Cooking your way to success

Q: I want to be a chef. Which cuisine(s) should I master? Please tell me about the job prospects and salary that I can expect after completing a chef?s course.

Gautam Haldar

A: Trends come and go. We had nouvelle cuisine with big dishes and small portions. Then came fusion cuisine, which was another name for confusion. And now it?s back to the basics. The emphasis now is on sourcing the finest raw material and cooking them in such a way that they retain their essential flavours. A good dish can be simple yet delicious.

The reputation of a restaurant mainly depends on the quality of food that is served and it is the chef who determines this to a large extent. And now that Indian cuisine has emerged as a hot favourite globally, Indian chefs are in demand.

There are several different ways of becoming a chef in a hotel. After Class X or XII, you can take a craft-level course in cooking/baking at a Food Craft Institute. Admission is normally in June/July. These 6-18 month courses virtually assure you a place in the junior levels of the kitchen hierarchy, i.e., as a Commis 3 in a five-star hotel. Those trained in traditional/family cooking can also join as a Commis directly.

Even those who have no culinary background can join a hotel directly as a kitchen apprentice. Starting at the lowest rung, you can work your way up to the supervisory level within six to seven years. Another popular route is to opt for a degree in hotel management from a reputed institute after Class XII. A good chef can earn as much as the general manager of a hotel.

Graduates in hotel management start out as kitchen management trainee at Rs10,000 ? Rs 12,000 pm while non-graduates who join as operations trainees at the Commis 3 level start out at Rs 3,000 ? 5,000 per month. Subsequently, your experience and ability to innovate can fetch you a cool Rs one lakh plus per month or more!

Get the real picture

Q: I have a feeling I?ll be good at public relations (PR) as I love talking to people and I have heard that it is a glamorous field. Is it true?

Aruna Mishra

A: It?s very important to test our images of certain professions that we may have gleaned from hearsay or the media before we get too far down the road. Sometimes these glorified notions may not correspond to reality. While PR may appear glamorous from the outside, it requires a great deal of hard work, and persistence. Also good communication skills ? particularly writing skills, and a broad acquaintance with a wide range of subjects.

Talk to practising professionals who do this for a living and get the real picture. Be prepared: What you find out may turn you on, or even turn you off. It may also make you reconsider, or redefine your game plan. But most importantly, it will give you the vital information you need to plan your next move.

Bright prospects with bioinformatics

Q: I want to do an MSc in bioinformatics. Please tell me about the job prospects in this field.

Abhijit Chaterjee

A: Representing a marriage of IT and biotechnology, bioinformatics is emerging as one of the most prodigious high growth areas in the coming decades. It is expected to yield extraordinary dividends in designing new drugs and therapies, and also in the basic understanding of life itself.

Companies will take biologists and biostatisticians with IT skills, or IT professionals with a serious interest in biology. In fact, according to an estimate, there is a global shortage of one million bioinformaticians.

Global IT majors like IBM, Motorola, Hewlett Packard followed by our own Wipro, Satyam Computers and Infosys, and several other corporates are teaming up with biotech and pharma majors like Monsanto, Ranbaxy, Dr Reddy?s Labs. They are investing billions of dollars in biotech software and supercomputing solutions like deletion mapping technology etc.

Q: I am a final-year student of BSc (honours). I want to do my PG in geophysics. Which universities offer this course? What are its prospects?

Reshmi Pal

A: MSc in geophysics is presently offered at the following two universities:

• Osmania University, Hyderabad 500007 (www.osmania.ac. in). Eligibility: BSc with maths, physics, and any other subject preferably geology with 45 per cent marks in maths and physics separately. Admission is on the basis of an entrance exam.

• Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005 (www.bhu.ac.in) Eligibility: BSc (honours) with physics, maths and one more science subject (50 per cent) and 45 per cent (aggregate).

Subsequently, you can pursue MTech in applied geology at IIT Kharagpur after clearing GATE.

A masters programme in geophysics will give you a broad knowledge of the subject together with a firm understanding of the physical and geological sciences.

This will enable you to pursue a rewarding career in industrial, academic or government research, advisory work related to environmental problems, administration and management, or teaching.

Students of geophysics can also pursue careers as exploration geophysicists, earth scientists, meteorologists, oceanographers and seismologists.