So I'm thinking about going to Culinary Arts school.

[BlondieK143]

Anyone ever been? It's just a random thing I thought about after watching Food Network last night. Thing is, there are no schools around here, but I think it's something I'd be good at so I'd be willing to relocate. I'll probably save up money and then decide what I want to do and if I want to be rash and quit my job. Okay, I'm totally nuts. :silly:

[Longgrain]

1. Probably better than going to a Fine Arts school

you could probably at least get a job as a chief somewhere.

[BlondieK143]

2. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Or I could take it to the whole catering level. :shrug: Just a thought.

[Longgrain]

7. Lot of work in the food business, you could make good for yourself...

As for me, when was the last time you've read the classified and seen, Help wanted, Painter, to make art, good pay, benefits.

It doesn't happen...:shrug:

[BlondieK143]

9. But does it make you happy?

I realize that happy doesn't pay the bills, but at least you're doing something you love, right?

[Longgrain]

11. Yeah, it does, happy

but it can be so frustrating at times.

[BlondieK143]

15. That's understandable.

:hug: But hang in there. You're great at it!

[Longgrain]

22. Thank you, I plan to try some stuff tomorrow...

And maybe post some more here on DU, not to mention try and sell some. In fact, you may have a chance to obtain a Longgrain original yourself soon. ;-)

[BlondieK143]

25. That would be cool!

And to what would I owe that pleasure?

[Longgrain]

32. You'll see, if your around tomorrow afternoon/ night.

[BlondieK143]

35. Cool!

:D I'll be around in the afternoon.

[snowbear]

3. Can you whip us up a few bowls of Pho?

Since so many of us are now craving it... :9

Culinary School sounds awesome! Follow your dreams and go where you need to go to get there ~~ :hug:

[BlondieK143]

4. Thank you!

:) That was a very nice post.

And let me figure out how to make it and I'll whip it up for you guys. :D

[DS1]

5. "Okay, I'm totally nuts. " I want a daily journal posted if you do, so

if you start to actually turn totally nuts like Lady Democrat/corarose/ginger snaps we can yank you out of that school before permanent damage is done

[BlondieK143]

6. LMAO!!!

If you don't realize already that there's something... off... about me, you're further gone than I am! :D

[RevolutionaryActs]

8. *ahem* The Art Institute of Seattle has a good Culinary program...

Or so I hear.... :P

http://www.ais.edu/programs_degrees.asp?pid=4&dtid=11&display=program

[BlondieK143]

10. Hehe!

Could I shack up with you? lol

[RevolutionaryActs]

13. I'm a little far from Seattle, but we could rent a house together!

:D

[BlondieK143]

16. SUHWEET!

:D Oh my, could you imagine us living together??

[RevolutionaryActs]

17. Seattle would never be the same....

:o

[BlondieK143]

19. We'd scar it for life!

:D and give it some great entertainment!

[JohnKleeb]

18. I smell reality TV

Am I in the right thread? :shrug:

[BlondieK143]

20. You sure are!

:rofl:

[JohnKleeb]

24. BTW that sounds neat about culinary school

I cant cook if my life depended on it.

[BlondieK143]

26. Well, they kinda teach you that.

:) You can come to TN anytime and I'll make sure you get a great, homecooked meal.

[JohnKleeb]

27. I gotta learn how to drive

but when I do, I am gonna travelin. Sure, I'd love to see a homemade meal.

[BlondieK143]

28. TN isn't too far!

:) It's perfectly driveable! BTW, are you going to the Sox game??

[JohnKleeb]

29. Yeah for sure

TN is kind of far from where I am in the state of Virginia which is why I don't sound too southern or so am I told, wait you don't think the Yanks are laughin at me :cry:.

[BlondieK143]

30. They're not laughing AT you, they're laughing

WITH you. :) You've got a great personality! And you don't sound southern at all! Now myself on the other hand, it comes out reallllly bad once I've been drinking!

[JohnKleeb]

37. I noticed that

about your accent, its not as noticable when you're sober but when you drink, it comes out of ya, Thanks btw, I like to think my personality is all right.

[BlondieK143]

40. Whoops.

:( Was it bad??

And you're welcome!

[JohnKleeb]

43. Bad?

You didn't see where I said I thought you had a pretty accent. I have a weird way of saying things, a lot of yas, I sometimes will say eh, y'all or a plain old ya guys or you guys.

[BlondieK143]

45. Aww, you said that?

I must've missed it. Thank you. :blush:

I love 'ya'll'. Can't help it.

