Culinary Schools

[fishpaw64]

Im just realating my exp after spending a load of money and stress. I went to a culinary school after I had already had 15yrs exp in the biz from fast food to fine dining. The school had convinced me that with my exp and the degree that I would be a shoe in for a sous chef job at the very least so I went for it!! I always loved cooking anyway and was working at barely liveable wages at that point so anything that could advance me to make more money was fine with me!! I invested 18,000 dollars in this school and frankley had a great time!!! I graduated with almost perfect grades and met some really cool people!!
Most of my classmates were very concerned with how much $$ they were gonna get by flashing the degree around. Most of those guys are working in nonculinary jobs now and wish they had never went to culinary school.
At the very least,most of these schools are producing line chefs that are getting paid little for thier hard work and sweat and most of them that get the line chef job leave beacause of little pay and the stress they have to put up with.
In the end; go to culinary school only if you really wanna dedicate your life to it!! You will never get rich!!!And chances are extremley slim you will have your own show on FoodTV!!
Just for comparison, I have 25 yrs real experience and have a culinary degree and am making 34,000 a year! But I wouldnt trade it for the world!!!

[culinarian247]

Which school did you graduate from? It's a shame that anyone would spend $30k+ towards something their heart wasn't in. Perhaps they got lured in by some glamourous picture painted by an admissions rep. I'll bet 75% of all reps in all schools are guilty of "used car sales" tactics.

[fishpaw64]

I guess I was lucky. I wasnt lured in by a sales rep but most of the students were and were told all sorts of crazy stuff.