A SPECIAL REPORT: CHEFS

WORK FOR FOOD: The economic slowdown has taken a bite out of the fine dining market (D4), but chefs say there will always be work for the top guns. . . . Celebrity cooks-turned-restaurateurs create an illusion of glamour, although the hours can be grueling 10-hour, six-day workweeks. “You work holidays, weekends, you never see your family,” says one chef. But the elite can make $100,000 a year, says Henry Schielein, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point. “What good’s a college degree in physics if you can’t find a job? But there’s always a job for a good chef.”