Culinary Pre-School (A Plan for the Tentative)

By Wendy Croix

You're curious about culinary arts school, but you're also ambivalent. On the one hand, the idea of becoming a chef sounds like your dream come true. On the other hand, getting a culinary education feels overwhelming. You don't know where to start. Here's a three-step program for getting on with your culinary life.

Read:

If others have launched culinary careers, then you can too. The first step in confronting your culinary indecision is to draw inspiration and motivation from the lives of great chefs. Here are three great culinary memoirs to get you started:

- The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin (paper, Houghton Mifflin, 2004). A heartfelt memoir from one of the most-loved chefs on the planet.
- Letters to a Young Chef by Daniel Boulud (hardcover, Basic Books, 2003. Advice for beginners from an acclaimed chef, founder of Manhattan restaurants Daniel and Caf?? Boulud.
- Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain (paper, Harper Perennial (2001). Publishers Weekly calls this memoir by the chef at New York's Les Halles a "recounting [of] sophomoric kitchen pranks." How can you resist!?

Join:

Nothing says you can't belong to a few culinary arts groups before you look for schools or take a course. Enthusiasm is contagious, and people who share your passion for cooking can pump up your courage to pursue the culinary education you want but won't let yourself have.

- American Institute of Wine and Food (AIWF). Join to meet people in the world of food (consumers and food critics and culinary professionals) in any of the Institute's thirty local chapters.
- International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). This professional organization also has special interest sub-groups in culinary education, writing, and so on.

Browse:

Use the Web to surf for culinary arts schools. Ask any schools that strike your fancy to send information. When you're knee-deep in brochures, you can kiss ambivalence goodbye. But, then, you do have to pick a school???

About the Author
Wendy Croix, Ph.D. is a freelance writer, cultural critic and university professor. In her twenty years as a professional educator, Wendy has guided hundreds of students toward the careers of their dreams.