Looking at baking and pastry school

[ChicagoDan]

Good evening all!!

Newbie around here.

I was recently laid off from a sucky job at a major American Corp that is now heading down the tubes. The eight years I spent as a cog in the corporate machine were a bore and an waste of my time. My wife knows that I love to bake and is encouraging me to make it my next career and eventually open a small bakery. Her career is about to take a major leap forward, which will result in us relocating to Connecticut. Here is my plan...

1. Get a job in a bakery for a few months to see if I can hack it.
2. Take some community college courses in entrepreneurship and related classes.
3. If I can hack it, go to a culinary school to take my baking skills to the next level. The closest school to New Haven (where we are thinking of living) is the Connecticut Culinary Institute. Does anyone know if this is a good school? Are there any other schools in the areas that I should consider? NYC is a stretch, but not out of the realm if I take the train.

Any thoughts or advice on this career change?

Thanks!!

Dan

[Headless Chicken]

Its a sound plan and I don't know anything about that school, I'm a Canuck and only know a small handfull of US culinary schools.

I would however think of a backup since it all rides on you being able to "hack it" or not. I've done both ends of the knife here and would have loved to have been into the baking business but circumstances had me go the other way. I even have another backup incase a culinary careet in general dosn't work out for me, might take up photography if ever something happens.

I would also suggest you take a tour of the school before you decide where you would like to do your schooling and compare them all. Talk with the chef professors and get some networking before you put your plan in action, it would help in the long run.

Good luck eh!

[Greg]

If I'm not mistaken, Capechef (one of the moderators here) is a chef instructor at CCI. If he's representative of the faculty there, as I'm sure he is, its a good school.

[ChicagoDan]

Originally Posted by Headless Chicken

Its a sound plan and I don't know anything about that school, I'm a Canuck and only know a small handfull of US culinary schools.

I would however think of a backup since it all rides on you being able to "hack it" or not. I've done both ends of the knife here and would have loved to have been into the baking business but circumstances had me go the other way. I even have another backup incase a culinary careet in general dosn't work out for me, might take up photography if ever something happens.

I would also suggest you take a tour of the school before you decide where you would like to do your schooling and compare them all. Talk with the chef professors and get some networking before you put your plan in action, it would help in the long run.

Good luck eh!

There are two backups to my plan.

1. My desire to open a bakery is for my passion for baking, not necessarily for my skills. Don't get me wrong, I can follow a recipe with no problems. My plan is to hire a professional baker to manage the kitchen while I manage the front end and all of the business affairs. In this plan, a culinary education is not required, but I want to have the flexibility to jump in and take over if and when the moment calls for it.

2. I can begrudgenly go back to the corporate world. Blech

[Suzanne]

If you go through training and then the bakery thing doesn't pan out , you could take what you've learned, combine it with your corporate skills (politics, etc. ) and instead of going back to your blech industry, work for a food-related corporation, maybe a manufacturer, or a PR firm -- depends on your other work skills. Nothing we learn is ever wasted, if we just find the right way to use it.