What’s the secret to becoming a good chef? The first and most important ingredient is of course, a passion for food! If you enjoy tasting new foods, trying new recipes and tantalising your taste buds then you have won half the battle already!

Of course, there is a little bit more to becoming a chef than just having a love of food. You will need to get lots of hands on experience in the kitchen, for starters, and restaurant kitchens can be a much busier and more stressful environment than the kitchen at home, so can take some getting used to.

Many chefs undertake catering courses at college which involve practical experience in the kitchen, whereas others start in the kitchen and then gain their official qualifications on day release to college.

If you are already working in a kitchen, your employers may well pay for you to do your official chef qualifications, such as NVQs and other practical certificates, so it is well worth speaking to them about this as it will only enable you to do an even better job for them.

As well as chef qualifications that can be carried out at college, there are food hygiene courses that you will need to complete in order to become a chef. It may be that you have to pay to do a food hygiene course, or that your employer will pay for you to do one, as it is another important part of your job.

Once you have fully qualified as a chef you can consider where you would eventually like to work, whether you want to move restaurants, become head chef eventually or even own your own chain of restaurants in the future. All of these options will be open to you as a good chef with all the right experience and training.