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Would-be 'Top Chefs' Are Broke Chefs
Here is another side of this story. Culinary schools, including the expensive ones, can do a lot of good for a young chef, or even a not so young chef. My experience was that I was a self-taught cook, with a management degree and several years of kitchen management / executive chef title under my belt before I felt the need to borrow the money to go to school. The experience I had at school was maybe not so typical. I did not take a tour, I did not meet admissions reps, and I did not tour other schools. I had a game plan to go to a particular school and that’s where I ended up. It gave me the reasons why and how we do the things we do and allowed me to have a broader base of my educational and culinary existential pyramid. It did not automatically make me a great chef. It allowed me the chance to become one, and whether that has happened is up to my peers. Would I choose differently now? Possibly? Do I regret it? NO! I just wish I had the fundamentals that were taught at the school earlier in my career. (And I wish I had another way of paying for it.)
Later as an instructor at that same school, it became quite apparent that there were two main types of students. But there was one main type of admission rep and philosophy of the school (and it seems of most schools). Get butts in the seats (or kitchens, or classrooms). Theoretically the entrance requirements state: a year of experience, an entrance essay, an interview by a faculty member, and a number of other qualifications. In practice the school would waive all of that, all the time. This allowed the serious minded, knows what he is getting into student, to be mingled with a larger majority of the ‘hey its cool to be in cooking school, but I don’t know what I want to do with my life’ students. Schools main focuses are to make money. And even the passionate, gifted, ‘want to pass on their knowledge’ instructors are given the line that it is more important to turn out quantity, not quality.
My further advice is thus:
In your tour of whatever school, ask the instructors for their opinions of the industry and education. DO NOT TRUST THE REP! They are there to fill up the classes and will tell you anything. It is up to you to take your future in your hands and ask the questions of the people who might tell you the truth, those who have cooked professionally before, not those who are in the ‘sales of cooking school’ area. I don’t know how many times I gave speeches to prospective students and their parents and volunteered ‘gruesome industry tales and financial woes’, and then asked ‘are there any other questions?, I am here right now to tell you all about it….anyone?” And then the group would move on without really learning anything. Don’t be afraid to ask. And then evaluate those answers according to your needs.
Would-be 'Top Chefs' Are Broke Chefs
I think what both of these individuals say is very true. In fact I got off the phone with my financial aid service this morning and I will be repaying my student loans from culinary school long after I begin to pay for college for my 5 year old daughter.
As a former culinary student, a former instructor at a major culinary school, and a person who had ten years of experience in the industry prior to both, I believe that it is of major importance for prospective students to work in the industry prior to school. I cannot stress this enough. Please go work in the food services somewhere. Even if it is at McDs, then you will see what a restaurant with excellent execution systems is all about, as well as how hot, sweaty, nasty, fun, invigorating, dirty, and both soul wrecking and character building it can be.
There are inexpensive schools out there. Your local community college might be one of them, and some of them can give you a fabulous education. Don’t think that by going to the top tier schools, you will automatically be making the big bucks. It won’t come over night. It might not happen for ten years. It might never happen, and yet you might be completely satisfied with your life and what you are doing. And then like some, it might just be a job, and the better you are paid the happier you will be. You will get the most from a school by taking the most in with you, not the most money, but the most passion, the most desire, the most willingness to listen and absorb and to be open minded.
You have to have a passion for what we do. If you don’t, no matter how many zeros follow the first number of your check , you will not be satisfied, and you wont be happy.
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The one thing that makes me happiest in the kitchen is the relationship of the whole process from farmer to supplier to you to the preparation of the raw product to the presentation and then to the enjoyment of the person for whom you cooked. If anything goes wrong in this process it can be catastrophic, but when it all goes right then it is love.