Being a chef is one of the top ten "dream professions" in America today. With dozens of food shows and celebrity chefs, countless articles written about the glamour of chic restaurant start-ups and the less-than-stable job market, culinary institutes have seen an explosion in their enrollment of between 50% to 100% annually. Despite the long hours, arduous training, gruelling physical work, the allure of being a successful chef is growing stronger each year. But how to you really go about fulfilling your dream of becoming a successful chef? Do you really need to go to a fancy culinary school? How do you go about apprenticing in the kitchen of 5 star restaurants or make connections with renowned chefs and bakers? What are the best opportunities with the best growth potential? And, what about opening your own restaurant? These and dozens of other questions are answered with the authority of experience by master chef and baker Leslie Bilderbeck in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Chef.