My team has noticed some interesting stats within our community about culinary students, and we think it could be worth investigating.  It has to do with the average age of today’s culinary student.  We have noticed that for many of our newest colleagues that this is a second career, but why is this a trend? Why is this career so appealing as a second choice?

How old were you when you decided to go to culinary school?

I think a lot of it has to do with the tv shows glamourising the food service industry. 

Interesting. I want to hear from members that decided to become a chef later in life. What was your motivation?

i’m 30 and getting ready to attend culinary arts school…There is nothing glamrous about sweating your ass off in a 100+ degree kitchen…I love to cook, I like when people enjoy what I cook…Food is my passion, my poetry, my art…I do it good…..

For me I am 31 and will graduate by the end of the year. This will be my second degree but with looking back I wish I would have done this one instead of my engineering degree. I enjoyed what I did for a while but it was not what I loved. But now I am doing what I love and that is to cook. I worked in a kitchen all through high school and thought about going to culinary school then, but I went with making more money instead. After getting laid off not once but twice, I talked with my soon to be wife and we both decided on me doing what make me happy. Let me tell you money is not everything but yes it is nice but not when you hate getting up to go to work. yes working in a kitchen is not always fun but when you see people enjoy what you cooked it makes it worth it.

I finished a university degree—MA Music History—and worked as a library assitant for a few years, before I joined culinary school. I know, I am way off the stereotypical chef profile. But I also have to add: I wanted to become a chef much earlier in life. Since I was 18 years old I was toying with the idea. But the lifestyle, the hard work and especially the authoritarian chefs were things I could not deal with at that age. I was 28 when I realized that if I  did not do it now, I would forever regret it. Now, 14 years later, I can only say: it was one of the best decision in my life!

I guess you could say this is my 3rd or 4th career jump.  I’m 46 and I was worried about being too old to start but in my mind I am still young and I know I have at least another 20-25 years left in me, so why not do something I really, really enjoy.  I am loving school.

I have always loved cooking but couldnt afford to raise my kids with what cooks were making or work the ling hours while they were young so i waited till the time was right which for me was 33 and wala .. here i am still loving it. 

Wow where do I begin. I went back and earned my culinary degree at age 48. I was a meat cutter for 16 years and then forced the new owner to fire me so I could maybe collect unemployment. I was tired of working for someone who was a lazy boss’s kid. I always wanted to be a chef but when I was in my 20s in the 80s it was a different world. There were restaurant managers and owners but few chefs. My first job as a manager in 1982 was 6-12 hour days and that was common. I felt that was no way to treat our future children or my present wife. It was the right decision because when I worked as a butcher it was 4-10 hour days and no nights, holidays, or weekends. When my children were 20 and 22 and my wife had a good job I took the plunge. I have been swimming in Cozumel type waters ever since.

I would say that the increase in costs is due partly to the increased popularity of the “celebrity chef” mentality. Schools can charge more because this is the new “Hot and Sexy” career. Therefore, many private schools have increased their costs to take advantage of this industry move.

Other costs, rent increases, taxes, wages, benefits, and other costs of business are of course contributing, but I still think that the corporate bottom line is the main contributor to the increase.

Thanks @Campuschef — plus our government is making it easier to get funding for back-to-school programs.  People are taking the money and giving little thought to the life waiting on the other side.  True, right? I guess this is also true of any degree, but I have to say that the opportunities & money waiting for grads is pretty much the same over the last 15 years.

I am 38, and found that cooking is what kept me sane from my other career, when they closed my plant down, I started volunteer cooking at my church and was soon cooking for groups of 300 and found that not only was it a stress reliever but something I might be able to do as a career.  I am now on my break between semesters of chef school, and can’t wait to get into the industry, I know it’s hard work, but when your hobby becomes your career it doesn’t seem as bad.

@Kodette — great story about yourself. Do you think that passions get ignited later in life? Is this the reason you are offering?

I don’t know if they get ignited later in life. I do know that in the small town I grew up in, if I had wanted to be a chef in the late 80’s I would have been riciculed. it just wasn’t done, you could be a cook at the local greasy spoon, but fine dining was unthinkable, and even today in a lot of small towns the whole fine dining thing isn’t understood. I know that most of the people around where I live would walk out of a place as soon as they saw the prices, in small towns it’s usually large quantity of prepackaged food for low money. when I talk about doing things from scratch they look at me funny.
I do know that half of my class this year was 2nd career people, and a lot said the same thing, that cooking was always something that was a stress reliever, or a hobby, but something happened to bring that hobby to the forefront, and a lot of the best students were 2nd career people.

@Kodette — so then the popularity of the profession just happened to be right? Timing was the reason for your starting school later in life.  Your region had limited opportunities and you could not realize them until the time was right, it is more of a meta-physical or historical issue? 

**Like kids in the 40’s that dreamed of going into space, but could not realize that dream until the 60’s when space exploration became a reality?

There is a great story in here. You have all inspired me to write an article about the acitvity in this forum. To participate, I need you to tell me:

A: What kept you out (from starting at a younger age)?

B: What was the switching point?

C: Were you happy about your decisions?

