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Hi Juman23, I am a caterer, and kind of "fell" into it. After losing my 17 yr. old son about 15 years ago, I used cooking as my therapy and escape. I was an okay cook at the time, not bad, just average. Cooking then became my "valium" so to speak, and I started raising the bar, experimenting with more difficult recipes and different cuisines, and found that I REALLY enjoyed it. Since I don't know how to cook for just a few, I organized a "Meals Ministry" at our church, and began giving/preparing food for sick and elderly folks, neighbors, friends and family. They started to share the food, and before I knew it, I was getting calls to do b'day parties, funerals, weddings etc., hence - karencooks (a small thyme catering company) began. Since then, I have attended or taken many advanced classes, but still think my self-taught education has been the backbone. Often now, when preparing food, I think of Adam (my son) with wonderful memories, and the final gift he gave to me. What joy!!!

I used to do Marketing for a restaurant company, now do it for a catering company. It's pretty fabulous, getting to be around food all day, thinking about how to make people want to by more food. Hard work includes tasting dishes and thinking about how you could make it better, helping to plan amazing parties, that kind of thing.

I wish I had a great explanation of how I got here, but really I had a crappy job as an advertising administrator at an alt-weekly paper and saw the job advertised and managed to write an apparently extremely convincing cover letter which convinced them to hire me. The rest I learned on the fly.

You might check out some of the programs at Cornell University. They have a Food Science and Technology program, a Hotel Management program and also under the Food Science program they also have a Vinification and Brewing Technology lab--perfect for the Fingerlakes.

@dhorst, I can't speak for the food science program (although I hear it's alot more science than food), but I recently graduated from the Cornell Hotel School and I would not recommend it for someone looking for a food-related career. I would estimate about 15% of students there end up in foodie careers, and almost all of them are catering/banquet/events managers for large hotels or convention centers. The program really is a business program with a hospitality focus, not the other way around. It's a fantastic business program, but I found myself being pushed further and further from my creative interests over my 4 years there. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, I just dont want to see anyone else spend over $100K on a program that's not right for them.

Well, i currently do product development for a seasoning company, working mostly with meat companies and restaurant chains. It is a very fun job, but you have to accept the fact that your tastes are not the customer's tastes. I have several developments as major retail products, and over the years have developed featured items at McDonalds, Denny's, Boston Market, KFC, Pizza Hut and Carl's, as well as items for most of the major meat and poultry companies, so odds are, you have eaten something i developed during your life. And for those who think this is too common, I have several seasoning blends sold through Gourmet brands.

I got here in a rather unconventional way. As a college drop out, I took a job blending seasonings for a meat company. Moved into their research group as the technician making the test products in procesed meats, lived in the research library and moved up to the position of product manager for a retail line. Since then I have worked for seasoning companies as Technical expert and product developer for the meat industry. Studied culinary at nights, as I deal with chef's, and you need to know the language.

THere is a new program at some colleges called culinology, a blend of the Science and culinary arts of food. It's a new discipline, so i don't know how it will work, the opportunities in industry have contracted as the numbers of manufacturer's shrink.

i came into the wonderful world of cooking via the lucille ball program. totally flying by the seat of my pants. but i loved food, and never gave up. i started as a caterer, and had the opportunity to cook for some people in the entertainment business - purely by coincidence. eventually i had a little cafe with a good friend, then onto a specialty food store, then a 135 seat restaurant .... and when culinary people watch me with a knife, they cringe. now i'm back to simpler things - cooking for a few people here and there and for my local farmer's market.

it you can dream it, you can do it.

@PumpkinBear - I am also a freelance writer, and I write for an online magazine designed for young men and women ranging from ages 18-30. I would be interested in reviewing some cookbook/recipes as well...where can I find these opportunities? Thanks :)