culinary school

anyone been or know anyone that's been? I found a program here that's a one year associate's degree. I hear you get your ass beat down. then after i graduate, I'd get a job making 6 or 7 bucks an hour 6-7 days a week being a bitch in the kitchen for however many years. but after that i could maybe open my own restaurant. but then i wouldnt ever see my family. so i dont know. but getting the degree would be a start anyway. i dont know, anyone have any experience with culinary school?

culinary school.

i just read a book about a woman who goes to Le Cordon Bleu. it was entertaining. she did a good job.

I know a few people that went, my brother included. Your assumptions are correct. If you really love it though, you could probably power through. You seem like you have a bit of tenacity.

hey Fred , you should read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential

hmmm yeah dudes i'm going to get a book about it and read a firsthand perspective, that is genius. i'm going to the Dominican Republic for some R & R in two weeks, I'll have plenty of time to read then. good idea. also encey thanks for responding to my PM about pasta cranks. why do you hate me?

your what?

brb ...

If that's your passion, and you can support yourself, go for it. I think it's that simple.

fixed!

My Uncle Marty is a master chef, he's cooked for the Queen, the Pope, and several other notable figures. He was invited onto Letterman. I'd offer to hook you up but he lives just outside Philly.

I have a few clients who are chefs and they do not lead very awesome lives. The work is endless and generally unappreciated.

There is a sweet restaurant in my town where the chefs specialize in "innovative cuisine." their food kicks my fucking ass every time but the business is just shit and they're always close to closing down. Seems to me that while there are a few chefs that make great money and are appreciated there are 15 million more that make student-level wages while working in a hot windowless machinated environment.

i've considered being a chef, but the whole time away from my family etc seems too much. but i've got time to change my mind

also, thanksomuch has been to culinary school if i recall correctly.

I toyed with the idea of switching to the Culinary School when I went to the Art Institute... but then I found out how rewarding, but thankless, a job in food preparation can be, and how like Illustrators, there's a few elite, but many who never achieve greatness.

  Joyrex said:

like Illustrators, there's a few elite, but many who never achieve greatness.

that's the case with any profession

go on hells kitchen. punch gorden ramsey in the face. then open your own restaurant.

  Benedict Cumberbatch said:

go on hells kitchen. punch gorden ramsey in the face. then open your own restaurant.

i fucking hate that guy

  LOL Alzado said:

  Joyrex said:

like Illustrators, there's a few elite, but many who never achieve greatness.

that's the case with any profession

Yes, but for Illustrators (I went to school initially to become one), you have to be really, really good to stand out and make a success at it - it's such a niche profession that unless you have a unique style or mad skills, it's difficult to find a job and more importantly make a decent living at it. I ended up switching about halfway through to Graphic Design as I saw that things were going in that direction (this was before computer-based design was so widespread like it is now) and that more and more corporations were starting to have their own in-house design departments versus trying to find a job with some design firm where the competition and stress levels would be overwhelming.

fred if you become a chef you will also become an alcoholic

so i wouldn't

fred, i'm reading a book right now called "heat" by bill buford, who used to write for the new yorker. i highly recommend it. he goes and works for mario batali and gets his ass beat, then he goes and talks to marco pierre white and learns how utterly insane that guy is. then he becomes an apprentice in italy and works for a butcher. it's a great read. buford is probably a bit like you; thinks he's all that in the home kitchen but in a restaurant he wouldn't survive for two minutes. also, from what i've read, culinary school is a waste of time. you have to work from the bottom up, in someone else's restaurant, and learn on the job. anything else is apparently not going to help you.

  kaini said:

fred, you're already a pretty bad alcoholic so I wouldn't try to become a chef...

whut?

thanks for the recco zaphod, i'll definitely check it out.

but yeah i see culinary school like any other degree, a stepping stone to getting a good job. but actually i think the difference is you really do get a lot of skills, let's say i go and get my associate's degree for a year, and decide i dont want to do anything with it, i still have that skillset that i can apply to my every day life to a hobby of mine, which is nice.

definitely gonna read that book

  kaini said:

fred if you become a chef you will also become an alcoholic

so i wouldn't

yeah this is something my wife and i have actually discussed.... definitely worried about that

yeah, as an amendment to my post, all of those chefs attended culinary school so i guess there's no harm in it.

culinary school can definitely help. but you don't want to be a chef anyways fred. it's brutal unrewarding work. and yes you will drink more.

  Fred McGriff said:

anyone been or know anyone that's been? I found a program here that's a one year associate's degree. I hear you get your ass beat down. then after i graduate, I'd get a job making 6 or 7 bucks an hour 6-7 days a week being a bitch in the kitchen for however many years. but after that i could maybe open my own restaurant. but then i wouldnt ever see my family. so i dont know. but getting the degree would be a start anyway. i dont know, anyone have any experience with culinary school?

 

culinary school.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO

DO NOT

DON'T DO IT

WASTE OF MONEY

adopt the IDM plan

do dinner parties for your mates. dazzle them.

include increasingly elaborate dishes.

include increasingly IDM musics

by week 5 you'll have the basis for your army of culinarybots

as long as there's a thread full of cooks i have a question

I bought some crab cakes from a store

I want to put additional ingredients inside. Is there a way I can do that once the cakes are already made? I want to put some fucking ginger and onion in these things