[JohnKleeb]

61. Yeah its pretty

Hey nothin wrong with being southern even if I like to downplay the fact I am Southern, well I id more with the north more somewhat anyhow.

[BlondieK143]

64. You're so sweet!

:hug: Thank you. Certainly brightened up my night!

[JohnKleeb]

70. I try to be

Its no problem, its pretty what more could I say?

[BlondieK143]

72. You didn't have to say anymore.

:) Little compliments are what matter to women. Now, if we can just work on your beer drinking skills. hehe

[JohnKleeb]

73. No, blondie I wont chug vodka for you

:evilgrin: oh you mean moderating myself, I can do that easily actually :).

[BlondieK143]

74. LMAO!

I don't WANT you to chug vodka!! Guiness was bad enough!!

[JohnKleeb]

76. It was easy to chug the Guinness

and the thing I chugged saturday was that apple stufF Pitt had. Oh and btw when I had a black russian last month, I couldnt even slurp it, so dont worry about me chugging that, it was too much for me.

[BlondieK143]

78. Apple stuff?

Was it an apple martini??

[JohnKleeb]

79. what was that apple stuff he had in the glass bottle?

BTW if youre curious to know how I got started chugging, it started when after thanksgiving and xmas, I would take a leftover thing of sparkling cider and chug it, I then progressed in to big milk cartons which grossed a lot of people.

[BlondieK143]

80. Chugging milk?

Oh gawd! I'd much rather chug alcohol than milk! Are you talking about the stuff that he had at his house or King's?

[JohnKleeb]

83. his house

I didnt drink at Kings silly, why dont you think I was always asking where we were going afterwards.

[BlondieK143]

84. Oh yeah!!

My bad! :D I have no clue what that stuff was, I stuck to Bud Light. At least you know you can go to P.R. (Friday night) and be cool.

[JohnKleeb]

85. I was more fucked up on saturday night because I had betty's brownie

reminds me, no brownie and alcohol on the same night, noooo, but on friday night as me, Alex, and Kirsten left People's Republik, we was all laughing, I was like a little kid, have you seen my sprints and backwards runs I do to goof off?

[name not needed]

65. Now to convince Maggie to go to school in Seattle...

:7

[JohnKleeb]

68. Ha

are you trying to get Maggie, Blondie, and Rev all to kiss so you can satisify some girl0girl-girl fantasy of yours? :evilgrin:

[skygazer]

12. Nothing wrong with being nuts

The only caveat I can think of about culinary school is something two different people I know who did it experienced. They both loved to cook and were really creative with food so they naturally thought it would be a good thing to do. What ended up happening was that they worked so much (after graduation and getting a job) and such tough hours that they got so they didn't even enjoy cooking much anymore, especially at home because they did it all day at work! Both of them do other things now and it took them both a while to get back into enjoying cooking.

Obviously, not everyone is going to be like that - just a thought you may want to ponder though.

[BlondieK143]

14. Actually, that thought has crossed my mind.

It's not like I'm really creative with food at this point and I enjoy cooking to a certain extent. I've certainly thought about how sick I'd be of doing it after awhile. :D Thank you for the perspective, I can certainly see that side of it. But I wonder if that's not like other jobs as well? I mean, don't we all get sick of our's at some point or another?

[skygazer]

21. Absolutely

But who wants to get sick of something they love to do? I'd rather be sick of something that I didn't want to do in the first place! :silly:

I'm not trying to play Devil's Advocate either. It's something I've thought about because I love to write but have wondered whether writing for a living - HAVING to write - would be as fulfilling as just writing because I want to (not that anyone has ever offered me a living based on my writing!).

[BlondieK143]

23. I completely understand that as well.

I'm a writer myself. :) And you make an excellent point! It would suck to have the fun pulled out of cooking. :shrug: Well, it was just another option. Ah, it's nice being young with no concept of time. :D

[skygazer]

34. That I know nothing about

With age, the first thing that goes is the memory. Young with no concept of time is a distant and very foggy memory for me. :nuke:

[BlondieK143]

36. Oh puhlease!

I'm sure you're not a day over 21! :)

[eyepaddle]

62. I have cooked at over a dozen restaurants

ranging from family-style (Perkins/Denny's type stuff) to fast food. pizza and a few fine dining and hotel type places.

To borrow a line from Hunter S Thompson; cooking is like f-----g; it's only fun for the amateurs. Actually he was talking about writing--but you get the point.

