 Get the experience FIRST
I own a fine chocoalte shop and was a pastry chef before this. I have an undergraduate degree in teaching - no culinary degree. I can't stress this enough - get experience - grunt work level and work your way up. You learn alot more this way and it doesn't cost you anything. You may not make alot of money, but you won't be spending 40-50,000 either. Give me someone who has worked in the industry for years without a culinary degree before someone fresh out of school.
The fact is newbie culinary graduates aren't worth much, but they sure paid alot of money. The only reason to go to culinary school is because lack of it is stopping your career working up at a fine hotel chain. You will never be a sous chef in one of those places without it. Now there's a reason to get a culinary degree. Not to mention you need to get experience in the industry before you really know if you're going to like it.
I can't tell you how many people tell me they think it would be "fun" to work at my shop. and you know, it's not really. Even though I respect and treat my chefs well, it's very hard work, standing on your feet for 8 - 10 hours a day hard labor. And I have never seen a kitchen that didn't require that sort of physical ability. If it's in your blood, then it is fun. But the only way to find that out is to get in a kitchen and work.  |