Some chef positions warrant more than just a casual, glancing interest. Here are a few unusual positions chefs hold that exemplify what is possible out there in the Big Wide World for those inspired by the culinary arts:

Walter Scheib III – White House Executive Chef

The White House Executive Chef position does not necessarily change during each Presidential administration and is governed by the First Lady’s office. The current executive chef, Walter Scheib, has been the Whitehouse chef since 1994 and hopes to serve there until retirement. Scheib won the position over 4,000 applicants, undoubtedly due to his extensive and impressive credentials: formal training at the Culinary Institute of America, executive chef of the Capitol Hilton in Washington, DC, executive chef at Florida’s Boca Raton Club and Resort, and executive chef of the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia.

Everyone knows that the very important tools to a chef are knives. Forget about the cheap, disposable paring knives used by the dozens by restaurant line servers. An executive chef leans more toward the likes of the Denka No Hoto chef knives that run about $430 for a handmade 13" piece of cutlery touted as "among the finest in the world." Some chefs get so possessive of their knives, they refuse to allow anyone else to clean them other than themselves, fearing the sought-after, razor-like edge may be marred or damaged.

Professional chefs advise investing from at least $250 to $400 for a good set of quality knives that includes a paring, filleting, French, carving, and bread knife, as well as a sharpening steel and a fork. And this is a "starter" set. As a chef gains more experience – and makes more money! – he or she soon begins to covet the hundreds-of-dollars-per-individual-knife cutting instruments.

Chef’s wages vary considerably. Wolfgang Puck’s 12 restaurants brought in $12.2 million last year, The Food Channel’s Emeril Lagasse made $7 million, and the "enfant terrible of French cooking" Jean-Georges Vongerichten went home with $3 million.

And then there’s the "real" world: The median hourly earnings of chefs two years ago was $13.43, with the lowest 10 percent making less than $7.66 an hour, and the top 10 percent plucking down a healthy $25.86 hourly wage. So – there you go: Unless you’re one of the blessed food wonders of the world – with plenty of backing from top sponsors – you’re most likely going to fall in the latter group of those head chefs making anywhere from the unacceptably low, "you gotta be kidding" pay scale to the, "yeah, I can get by on that" wage.

Ready to stand on your feet up to 70 hours a week in 95-degree plus heat? Up to working with all types of people in a sometimes-frantic atmosphere and at an always-hectic pace? Prepared to wait years before you reach the top of your profession? If you can answer "yes" to these questions, you are ready to take your first step toward becoming a gatekeeper in Hades, er, I mean, a professional chef!

Although this career can really be like the above, most successful chefs say it is definitely worth it – especially if you’re passionate about food. Food definitely must be the center of your life – not eating it, but preparing and presenting it! (Though a taste now and then will keep the good chef on track.)

Just like any other profession, whether or not being a chef is a career or a job depends largely on you. Of course, if your chef-dom is merely a job for you, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t take long to burn out. Fifty to 70-hour work weeks, high stress, and the creative brain drain all take their toll fairly early on those not entirely dedicated to their paycheck-maker.

Successful chefs are like other creative types – they will be found "playing with their food" even if no money was involved. Like writers who write because they love to express themselves this way, and singers who belt out tunes anywhere they can get away with it, chefs are "chefs to the bone." A true chef considers the money involved merely a "bonus" to what he or she loves to be doing anyway.

Becoming a freelance chef does not mean that just knowing how to cook automatically qualifies you to go into someone’s home and cook for them. Obtaining the necessary industry (yes, it is an industry!) knowledge through a comprehensive training program puts you way ahead of the game. Knowing how to market yourself as well as how to go about everyday business functions like accounting, price-setting, scheduling, menu-planning, customer relations, and more can very well dictate whether or not your freelance chef business succeeds or fails.

Two of the biggest organizations in the business of training and bestowing accredited certifications to personal freelance chefs are the United States Personal Chef Association (USPCS) and the American Personal Chef Association (APCA). Both organizations offer information regarding liability insurance, software to help with scheduling and menu planning, tools and equipment, and local chapters provide coaching, advice, and other support for members.

As in the yet-to-be famous, (un)known saying, "You can take the chef out of the cook, but you can’t take the cook out of the chef." In other words, being a cook is not synonymous with being a chef. A chef is a cook, but a cook is not necessarily a chef. Yep, it’s true that your mom, your Uncle Pete, and your friend can cook – Mom’s pancakes are wonderful, Uncle Pete’s barbecue makes you drool in anticipation, and your best friend’s spaghetti sauce should be patented – but alas, they are still merely cooks, not chefs.

Chefs must not only be wonderful cooks, they must also develop menus, stay on top of food costs, manage a staff – plus wear the hats of human resource professional, accountant, teacher, sometimes Mom and Dad, and sometimes friend (or enemy), as well.

There are a number of specializations you can go into as a chef. There are no rules that say you have to be the executive or sous chef, chronically loaded down with an incredible amount of responsibility. If you are one of those creative cooks who’d rather be a little lower down the ladder but deal with a lot less stress, you can still keep your finger in the pie (so to speak) with one of the following culinary cooking specialties:

Saucier – As might be expected, the saucier is the sauce specialist. As a saucier, you create all the sauces and those dishes that are cooked in sauces. Making from scratch stocks, soups, classic and contemporary sauces, accompaniments, and foods paired with all these are all considered part of your job. Sauces are an essential component in much cooking, so sauciers must be very well educated when it comes to the possible mixtures and combinations of ingredients that compose a fine sauce.

Because of the French domination of the culinary scene since time began (or so it seems, anyway), it stands to reason the most famous chefs in history are – what else? – French, with the exception of one American woman (discussed later), who was, nevertheless, trained in classical French cooking.

Known as the “King of Chefs and the Chef of Kings,” Antoine Careme went from being an abandoned child left at the door of a restrauteur in 18th century Paris, to become the father of “haute cuisine” – the high art of French cooking – in the early 19th century. Chef to then-world movers and shakers such as diplomat Talleyrand-Perigord, the future King George IV, Czar Alexander I, and the powerful banker James Rothschild, Careme is noted for his voluminous writings on cooking, including the famed L’Art de la Cuisine Francaise (The Art of French Cooking), a five-volume masterpiece on menu planning, table settings, hundreds of recipes, and a history of French cooking.