I'd wager that more than one food blogger - excluding those who are already pro chefs in some capacity - have considered going to culinary school. With the rise of Food TV and the ever-increasing interest in cooking, it's likely than many of you readers have had the same thought. How can you tell if culinary school is the right decision for you? The answer is that you can't. The only real way to know if it is for you, whether you are a student just finishing high school or someone with an established career and looking for a change a bit later in life, is to do as much research as you can and to go for it if it still seems like the right thing to do.
Doing the research usually means talking to schools, reading lots of literature, working (possibly for free) in real kitchens to see how they operate and what the work environments after school might be like. Don't just look out for what you want to hear; look for the potential downsides so that you know what you're headed for with both eyes open.
A great place to start is with the sound advice of David Lebovitz, who says that "Should I go to culinary school?" is one of the most frequently asked questions that he gets. He wrote up a little overview of some of the questions you need to ask yourself before you take the plunge.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-10-2007 @ 11:13AM
Jeff said...
I imagine that most people on this blog have read the books he lists. I know that I was quite interested in becoming a chef, but I decided to do a lot of research to see if it was what I really wanted. After reading Kitchen Confidential and The Soul of a Chef, I knew that being a chef or even working in the restaurant industry just wasn't for me. So, I think the best advice is to do a lot of research about what it takes to make it, and what you can expect before taking the plunge.
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3-10-2007 @ 11:47AM
Cigarlady said...
Most people I meet or who hear about my cooking from my husband ask why I don't open a restaurant or go to culinary school etc. I tell them that I don't feel suicidal. I cook what I want and when I want. I know how hard, hot and tiring the food biz is, no thanks. There's a reason Julia Child never opened a restaurant.
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3-11-2007 @ 11:21AM
bdw said...
About nine years ago my business wasn't doing so well and I thought about going to a nearby culinary school.
Beginners make almost 30k a year. That doesn't sound THAT bad until they tell you that you only have to work around 60 hours a week.
And then I laughed hahahahaha and spent more on advertising.
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3-11-2007 @ 11:09PM
Chef JoAnna said...
GO!
GO! GO!! GO!!! Even if you never plan on making it a career. Even if you only intend cook for yourself and your family & friends. Find a way to pay for it, and make the time to go to classes. It will be the best investment you can ever make.
More at http://www.ChefJoAnna.com, because I got really long-winded here...
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3-11-2007 @ 11:14PM
Chef JoAnna said...
crap... I meant at http://chefjoanna.blogspot.com/ Sorry. Moderators, can you edit the last post and delete this one? :-(
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3-12-2007 @ 10:06AM
Liz Newcomb said...
This is only from my experience, but two friends of mine who made it in the restaurant business did it without going to a culinary academy. They each went to a restaurant they admired and asked the chef/manager if they could work for free (apprentice). Of course they were allowed to, and in both cases they were eventually hired on and then worked their ways up. I'm sure it doesn't happen like this in all cases, and you have to be willing to have a paying job while you apprentice, but it worked for them.
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3-16-2007 @ 12:50AM
The Mad Chef said...
I've found that most restaurants prefer to keep their hourly people around 40 hours (At one place I worked at, "full-time" was actually _32_ hours! :O )
The reason? If you work over 40 hours, the company has to pay overtime (When you consider the average restaurant's razor-thin profit margins, that can be expensive over the long haul.)
Re: culinary school, culinary schools are overrated (they have this nasty habit of producing people who want the big bucks without having to do the work.)
Speaking as a working chef, if you REALLY want a job in the industry, get a job as a prep cook (95% of the job is prep, anyway.)
http://themadchefblog.blogspot.com
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4-30-2007 @ 12:04PM
Cornelia B. said...
I've been reading a blog by a woman who quit her career mid-life to go to cooking school. She writes every day about what happened in class that day...the good and the bad. Seems pretty realistic.
http://www.cooklady.com
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