Chef Types! Should I go to cooking school?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been taking some after-work courses at the Cooking School of the Rockies and have really, really been enjoying them. I’ve toyed with the idea of going to cooking school for about ten years now, but the timing just hasn’t been right.

Nowadays, I’m looking at working at my current job (software engineer) for another 6 months or a year, and then I’m out of this profession. I just don’t like it, never have, and have gotten to the point where the lucrative salary just isn’t enough for me anymore. I’d rather be poor and happy than rich and have to continue writing code. (Note: I reserve the right to change my mind after being poor for a few years. But for now, I’m willing to give that poverty thing a try.)

So the cooking school beckons. They have a six month program completely geared towards cooking - no Ice Carving, no Hotel Management, just come in every day, cook for six hours, then sit down to enjoy & critique the meal. You also spend a month in France, checking out the Frog Food and working in a French Restaurant.

Here’s my questions:

1 - What will I get out of this course? I admit, I’d be taking it mostly because it sounds like great fun, and perhaps afterwards I’d figure out a way to make money doing it. We’ll be moving to the middle of nowhere, Michigan, after I take the course, and there’s probably more cooking jobs there than software engineering, but neither are plentiful. I kind of doubt I’d enjoy working in restaurants, but I’m willing to give it a try. Catering, teaching classes, or opening a bakery type place sounds more appealing to me than being a line cook.

2 - If I do decide to go to a school, is this the one to go to? What’s the real benefit of a 6 month program as opposed to the 2 years ones offered at Johnson and Wales or CIA? Will it really teach me anything?

3 - Given that I’m wishy-washy about just what I’d do with such a degree, should I just take the money I’d pay for tuition ($19,500!) and build me a really great kitchen once I move to MofN, MI? I could spend my time teaching myself how to cook - I’ve come pretty far on my own, and could no doubt do wonders if I wasn’t working full time and just cooked my heart away all day. Perhaps this is good enough for my not-so-lofty goals?

Any insight is appreciated. As always, I’m completely clueless as to what I want to be when I grow up. I’ve spent the last ten years writing code even though the one thing I was certain I didn’t want to be was a computer programmer. I’m ready for a change, and willing to take some risk to do it. It’s time.

2

I highly reccomend reading {b]Kitchen Confidential**, a highly entertaining look at what it takes to be a proffesional chef. Great reading, and perhaps good career advise.

3

Before you spend 6 months and close to $20,000 on a cooking school, I would suggest that you take 3 or 4 months and actually work in a food service position.

A Banquet facility associated with a hotel would allow you to view aspects of the line, catering and some bakery operations.

The five years I spent going through college were funded by working in the kitchen of a large hotel/banquet facility. Spent most of the time on the line, but did spend alot of time on food prep for the banquet facilities.

We hated most of the people that came directly from from CIA or J&W. They were creative, but didn’t have a clue to how to manage the kitchen. The ones that we appreciated, and the ones that moved up quickly in the organization, invariably had experience prior to attending a culinary school.

Good luck, and enjoy being poor for at least a few years. It takes some time and real talent to make a significant income in this area.

4

Athena, I’d say barker is on the money here with the work-in-the-field advice - definitely do this if you haven’t already done so. For one thing, most good schools will require some field experience for admission. For another thing, working as a cook is very different than being a hobbyist cook. So before you blow a significant chunk of money at a cooking school, you probably want to make sure you would want to use the degree later on - otherwise, you might just as well buy a lovely kitchen for your new home. You may well enjoy that more.

If you decide to go to school (and I envy you the opportunity; I’d go in a second if I could), investigate CIA and J & W as well as your local school. Really look into what you’ll be learning at each one. Also look at what your employment possibilities will be once you’ve finished - a CIA degree, for example, is said to be worth more money than other degrees or experience alone. Since you aren’t really sure what you want to do, it might be worthwhile to find out how much a given degree can expand or limit your options. There may be a ceiling on what you can accomplish without a degree from one of the big guys, for example, or it may be harder to progress in certain areas. You don’t want to limit your options any more than you have to.

I also encourage you to interview professionals in the field - bakers and cooks. I know this sounds like overkill, but I totally recommend it before you make any major career decisions - ask people who are already in the business what it’s like, and what they’d do in your shoes. They will know what skills are most important, what they wish they’d done and what they’re glad they did. I got the best advice I’ve ever gotten on careers doing this; when I considered going to med school, I interviewed people in med school and working doctors, and got great advice. (Basically it was “if you can do something else, then don’t do this,” but I’m glad I found out what they had to say before I’d invested a lot of money and a lot of my life in the field.)

And you may in fact want to read Kitchen Confidential (by Anthony Bourdain of Les Halles NY). If nothing else, it’s a light, humorous book that’s fun to read. And it gives a nice look at working in the field through one particular set of eyes. Don’t pay attention to what he says about CIA, though, because it’s really changed since he graduated. For information about cooking school itself, you could check out The Making of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman (a journalist). The book has its weaknesses, but it does offer a look at what it’s like to go to CIA. And it’s also a pleasant read.

And let us know what you decide!

5

I have read Kitchen Confidential, as well as The Making of a Cook. It is largly from those books and speaking to chefs that I’ve come to the conclusion that I probably don’t want to work in a restaurant. At least, not an up-and-coming, busy restaurant. Maybe a small deli would be OK. My goals in life at this point are to have fun, and maybe make some money while I’m at it.

I don’t think I was clear about the following things:

1 - I’m moving to the middle of nowhere in a year. That’s not going to change. It’s either this school, or no school. I really don’t want to go to cooking school enough to go live somewhere else for the 2+ years it would take. I like the idea of working in the field for 3 or 4 months, but if I did that, I wouldn’t have the time to go to the school. Maybe that would be a good alternative to the school?

2 - I’m not doing this to get a “career” or to make significant amounts of money. I already have a career that makes oodles of money. I’m at the point in my life where I want to do something I enjoy, and I will change my lifestyle to allow it. I’m also in the enviable position where I have quite a nest egg built up, and a significant other who also does quite well in contributing to the family finances. Even if I wanted to make a bunch of money, geographic considerations prevent it - there just isn’t that much money to make living in the Great White North.

I guess what I’m really looking for is some opinions as to why doing this might be better than just learning a bunch on my own. If I spend the time/money to do it, and ultimately never use it, that’s not that big of a deal to me - at the very least, I’d enjoy doing it, and at most, I might be very very happy I did. But what doors would open to me if I did do it? What would be extremely difficult to learn on my own?