A 19-year-old who cooks pizza, bread, pasta, and chicken at home wanted his first job in a restaurant kitchen. He had no restaurant experience, no contacts in the industry, and no plan to add culinary school debt before finding out what kitchen work was like.
He asked chefs on Reddit where someone with home cooking experience should start. He was open to washing dishes, doing prep, taking out trash, or handling other kitchen work if it gave him a path toward cooking.
The chefs did not tell him to learn harder recipes first. They told him to get into a restaurant through prep or dish work.
Prep Cook May Be the First Job to Look For
One commenter who said they had worked in the industry for 30 years said cooking was not an entry-level job at the restaurants they knew. New workers often started with prep and trained for cook positions after gaining experience.
Prep work can include cutting vegetables, portioning ingredients, preparing sauces, breaking down food, stocking stations, and getting ingredients ready for service.
For someone who has cooked at home but never worked in a restaurant, that position introduces the pace and structure of a professional kitchen without requiring line experience from day one.
It also puts the worker beside cooks and chefs. Instead of learning restaurant work through a class, a prep cook sees how ingredients move from delivery and prep to the line and plate.
Dishwashing Can Be a Way Into the Kitchen
Several Reddit users suggested dishwasher positions as another starting point.
One commenter recommended visiting restaurants during slow hours and asking a manager if they need dish help. The applicant could explain that they want to work in the restaurant business and are prepared to show up and learn.
The job may begin at the sink, but a dishwasher works inside the same kitchen as the prep team and line cooks. A new worker can see how service runs, how stations are organized, and what needs to happen before and after a rush.
The Reddit advice was to watch what needs to be done and offer help when there is a chance to learn another task. That can create a path from dishes to prep and from prep to the line.
Home Cooking Does Not Replace Restaurant Experience
The original poster knew how to make pizza, bread, pasta with chicken, and baked chicken. None of that gave him professional kitchen experience.
At home, one person can choose the menu, set the pace, change the timing, and clean after dinner. A restaurant kitchen has orders coming from multiple tables, ingredients prepared in volume, separate stations, and a service period where each cook depends on work completed by someone else.
A new kitchen worker has to learn that system in addition to cooking food.
That helps explain why the chefs focused on prep and dish positions rather than the dishes he could already make.
Search for the Job That Gets You Into the Kitchen
Looking only for cook vacancies can cut out positions designed for people with less experience.
Prep cook, dishwasher, kitchen assistant, and other kitchen support roles give applicants more job titles to search. One Reddit user recommended Culinary Agents for restaurant positions in New York City. Another suggested skipping the online application for some restaurants and asking about work in person during a slow part of the day.
Job platforms can expand the search beyond one title. Jooble, for example, groups openings around specific roles and work arrangements. A restaurant applicant can use the same search approach across job boards: look for prep and kitchen support roles instead of limiting the search to cook positions.
The job title matters less at this stage than getting experience inside a working kitchen.
Culinary School Was Not the First Step Chefs Suggested
The poster had considered culinary school but did not want to take on more debt without knowing whether it was needed.
His mother had another concern. He had finished a bachelor's degree in business administration, and she questioned why he would use that education to start by washing dishes.
The Reddit responses did not point him back to school. The repeated advice was to start working in a kitchen.
A dish or prep job gives him a chance to see the hours, pace, physical work, kitchen hierarchy, and restaurant environment before paying for more education.
His Business Degree Still Fits His Restaurant Goal
The poster wants to open his own restaurant in the future, so his business degree does not sit outside that plan.
A restaurant owner has to deal with food costs, purchasing, staffing, payroll, scheduling, pricing, and operations. A business degree can support that side of the restaurant, while entry-level kitchen work can provide experience the degree did not cover.
Starting with dishes or prep does not mean staying there. For someone with no professional kitchen experience, those jobs can provide the first step toward the line and a close view of how a restaurant works from inside the kitchen.
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