You Got Schooled

While discussing life in the kitchen the other day I had a person ask me if it really makes a difference to go to culinary school or not? I am going to start off by saying that I am partial to no culinary school because I didn’t go myself.  I also want to say that the life of a cook can be short once they meet the pressures and time demands of cooking, possibly throwing their investment in culinary education away while still being left with the bill. I mean, what sense does it make to go to a culinary school (normally private) that costs from 30-100k when a typical line cook starts at $10-12/hour? It doesn’t.

I started off my career when I was 17, still in high school, and with dreams of culinary school in my future. The school I had my sights on was The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY, one of the most prestigious in the U.S. My position was for a catering company as a dishwasher/prep, and just being able to be in the kitchen was exciting. The first catering experience I had with them was a wedding that took place outdoors. We rolled up to the site with all of our food lined up on speed racks which were tied down in a moving truck. Quickly, I was thrown into setting up chairs and also organizing food with the Sous Chef, Jose, so that we could begin grilling meats and setting up appetizers. Jose stepped away for a moment, leaving myself at the helm of a huge outdoor grill with nearly 60 lbs. of meat cooking. Heart pumping, I attempted to mimic my Sous Chef as my hands and fingertips felt like they were on fire over the searing hot grill. He soon came back appalled at how little I had done, kicked me off and finished out the party with little help. As I ate staff lunch, the Head Chef drove up in his car exclaiming that “We’re f*****, the other cook that is supposed to help me with the second wedding bailed!” A more explicit conversation ensued between the Head and Sous Chef as I naively chimed in and said, “I’ll go with you!” With a questionable look, my Head Chef approved and we went on over the other site. 

Culinary Institute of America Hyde Park, NY

Approaching the next wedding the owner of the catering company, coincidentally a CIA grad, ran up to us saying that the speed racks had tipped over in the moving truck , our platters were completely wrecked, and we needed to reassemble them immediately. (These platters were cater wrapped so everything was completely covered in plastic and didn’t touch anything unsanitary) With only 30 minutes to bounce back, I began reassembling the platters as the owner came into the kitchen and asked me to go even faster. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest as I finished off the last platter; I took a sip of water and began to breathe again. This calm lasted only a few minutes before my Chef came into the kitchen and told me I now needed to make sushi on a station in the dining room. Like a deer in the headlights, shoulder to shoulder with my Chef, I began to make Nigiri sushi shaking as I cupped the rice in my hand and placed sliced pieces of fish on top. At the end of the day, after 14 hours, I rode home with the owners’ husband who said only one thing “Not too bad.” Excited, I said to myself “This shit is f****** crazy! And I love it!”

This is the kind of experience you don’t get in culinary school. In fact, the hunger for action that I had during my first catering experience is what most culinary grads lack when first stepping into a restaurant kitchen. David Lebovitz, author of several cookbooks and food blogs, has a similar view. Sure, the CIA and other institutes have their fine dining restaurants which try to simulate this kind of pressure, but the kitchen is saturated with hands reaffirming the saying ‘many hands make light work.’ Imagine my experience cut into 30 different pieces so that everyone gets a piece of the action. The picture below explains it all. It is not realistic, and it does not set the student up for success. In fact, most students out of culinary school get put on the easiest station, and least lucrative, of garde manger or salad station. If they can take the pressure, then they can touch a sauté pan or begin their training on the hot line. However in my experiences, I have seen fresh culinary students quit or be fired never to come back to the kitchen again. 

Brigade at CIA

There is also a mental game when it comes to cooking because it is a craft which only grows with experience. Sometimes it is even enough to offset a cook’s passion for food. A lot of culinary kids feel that school was the hurdle they had to get over to be accepted, but in reality, they’ve only just begun. Self-entitlement does not go over well in the kitchen and most students often come out this way. The reality is that when everything is boiled down, making salads and cutting pate isn’t that specialized of a job.  Food is endless in terms of techniques and styles which vary region to region. What they have seen in culinary school is only a peek which can sometimes be hard to grasp. I can empathize with these students because going to college for bachelors in hospitality, I sometimes feel like I am set and have cleared a hurdle. However, my experiences in the kitchen have taught me to always be humble and know that there is more to learn. 

To sum it all up, culinary school can be seen as more of a financial burden than a key into the industry. I have focused a lot on the negatives of culinary school but the truth is there are a lot of people who do make it, or even become famous after going to culinary school. What lead them to their success are their hunger, stamina, and spirit which are always attributed before their experience in school. They think of it as a starting point rather than the single thing that got them there, and often say they could have done without it. For me, culinary school is unnecessary when you can get the same training in a real world situation while getting paid for it.