Culinary School Advice: A Thorough Report

It seems no matter how many emails I answer about whether or not one should go to culinary school, change careers, work in bakeries or restaurants, which culinary school is my favorite, what a person should look for in a great tasting culinary school, whether one can learn on-the-job or not,

and on an on

I still receive more.

So I've compiled a lot of the words I've given on the subject of Culinary School Advice. It's not short, but if you have the time, head over to KQED where all my opinions are located ~

Comments

[rose]

Ahh this subject again. My chef & I were just talking about how today's culinary students have no passion for food or learning anymore. They want that quick buck & a delusional desire for fame. They want a title but don't want to do the actual work to deserve that title.
I have an ad on craigslist that we have to repost every week becaue they don't want to work for $10 or $11 an hour, can't work on the weekends, don't want to commute that far..etc.

I think that prospective students should work 2 or 3 days for free or at least do some research about "real" restaurant life & pay. Don't go to culinary school because you think it "might" be fun. Do it because you truly love the science & craft of food.

[Jimmy T.]

Donde mi Donuts?

:)

[DottieMay]

I've been reading a blog by a (grown-up) woman who quit her job to go to cooking school. She def has passion for food, but you get the sense that not all the students around her do...

anyway she blogs every day about what happened in cooking school and it's pretty awesome.

http://www.cooklady.com/

[Whitners]

Eight Myths About Working in a Restaurant
www.CookingRevealed.com

8. It’s all about the after party. Seriously, after a busy night of cooking 200 plus covers (people served) the last thing you want to do is have to go to a bar with your greasy hair and clothes that smell like a deep fryer.

7. You get to eat whatever you want. Not true at all, in fact in some places if you are caught eating the good product then you are out of there. Restaurants are all about making money and if the staff is eating the profit then there is no money to be made. Also, after making that dish 50 times in row, the last thing you want to do is eat it.

6. You thought you could see the faces of the patrons. Think again! You are stuck in the kitchen. You live in the kitchen.

5. You get to be creative. What you have to realize is that the menu was probably put into place before you began working there. Don’t think you can just come in and tell the chef that such-and-such is wrong with their menu. You will get no brownie points for that stunt.

4. I’m going to be rich. Unless you have been in the game for a while don’t expect to get paid. If you work at an extremely upscale restaurant most cooks come in a little early and work for free, worst of all it is usually expected that you will do that.

3. It’s easy, all your doing is cooking some food. If only it was that simple. Most cooks arrive 3-4 hours before the restaurant opens to do all the prep that goes into each dish. You have to realize that usually each dish comes with at least three items on the plate plus the sauce and the garnish. Prep is the key. And I don’t think you want me to talk about all the clean up.

2. All Chefs scream and carry on like Gordan Ramsey. While you can work with a chef that yells A LOT, they usually don’t end up throwing the food right back in your face. I think most chefs have realized that those antics don’t really work on the younger generation of cooks

1. It is so glamorous. Working in a kitchen is anything buy glamorous, unless you are the executive chef who rarely ever gets in the trenches and cooks with his cooks.

At this point you may be asking yourself, Why does she do it? Why does she put up with all this torture? First of all I love working with food and there is a little creativity. Call me masochistic, but I love the stress and the speed of the kitchen. I love that everything has to be put together in a mater of minutes. And I love, love, love that at the end of the day I know that I have accomplished something. I see the tangible evidence in front of me completed and patrons satisfied.