If culinary school is something that you REALLY want to go to and have come to accept the idea of a really tough and challenging but rewarding career then I would say go for it.
Do what you're really passionate about.
Because, only then, will you enjoy your "job" and experience fulfillment. Heck, if you're having the time of your time cooking and learning about food, your "job" would is like just spending your day doing your favorite activity.
Well, imagine this - a true life story shared by a chef whom I've interviewed. When I asked him if there was someone who is passionate about food and wants to become a chef but his parents insisted that he becomes an accountant instead.
His grades are good enough to be one but he has no interest for accountancy at all.
Make Your Own Decisions:
So, he took a puff from his cigarette, stared into blank space for a while. His hands rough and a long scar cut across his the back of his hand. He tapped his cigarette and as the ashes fell he turned back to me. (It was really this dramatic!)
"When I was your age, I encountered the same situation."
"My parents made most of my decisions in my life for me and you probably already guess what route I took. I listened to my parents and went to a traditional college for my bachelors.
"Eventually I come to realize that it was not working out as I have wasted about eight years of my life and $ 40,000 + because I was never able to force myself to put enough effort into it. I never really wanted to be there and was only trying to make other people happy. "
"What? $ 40 000?" I blurted out.
"Yea ... kind of hurts me a little to think about ... all the cool chef stuff I could have invested with it ..."
"Which in this case was my parents and we ended up in a situation where no one was really happy."
"My advice is this - Don't let other people tell you what to do, they may have the best intentions at heart, but they may not always be right."
"And in my case ... it clearly wasn't ..."
He took another puff, flick the cigarette away, pushed his hands against my left shoulder and got on his feet. He took large brisk strides and disappeared into the back entrance of the little Italian bistro while I was transfixed at the dwindling light of his cigarette deep in thoughts ...
As I stood up to leave, a boisterous voice filled the alley, "Come on boys, service's going to start, let's get our adrenaline fix!"
So that was the story he told me.
He reached an understanding that his parents truly want the best for him however they failed to understand that all he wants to be is a chef.
They didn't see that their idea of 'best for him' is not the right one for their son.
So the bottom line is ... If you really truly honestly absolutely feel cooking is your thing, then do what makes you the most happy.
Also, please avoid taking 8 years of your life to find that out. But in all honesty, better late than never.
There is much to learn in culinary school as you can pick up our fundamentals there so seriously consider culinary school if it is within your financial limits.
In Your Head:
When we want to enroll into culinary school, many thoughts will run through our heads. Some of these could be ...
One thing that bothers you often in your sleep is that whether you'll be good enough to excel in this profession ...
o You've saved a lot of money over the last year for this
o You know you can handle the pace, but all the actual cooking experience you have is pretty much recipes from magazines or books you've found along the way,
o The recipes are quite straightforward and requires no challenging techniques whatsoever, which you've tremendously enjoyed doing.
However ... it just leaves you with this sinking feeling of insecurity which you don't really know to how to deal with. You guess you'll see how it turns out when your classes start.
Am I describing some of us here? These are questions that many of us have thought about when we sent in our applications. Well if you know clearly what school you want to go to and exactly what you want to study.
You should be very excited instead! (Ok ... Maybe still a little nervous)
Choosing the School:
Big name schools such as Le Cordon Bleu will give you a great education and it has "brand name" recognition in the culinary field.
If that's important to you, consider attending there.
However, please check out the schools very thoroughly.
BECAUSE
You will find out after some research and asking around that some of these are part of a privately run chain of schools.
If you do inquire and go a say go for an interview, in the following weeks you will find out just how active their, uh, "recruiting dept" is. (Grin ... Wink Wink)
Private schools have a reputation of employing private recruiters who might be paid by the amount of students they get signed on or the amount of students that have signed on and graduated.
This commission which they will receive is likely "integrated" into the tuition fees.
A good recruiter can be entitled to a substantial sum of money = they will put in exceptional effort into trying to recruit you and might not be so honest with their promises and statistics
A Possible Alternative:
I personally suggest checking out the local community colleges.
Other things you may also realize about community colleges:
1. is often the teaching is superior to that of a university.
2. The classes are smaller and the professors teach most or all of the classes.
3. They are actually interested in teaching, simply not just tenure.
4. Once again they are CHEAPER!
Other small schools offer better one-on-one teaching as well - that is great for the development of your basic foundation!
Playing Safe:
After you have thoroughly checked out the schools compare what you see and found out with the advertised brochure. (looked around on campus, check out the chicks ... have an in depth chat with instructors and you ask them as much questions as you want - from their ability or inability to respond to your questions, you can see for yourself roughly how experienced and well informed they are)
And please do yourself this favor:
1. Check out with local prospective employers find out from them how much they would pay for someone who just graduated from X school / X program.
2. Compare the figures to what a recruiter told you. Default salary figure will always come from the employer, (That's where you find an accurate market)
3. Remember that it is the chefs and owners of restaurants are the ones that employs you, not your over - friendly recruiter.
4. That said there are accurate and sincere recruiters around but it's always a good idea to reconfirm the details especially if you're potentially investing your parent's life savings or 6 summer breaks worth of working salary.
Make sure you really understand what has been said about carefully checking a schools graduation rate and placement statistics.
All schools will compile them under legal guidelines. Don't be afraid to ask to see the statistics, and once again:
Don't just go by what is spoken by a school recruiter / admissions rep.
It is possible, but not likely to start above a prep position. It is also possible to make get a decent salary; then again the "decent" part also depends on your needs.
By right you would be very busy practicing and learning stuff that you will hardly have time to splurge on anything. That means that your wage should be more than enough to meet your basic needs.
But one again, each of us has a different perspective of basic needs so it's up to you to work that out.
No culinary school is a replacement for real world experience.
In fact, just about everyone in the culinary scene will agree that you should work in the restaurant business before you decide to enroll in a school.
This will allow you to really see for yourself if becoming a cook or chef is exactly what you want. Say if you decide not to pursue this profession then at least you've avoid wasting a large chunk of money and getting yourself involved in all kinds of loans.
No matter which school you go to, your goal will be to make the most out of the experience. A really great way to do that is to always jump on every opportunity to volunteer for events and parties.
So what are the benefits of doing so? Let me do a simple list:
o It gives you a window of opportunity to see a different aspect of the culinary world and also allow you to gain some valuable exposure.
o Not to forget you may never know if some of the people you meet in these events end up being your future employers.
o At such events you may also get to meet some of the leading individuals in the scene and learnt a thing or two from them. You will be surprised by how willing some of these chefs are to give you a pointer or two.
The type of school and the curriculum each school offers doesn't play a major role in what the student learns, retains, or most importantly, can apply at work.
Many employers and virtually every experienced Chef are aware of this and they apply this knowledge and view when they want to put together a reliable kitchen crew.
BECAUSE
When it comes to hiring time, most Chef's are not impressed with the name of the School, of your marks, or the length / style of course you took.
Most Chefs only care about the results of a test before they decide to hire you.
And this is quite a simple test:
Give you some instructions and materials,
Then observe how well you perform.
They can make their decision from just observing how you handle your produce, how you move and what you tell them.
Basically, your experience and amount of effort you have put in will be pretty much the key to excelling in this test.
Remember the school gives you the tools; it's up to you to produce.
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