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Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver fuel boom in kitchen trainees
source: Herald Sun AU
Mark Dunn, Natalie Tkaczuk Sikora
June 28, 2008 12:00am


ASPIRING chefs fired up by celebrities such as Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and Luke Mangan are flocking to forge a career in the kitchen.
Despite a shortage of skilled chefs, Melbourne's kitchen apprentices are finding there's a lot of potatoes to be peeled and no guarantee of stardom.
First-year apprentice Stefan Gatto, 17, works up to 50 hours a week for $475 at Carlton's La Luna Bistro after tough-talking Ramsay sparked his interest in the industry.
Stefan found a world of difference between the jet-setting excitement of top-class chefs on television and the reality of a busy kitchen.
"It's a lot harder work than what you see on TV," he said.
Stefan said he knew other apprentices who had failed to cut the mustard and quit after finding it too hard.
Melbourne-born Luke Mangan is an internationally recognised chef with restaurants in Sydney, Tokyo and San Francisco, and has plans for new venues in Melbourne and Los Angeles.
Mangan, who is also Channel 9's Today show chef, warned aspiring cooks needed to know there were no easy roads to fame.

"I went into my first kitchen at 15, I'm now 38 and it's probably the last eight years that have been my best since I started," he said yesterday.
Mangan worked up to 90 hours a week for $270 as an apprentice under London chef Michel Roux to get his break.
"What a lot of the kids coming into the industry now don't have is the passion and commitment, and to me that's the most important ingredient in becoming a successful chef.
"You can't come into it thinking you just want to be on TV or in magazines."
Adrian Richardson, La Luna's owner and another TV chef, said it took 20 years of experience and talent to join the top rung in the industry.
"I've been told there are maybe 400 chefs worldwide who you could class as 'celebrity chefs' with a media profile," Richardson said.
"That's a tiny percentage of the amount of people cooking, a tiny club."
Hospitality colleges have reported a surge in apprentices but some restaurateurs complain local skill levels are not up to scratch.
One, who runs more than 10 businesses in Melbourne, said he was forced to seek chefs overseas to fill the gap in skill and experience.
Apprentices enrolling at William Angliss College have almost doubled in the past year - with 20 students signing up each week.
"It's a hard gig, but given the exposure cooking is receiving in the media it has become one of the strongest growing areas in hospitality," college chief executive Nicholas Hunt said.
Carrick Institute of Education, which has taught cookery for more than 20 years, also reported an exponential growth of students.

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