The writer, Rachael Cusick, pictured with chef Oneil Wilson, her coworker in the kitchen during a summer job as a line cook during the breakfast shift.
Courtesy of Rachael Cusick
Our resumes are grounded in assumptions. Want a job? Assume it’s best to exaggerate your leadership experience. Assume you should build up your image as a self-starter and team-player. And, unless you want to be a chef, assume that your kitchen-prep experience is as irrelevant to your success as your summer camp counselor gig when you were 16.
I don’t buy it. There’s plenty to be learned from the kitchen (and also your summer camp counselor gig.)
There are the obvious lessons — such as the tricks you pick up to swiftly peel tubs of tri-colored carrots, or yelping “Behind!” as you glide behind chefs holding freshly sharpened knives.
But there are also things you learn that stick with you long after…