Leave your responses and my team will develop the article for release this month. Thanks everyone.

a) cooking was something that I always did, but without any intentions of going pro.  It wasn’t a viable career choice in a small town where the choices are a couple of pizza joints, a bad chineese place, and 1 or 2 greasy spoons.  I was also one of the “tech kids” in high school, drafting came easy to me, and was a viable career choice.

b) As I progressed in my career, and farther and farther into managment I found that cooking at home, and for friends was a good way to relieve stress.  When people started asking me to cook for parties it was still just a fun hobby.  I volunteered to help my church with a fish fry, then a few weeks later there was a hamburger cookout, and within a year or so I was in charge of most of the cooking for the church, but it was still just a fun and divering hobby.  Then the shop I was working for closed down, and most of my type of engineering went overseas, I was living in a foreign country unable to work because of visa restrictions and became even more involved with cooking at the church, doing catered events for up to 300, and was approached by a couple to cater at their house a brunch for their daughters wedding.  That is when I considered cooking professionally.  I was able to apply for work permission and got a job cooking at an Assisted Living facility.  Within a few months of working there I was asked to leave the country.  So I came back to Canada, and started looking for work as a cook/chef.  What I found was one of the top schools in the country, and was accepted.

c)  I love cooking, and to me that makes what I do now not seem like work.  I know that sounds wierd, but when you are doing something that you truly love, then you don’t feel like you are working.  I have had 16 hour shifts fly by faster than my old 8hr days.  The only regret is the pay, I love what I do now, but I miss the old paychecks.  But dreading to go in everyday for good money is no life.

Hope this helps your article.

c)

Ok, w/o trying to offend anyone (but if you are, your in the wrong business!) TV has created this push into the business. For the most part it the glamour seen on TV about Chefs that has pushed this industry for the last 10 yrs or so. Having said that, I would like to thank TV for showing that our business is truly a profession. It is not some job for kids in college to earn a paycheck until they grow up and get a real job! I know we’ve all heard that comment from one time or another. When are you going to get a real job? I would dare say that being a Chef is one of the oldest professions around.

I don’t know about Culinary School Stats, but I believe that most older, new Chefs have found a new calling. I’ve been cooking since I was 10 yrs old. I prepared my first public dish @13 for my French class (Beef Bourguignon) which ended up being a great hit. Did I find my calling at this point? Nope. Went to college, graduated w/ a Sports Medicine degree. Found that job market wasn’t  really what it was supposed to be. Over the years I’ve had more than a few careers, but always came back to work in the kitchen.

Back to my earlier point. Cooking is a passion for Chefs, or should I say food is a passion. TV shows I believe to a point has shown people that there is more to cooking than just cooking. It is about the Art of Cooking! People walk into a restaraunt w/ an open kitchen and are amazed at what is going on.  For the rare few (insane few) they find this well organized circus of events intriguing. What they see is something completely different from the day to day of sitting at a desk in front of a computer or whatever it is they are doing. Being a Chef is somewhat Exotic, again shown through Celebrity Chefs. It is a career you can go any in the world and find a job. I personally have this opportunity working in Belize, Central America. It is a career (which as an artist) your canvas is endless. I may be wrong on all points, but that’s OK!

As Momma always used to say “Stop playing w/ your food!” I get to do it for a living! Good luck to all Chefs!

Cheers from the Jungle!

There is going to be a new television program coming out of the sci-fi channel?? this month staring a Chef who performs molecular gastronomy. The hype is so dramatic. I can just see what this will do to the food service industry. Now everyone will want to be a molecular gastronome. What’s next????

The editorial team has successfully created this discussion into a Red Hot News story.  It will be published on March 30, 2011. I invite everyone to keep up the engagement as more participants will navigate here to from the article. Thanks everyone.

Remember, any of our forums may become a story about you!

I’ve cooked my entire life, as it was a big part of my heritage and growing up.  But when I told my mother and high school guidence counselor, both African American women, that I wanted to go to culinary school, it was heavily frowned upon.  I was told by my guidence counselor “how many black women chefs do you see out there?” – Um, yeah, that was my reaction, too!

Despite my interest in cooking, my parents decided to financially back my college career instead of culinary school, so I went.  A tour of failure after graduating college and two debilitating car accidents later led me back to where I wanted to be.

So after 20 years, almost to the day, I finished culinary school to the shagrin that actually working in the industry may be a pipe dream due to physical limitations.  I’m working on that.

I think as our society ages so will the entire workforce, which is why some of the 30+ crowd is joining the industry…also, you’re never out of work!

@CLMason —This is one of my favorite responses here. I think it is a triumph for you to return to school and continue something you wanted.  Many things have changed in 20 years for chefs and woman chefs. What are your expectations now?

Did anyone see the story about the class action suit that students have against their culinary school?…check it out!

Not all schools are like that.  I am attenting a school that is a registered not for profit charity, attending as an apprentice so the government pays a hefty portion of the tuition, but still have access to michilin starred chef instructors, and guest chefs.  I will leave culinary school for under $20 000.  You have to find schools that are in the business of making great chefs, not making big bank accounts for themselves.

I am smiling as I type this…

Let’s see if I get this right. A person is looking for a new career. They have always loved to cook at home for friends and family. They think they’d make a great “Chef.” They decide to go to culinary school. They take out loads of student loans, go to school and learn theory over experience, then graduate. They get an entry level position simply because they don’t have the knowledge and experience, and they can’t make enough money to pay off all those loans, so they are suing the culinary school????

This leads me back to my original point of how people are getting lulled in to the glamor and glitz of celebrity cooking shows without realizing all the hard work that goes into being in the restaurant business. It really is their fault for not doing their homework first now isn’t it?