I love to cook, and I'm pretty handy at it, but wow did I ever hate cooking dinner for two-hundred people. That was why I decided to go to college (which is another misbegotten career adventure--but that's another story!) ;)

Having said that, I knew Chef's who loved what they did--and if you stick with it and manage to find good places to work, you can acually do okay for yourself. You could certainly pick worse careers.

Have you looked at any technical schools near you? They often have culinary arts programs, and generally the staff at those places are chef's from local restaurants, so you have an automatic networking opportunity. And judging from the lounge threads you're from Boston aren't you? There has to be a ton of good places around there.

Just think about it, maybe call local restaurants and ask what there chef's reccomend for education. A lot of them might just say forget school--just come here an d work. You'd get to start out cleaning shrimp and other grunt work, but you'd get to see if it was something you would want to do long term--without paying tuition.

Whatever you decide, good luck!

PS have you checked out the Cooking and Baking group?

On edit: TN! were yo just visitng Boston for the meetup?!

[BlondieK143]

66. Thank you so much!

And no, I haven't checked out the Cooking Group, but I certainly will now. I'm also going to do a little research on the technical college part as well. Thanks for taking the time to share your story!

And yes, I was in Boston just for the meetup and for a mini-vacation. :)

[eyepaddle]

89. No problem.

Just keep us all posted! :)

Oh yeah, it's too late to edit--but in my first post I meant to say THEIR CHEFS and typed THERE CHEF'S instead. Uff da. Sorry folks...long week ;)

[asthmaticeog]

31. I hear there are some really good culinary schools in Chicago. n/t

[BlondieK143]

33. Really??

I could dig it. How are the winters up there?

[asthmaticeog]

38. Brutal.

Slightly more charming than Cleveland.

[BlondieK143]

41. Awww man!

That sucks! What about cost of living? I'm sure it's like 4 times than what it is here.

[asthmaticeog]

46. Where's "here?"

Check this out: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/movecalc.asp

[BlondieK143]

47. Holy shit!!!

I'd need a 50% increase!! That site is AWESOME! Thank you!

[asthmaticeog]

48. No problem.

Actually, you might try this one, it has a breakdown by types of expenses so you can see if the stuff you spend the most on is much higher:
http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html

[BlondieK143]

49. Wow, thanks!!

:yourock: I take it you've moved before?

[asthmaticeog]

55. I've looked into it MANY times, haven't committed to it yet.

But like many people who live in Cleveland, I'm always keeping half an eye on the exit.

[BlondieK143]

58. Is it that bad??

?

[asthmaticeog]

63. It was great for awhile,

during the '90s economy, things were kind of looking up, but it's a perpetually beleagured city, and we recently ranked as the poorest major city in America. The panhandlers have gotten hyper-aggressive, homelesness has skyrocketed, and our stupid, shitty Mayor's only idea is to bring in casino gambling and a 2 billion dollar convention center, which if you look at Atlantic City and Detroit... well, it doesn't seem so brilliant.

Plus I'm a publication designer, and if I ever get dissatisfied with my job and decide I want to move up in that industry (which will surely happen someday), I can NOT do it here.

[BlondieK143]

71. wow!

So I'd imagine your job is a big factor in your decision. I'd say you could make it somewhere like NYC or something. You've obviously got to have talent! :)

[asthmaticeog]

75. God help me, I'm thinking California.

Between the recording and movie industries, and the mountains of glossy mags that exist to pimp those industries, there'll ALWAYS be pigpiles of money generated by Los Angeles. Hollywood is as close to a recession-proof city as the US has got.

[BlondieK143]

77. Really???

Have you ever been there before? That would be a perfect location for your profession now that you say that! Could you handle the hot blondes and hot weather? lol

[asthmaticeog]

81. The weather might mess me up.

The "hot" blondes, however, will pose little distraction for me, as bleach-Barbies sportin' disproportionate fakes are the opposite of attractive. ;)

[BlondieK143]

82. I was hoping you'd say that!

Spoken like a true DUer! :) Seriously though, good luck with whatever you decide to do. I know it's a big decision.

[asthmaticeog]

87. You too.

Good luck figuring out your school stuff. :hi:

[iconoclastic cat]

42. Oh, come on! Our winters are not that bad.

Puh-leeese. I only had to shovel out my car 3 times all winter this year.

