Besides being talented at preparing delicious meals and interesting cuisine for various events and restaurants, you may feel that you want more out of your executive chef career than just cooking.
You might reach that point in your life and in your career where you are so experienced that you can open your own restaurant or catering company and make a huge success of it. Opening a business of any kind is a lot of hard work and dedication and you need to have some background or training in sales, marketing, business management, and finances. These tools along with your stunning food will ensure that your cuisine business shines.
As an executive chef you get to experience the best of all worlds in the catering industry, restaurant business, hotel industry and others. You will have a combined knowledge and background to appeal to investors and banks for loans to start your cuisine business. In the food service industry you also have the experience working with and managing a team of chef and cooks. This will give you a great advantage for hiring staff for your own business, and as a cooking entrepreneur you can also set some of your own rules and regulations about how you think things need to be run. Sometimes a chef or cook is a much better person to open a restaurant or catering company, because they understand the inner workings of the food service industry and know exactly what works and what doesn't.
Finances will play a big part in how you start being a cooking entrepreneur. There are many ways to start off without breaking the bank. One of which is to buy shares in the restaurant you are already working at, or open a catering company with a partner to share the costs. These options will, however, leave you with limitations and compromises. If you as the executive chef want to have the full run of your establishment you must then look at other alternatives. One alternative to getting finances to open your own cuisine business, will be to get investors or a loan from your bank. With a tight resume being an executive chef, this shouldn't be too hard, but you will also have to realize the implications of this in terms of paying the bank or investors back with interest.
The best way to open your cuisine business and be an excellent cooking entrepreneur is to put your own finances into it. Save up for a few years until you can put your savings into the business and really make it flourish. Make sure you have enough finances for the kitchen, equipment, appliances, products and ingredients, as well as (which can be really inexpensive, yet elegant at the same time). You should also set aside budget for employees, and you do not want to open a restaurant or catering company with adequate sales and marketing, branding and your all important license from the health department.
A cooking entrepreneur must cover all the basics before opening and here is a small check list that you can use to help you: Business cards, cooking equipment, cutlery, crockery, utensils, ingredients, menus, business cards, computer, bill folder, credit card machine, bar, tables, chairs, appliances, cleaning products, employees and kitchen staff, accountant, health certificate, restrooms for guests and staff, transportation, portable kitchen appliances and equipment, chef uniforms, waitron uniforms, name badges, and table condiments among other things. Opening a catering company or restaurant is lots of hard work and can requires a lot of long hours, an ability to handle pressure and a love of food and the food service industry.
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