What Made You Want To Go To Culinary School?
Today, I wanted to talk about some of my experiences leading to culinary school. I first wanted to apply to culinary school during my senior year at Boston University (BU) all the way back in 2008! I first got into cooking in college after getting hooked on cooking and food shows like Good Eats, Iron Chef America, Top Chef, and anything involving grilling and BBQ. Also, after trying so many different cuisines in Boston with my friends from school, I just got hooked on trying new restaurants and hidden hole in the wall mom and pop shops. During my senior year, I tried to nonchalantly float the idea to my parents. My parents were immigrants from Taiwan and both worked white collar IT jobs. They came from humble backgrounds. The idea quickly raised red flags. A steady stream of lectures about the challenges of working in a kitchen and no one wanting to marry me because I would be poor soon followed. While there was certainly some truth to these arguments, I was just glad that I was able to maintain the drive to pursue a non-conventional career for my upbringing despite the challenges that lay ahead.
Over the next few years, I worked in marketing at a couple ad agencies in DC and Boston. I cooked and baked as a hobby. Occasionally, I entered a few cooking and baking contests at work (I won a couple and still have a trophy somewhere!). I also got more into travel around the USA. I learned about regional cuisines, food migration patterns and learned to appreciate the diversity of American cuisine. Eventually, I grew too comfortable and started to travel internationally to Spain, France, Southeast Asia, and Australia. In late 2016, I finally applied and got into culinary school. It was extremely nerve wrecking to tell my family the news. However, over the years of cooking Thanksgiving and holiday meals, I think my parents softened up to the idea. I was mostly able to win my dad over because I saved enough to pay for tuition myself. In May of 2017, I moved to The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.
Culinary School vs Self Training
If anyone asked me whether or not they should go to culinary school,
I would ask them what they planned to do after graduating and
then I would ask them if they could afford it.
A big point of discussion with regards to culinary school and the industry is whether or not you should go to culinary school or just learn on the job. The biggest and sometimes only factor is simply money. Can you afford it? Culinary school and, more broadly, the cost of a college education in the USA, has reached ridiculous levels over the last couple decades. It has far outpaced inflation and for many, it has led to a debate on the value of a college education. Some industries like the sciences, engineering or jobs that require a college education are typically higher paying. You won’t be able to get by without a degree or degrees. In terms of culinary school, it’s absolutely not as essential. There are many stories of successful self-taught chefs and professionals. Culinary school just helps you to learn faster in a less stressful environment.
When I was working in advertising, I would cook from cookbooks and recipes I found online. However, certain skills would have been much more complicated to learn without the instruction of a skilled chefs or access to product. I suppose I could have gone to the butcher and bought myself a primal cut of meat to butcher on my own, but it’s inconvenient to buy it, bring it home, store it properly and use it on my own. The costs would start piling up eventually, and the lack of hands on instruction couldn’t have been replaced. In restaurants, only more senior cooks would be allowed to handle the expensive proteins, so it would take a self-taught cook more time to be able to reach that level. They would also only be limited to butcher what was on the menu at the restaurant they worked at. The same can be said about fish. Not a lot of people would want to have a huge salmon sliding around their studio apartment on a cutting board and counter meant for cutting at max, a large melon.
Academically, you can learn the types of things that restaurant owners and food management professionals need to know, but this is also one of the easier things to learn on your own. The biggest benefit for me was the Wines class where you have daily tastings and learn a lot in 3 short weeks. Overall, the decisions come down to the type of learner you are and whether or not you can afford the tuition. I was fortunately able to save up enough to pay my own way, but it’s not as common for younger students.
Choosing Culinary Schools
For culinary school, I had considered Le Cordon Blue in Paris, International Culinary Education in NYC, and Kendall College in Chicago. What ultimately won me over to the CIA was the more regimented style of learning, the notable alumni, and the isolated campus setting off the Hudson in upstate NY. What I missed about college life was a sense of community. At BU, the campus was located in Boston, so students would be off on their own in the city during their free time so clubs and community felt somewhat lacking. I also didn’t take advantage of the school clubs and organizations because I struggled the first couple years academically, especially in the required liberal arts classes that didn’t pertain to business or marketing. With the CIA, I got more into extra curricular activities, worked on campus at one of the restaurants, and became an RA, which surrounded me with a lot of driven and bright individuals. My time was filled so much so that at one point I was only sleeping 5 hours a night, 5 nights a week for 6 weeks. While it was exhausting, I don’t regret anything.
The CIA used to have a prerequisite that prospective students had to work 6 months in the industry before attending. They got rid of the requirement just before I applied. That was previously a big sticking point for me because I was already an older student and was working in a white-collar job. Taking a big pay cut for 6 months wasn’t something all that appealing to me. There was also some doubt as to what types of places would even hire me. I can see the value of having a requirement like this. It could potentially weed out people to get the most driven and dedicated students. Later on, I found out that they had gotten rid of the requirement because they didn’t find a correlation between students that fulfilled the requirement and students that didn’t and their success at school. There’s also the potential that they just wanted or needed more money. The CIA has been expanding its degree offerings so transitioning from students to chefs to chef owners to a wider range of careers is also a possibility. I would say that some of my closest friends at school that did have prior work experience in the industry were beasts in the kitchen. If you’re figuring out what school to attend, I think the biggest factors are the style of learning with the type of career you want, cost and location. I visited the Johnson & Wales campus in Providence with my girlfriend after we graduated, and we were frankly blown away by the nice facilities, but we were still happier overall that we went to the CIA.
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