[Sentinel]

Chained restaurants like Cactus, Earls, Joeys, etc., they are a good stepping stone towards the culinary field, as you learn the fundamentals of cooking. Since most of the stuff(meat cut already, sauce made, etc.) is done for you, all you gotta do is just heat it up and put it together. You do learn quite a bit from working there. I did nearly 5yrs at Cactus and learned a handful. But you got to remember, in every kitchen, there is only so much you can learn. Especially at chained restaurants where the menu rarely changes, its hard to get your hands on something else.

I did the 1yr program at VCC and even some of the instructors said; if they had 2 guys applying for a 1st cook position. One guy did his apprenticeship at Hotel Vancouver and one guy did it at some chained restaurant. He would no doubt take the guy who did it at a hotel. Because of the name and exp.