu Nhuan District School, but these are only on a small scale.

Dr Nguyen Nha, Head of the Institute of Vietnam Cuisine Research said: “Good chefs have to gather elements of health, patience, creativity and imagination and they have to know how to manage their team, organize and assign tasks as well as preparing menus, negotiating, speaking other languages and being passionate about their cooking career. I used to judge the final exams for graduated chefs in Asia, Europe and Vietnam. When I asked students how to prepare food, they didn’t know how to respond, especially on factors reflecting cuisines of different countries.

Fusion cooking is something of a rarity here whether it is English or Chinese or Vietnamese or any other. The key reason is that the training program for professional chefs is still very young and most of the programs don’t focus enough on the features of Vietnam cuisine. The training is still just general and they don’t have any provision for teaching languages. Therefore Vietnamese chefs have difficulties in communicating or exchanging ideas with chefs from other countries.

Job opportunities and income generation for people who follow a cooking career is very big. A student from the Kitchen Administration and Management Faculty told us that he just took a part time job, and his salary was between $150 and $180 per month.

With the situation of needs and status of current cooking career many food experts worried that it is necessary to unify the curriculum for a specialized program for chefs over the whole country.

The module on cuisine and culinary culture should be increased because of the amount of time and number of lectures. In addition to Vietnam culinary knowledge it is needed to add additional information regarding the culinary knowledge of not just the region but the whole world.

Followed by Quynh Mai
Phu Nu HCM magazine