I took the long road.....was reading Gourmet at 11, catering by 16, cooking in scratch continental/french restaurant through part of college, district mgr asst for Arthur Treachers (learned alot amazingly).....got married and cooked all the time in Southern Louisiana for 15 years.....divorced and having been an at home mom/atty wife out of the workforce for 15 years with 3 sons the youngest having autism I needed a high end paying job that let me be creative....found it in designing a personal cheffing gig, school hours, no overhead, great return and it was exactly what made my heart sing.
Since then:
I've consulted with the local community college hospitality section, paid consultant for the nutrition and RD at St. Louis University, designed/directed/ managed food stages,taught kosher cooking classes, taught private adult cooking classes, taught wild shroom classes and talked at the national shroom conference, founded and run 2 farmer's markets for 7 years, taught farm camp/culinary intensive/ afterschool innercity cooking classes, catered, cooked in the woods for 200 people on butane burners....designed and ran loads of events, Dept of Ag boards, etc etc........envision it and then just go do it.
At the time I started personal cheffing I had NO IDEA where I stood in the professional cooking world.....15 years is an awfully long time to be learning on your own.
so school, depends on your personality and what you want to achieve. If it's owning a restaurant most successful restaurantuers would tell you it's about the business end.....the food is important but without strong business sense you'll last max 18 months. School only gives you what you put in.....
I know exceptional choclateer that is self taught, type A personality and amazing....really amazing....I know many bakers that did not go to bread school, one is head of R&D for Panera....I have many friends that have gone to CIA/J&W or the community college I consulted with, I have some great restaurant friends that went back to school to take some business classes prior to opening their restaurant....that has been open 3 years and has dbled in size.
There is a great thread from years ago that goes into length about the different areas of food there are....they don't involve fine dining restaurants.
Explore alot of the options to know the pros and cons to each setting...and what skill sets are important to have strengths in.....such as I've written about chefs for big money, but I am not a wordsmith, (obviously) BUT I have the info and a great editor who has spell check on her computer....probably grammer check too....
not sure if this whole segment is clarifying or muddling....HUH?!!!