This Chef Has a Recipe for Career Satisfaction

It’s not to show off, insists chef and college instructor Vincent L. Paris, 55, who drives a 1976 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud to work.

“The students love my car. I guess to them it shows a sign of success,” says Paris, who teaches culinary arts at Cypress College.

Actually, the students may be right. Paris retired for the first time at age 40, after he had successfully operated a restaurant, nightclub, clothing store and head shop in Victorville.

“I owned the head shop when it was fashionable, and luckily it was in a small town,” he said. “Most of the politicians and police ate in my restaurant.”

Paris will retire from teaching later this month, ending a 15-year career at Cypress. Paris, who has been doing consulting work as well, was just named Chef of the Year by the Orange Empire Chefs Assn. and is now is eligible to compete for a 1992 National Chef of the Year title.

Paris plans to continue consulting, however, and to continue teaching at a yearly six-week school for hotel chefs in Switzerland. Paris himself is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New Haven, Conn.

Of his careers so far, Paris said, it is teaching that has given him the enjoyable challenges.

“I try to instill the old-fashioned work ethic into the students, and they look at me kind of strange,” he said.

As for what he enjoys doing in his spare time, that would be cooking for as many as 50 guests for sit-down dinners in his remodeled Costa Mesa home.

The menu for his most recent affair:

Hors d’oeuvre

Cream of artichoke soup

Lobster ravioli Newburg

Guava Galliano sorbet

Crepes a la Florentine Roquefort

Stuffed boned partridge with wild rice

Poached pear and berries

Langues de boeuf froides

Ba ba au frum flambe

Paris says he likes to tell his students: “If you don’t like it, don’t do it. If you do, spend the time on it and make it work for you,” putting in extra time if necessary.

For students who are thinking of owning a restaurant, Paris has discouraging news: “Out of 100 that open, 90 will fail.” But, he says, he aims to give his students an edge. “I want to give them a good, sound basis to give them a better chance to succeed by learning how to market their business and what to do with their money.”

He recalled a couple of former students who had bought a catering truck but who did not have management skills. “They had a big menu, which meant keeping a big inventory,” he said. “They lost all their money. People entering business have to prepare themselves.”

For those hoping to be a chef for others, “there can be some big rewards if they can wait 10 to 15 years and get positions at hotels or big restaurants,” he said. “Those chefs are earning $80,000 a year plus other benefits and bonuses.

And at smaller restaurants, he said, the pay for a certified chef is $45,000 to $50,000.

But teaching, although it hardly pays as much, has other benefits.

“No. 1, you get to enjoy better hours,” he said. “Besides, I’m not greedy. I earned some nice money while I was growing up, and I managed to hold on to it.”