[asthmaticeog]

44. OK, true, the northern midwest got off unusually light this year. n/t

[HEyHEY]

39. Cold and frigid like spinster city

[iconoclastic cat]

51. I call BUSHSHIT on you!

Cold and frigid? For a couple days during a couple of months, and never anything close to upper NY (Buffalo, etc.).

[iconoclastic cat]

50. Yes. We have one of the best. Featured on the PBS show, "Check Please":

http://www.lecordonbleuschoolsusa.com/chic.asp

Hey, come on out, Blondie! You can hang out with the Cats. We might hold you back on weekends, though...we're geezers.


And check out our restaurants:
http://www.wttw.com/checkplease/restaurantsatoz.html

[BlondieK143]

53. I highly doubt you're geezers!

And that school sounds wonderful! I'm sure it's not cheap though! :)

Know a place where I can crash? lol

[iconoclastic cat]

56. Listen: If you know what you're doing, money is not an issue.

In the absolute worst-case scenario, you might be paying a couple of hundered dollars each month AFTER you secure a job as a chef (you won't miss it). Best case, which I did: find a gig on-campus (teacher's assistant, etc.) and make back your money. Live on campus (if they have dorms) and you'll have even more opportunities to earn money.

Seriously, Mrs. IconCat and I put ourselves through undergrad and grad, and we still saved enough over the last 4 years that we can buy a house/condo right now if we find one.

[BlondieK143]

57. That's wonderful!

And you're completely right. I think for me though, it'd be more about fear of changing. I mean, my whole family is here and no on in my immediate family has been to college or done anything like this. I guess I'm just worried that if I pack up and move and leave everything I'm accustomed to, I'll fail and end up right back here. :shrug:

[iconoclastic cat]

60. What I'm saying is that you can do this anywhere---you don't have to leave

Look through the sites you find on Google or whatever. Be picky. Be comfortable with your choice. But whatever you do, use your momentum: go to school, be the first in the family, and do it while you're young.

Just don't party your way out of school!

[BlondieK143]

69. Thank you. :)

:yourock: And trust me, I party, but not bad enough to mess up my future.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

86. I also have heard this

[benny05]

52. which schools are you considering?

I'd like to do it in my spare time if I were near one, but I'm not..

[BlondieK143]

54. Neither am I.

Honestly, I hadn't really considered any except for the ones that I've seen on this thread and then The New England Culinary Institute.

[FuzzySlippers]

59. I think Husb2Sparky is a graduate of the C.I.A.

Maybe you should post this in Cooking & Baking.

[BlondieK143]

67. Thank you!

Will do! :)

[SOteric]

88. My mother was a classically trained master chef

who graduated from the Cordon Bleu in Paris. My brother studied at the CIA in Hyde Park and now owns and runs a place in the Sonoma Valley. My dad runs a gourmet import/export business and I grew up around the industry. I have a Sous Chef certification from the ACF.

If you're interested in developing a career in the Culinary Arts, I highly recommend a qualified Culinary school as a way to round out your knowledge and desireability as an employee. If you've never worked in a professional kitchen, you might want to rethink going straight into Culinary Arts. The career isn't quite like the Food Network might lead one to believe. There's nothing glamourous about walking into a kitchen at 6:00 a.m. and being ordered to cut 150 lbs of red onions in three different ways and given 20 minutes to finish the task - before you've even had your morning coffee. The best chefs in a professional kitchen can get away with vast amounts of mistreatment and abuse of their employees for very little pay. And if the employees make the slightest squeak of complaint, - they're out on the ear and a long line of replacements are literally begging for a chance to work with that chef.

Culinary work is exhausting, often pulling long 10 and 20 hour shifts without so much as a bathroom break. And it doesn't pay as well as many might believe. If everyone in a kitchen got $30,000 a year, no one would be able to afford to go out to dinner. A hamburger would have to cost $150 bucks just to support the payroll.

I guess, I'm trying to encourage you to look at the less lovely side rather than to talk you out of it. I think a really good culinarian is worth their weight in platnum, and I'd encourage anyone with an interest and a talent in the industry to pursue it.

Just don't think it's all champagne mignonette and creme fraiche. It's exhaustive, fiercely competitive, pays squat unless you truly excel, the turnover is incredibly high-paced and often they don't even fire you if they don't like you or your work for some reason; they just write you off the schedule.

[Longhorn]

90. I used to teach (math) at the Texas Culinary Academy in Austin.

It's a Le Cordon Bleu school. It's expensive but they have financial aid. Some of the top chefs in Austin are teachers there.

http://www.houseofedu.com/tca/index.jsp

Good luck!