You Know How to Make a Mean Lasagna. Does This Mean You Should Open a Restaurant?

Some of us have experienced this firsthand.

You nail your grandma’s lasagna recipe and suddenly everyone is raving about your cooking skills.

Your friends start saying you should open your own Italian restaurant or catering company. A little voice in your head whispers “Maybe I really could be a chef!”

It’s totally understandable.

Cooking tasty meals for your family feels great. Who wouldn’t want to turn their hobby into a career and get paid for it?

What does it take to become a chef or run my own restaurant?

But going from home cook hero to professional chef isn’t as easy as it seems.

Running a restaurant or catering business requires more than killer cooking skills. Just like any small business owner, you need serious business savvy too.

• Can you manage employees and inventory?
• Do you know how to market effectively and keep customers coming back?
• Are you prepared to work insane hours while slim profit margins leave you nervous about making rent?

I speak from experience here.

A few years ago, I decided to open my own restaurant because I loved cooking and wanted to share my food with the world. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

For the first two years, I worked over 100 hours a week and didn’t make a single dollar of profit. The business consumed my entire life — I had no time for family, friends or fun.

My “passion project” started feeling like a prison. I dealt with staffing issues, inventory headaches, permits, licenses, marketing fails, and more.

I found out the hard way — running a restaurant was infinitely harder than making meals at home. I had to develop a whole new set of business and management skills on the fly.

After five grueling years, when my lease ended, I made the difficult decision to close down the restaurant for good. The endless challenges of running a small business had worn me down.

Though I was proud of what I had created, the nonstop work and pressures of restaurant ownership had taken their toll. It was time to move on from the all-consuming restaurant life I had become so entrenched in.

What about the positives?

The life of a chef definitely has perks — you get to experiment with food all day, make new friendships, and see people enjoy your creations.

In addition, nothing quite matches up to the adrenaline rush you get from working in a kitchen.

Make sure you know what you’re getting into.

So before you invest your life savings into opening “Lonny’s Lasagna Kitchen,” consider shadowing a chef or taking a small business course.

Cooking skills are just one piece of the restaurant puzzle.

With realistic expectations and the right training, your culinary dreams may come true… or not.

But don’t quit your day job just yet!

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