Looking back...and Ahead...

[chiffonade]

What did you aspire to be when you grew up and did it have anything to do with cooking?

I'll go ahead and get this out of the way: I'll tell you when I grow up!


When I was a kid, my mother steered me toward the Concrete Jungle because she felt it meant financial security. Yes, I did haul in some serious income but I felt unrewarded and wound up beginning a second career at 40. My second career is in the culinary arts and although it's not quite the same tax bracket, I get a great deal of emotional satisfaction when I see anyone enjoy the product of my labor.

Now if I can only put the two together, I can be like Wolfgang Puck and be financially independent while doing what I truly love to do - cook for people.

If your chosen field did not have anything to do with cooking, I'd love to know what pointed you in that direction...If you care to share it .

Let's Discuss...

[momoreg]

I hate to be boring, but I knew all along that I wanted to be a pastry chef. I was very lucky to have that aspiration at a young age.

[chrose]

When I was really young I wanted to be a fire breathing dragon. No, really I did. After that I wanted to be a fireman. As I got older I wanted to be a veternarian but I din't like guts. Than of course I wanted to be a football player. Of course my parents poo poo'd that too. As I became a teen I wanted to build guitars and play in bands. I did play in bands for awhile. My father thought I should follow in his footsteps and go into Electrical Engineering. I did and didn't like it too much. I figured if I was going to be happy in life I would have to do something I liked. I always liked food and cooking and had many food jobs growing up so that seemed a natural progression. I did it for many a year, became a physical wreck from pushing myself too hard and basically was forced to retire from it. And look at me now! I'm back to Engineering again! I'm still not too thrilled, so hopefully I can make some of my other ideas fly. I have several inventions that I'd like to market both food and non food related. So if any of you have deep pockets, manufacturing experience and want to make 10-20 bucks let me know!

[cape chef]

I was the best "air guitarist" on my block!! So of course I imagined myself the next Claptin,Beck or Page. I still play my Air Guitar on occasion. I still can jam

But, I grew up in my grandfathers bakery. I was destined to fill jelly donuts and make bagels, until one day i reliezed i enjoy this.

People always left "pops" bakery with a smile. Somehow i felt partly responseble for this. As time went on and I had to make some "real" choices in my life, I thought back to Pops bakery. Even though he worked what seemed a thousand hours a week he still had a "twinkle" in his eyes. This was all I needed to take the plunge. Pop is gone now...1994 he passed at 94 years of age, But I can still smell the dough rising at 3:00Am. I love you and miss you Pop
cc

[Isa]

As a kid I wanted to be a waitress. I thought they had pretty uniform, a simple blue dress with a cute lace apron and a funny little lace cap, at least in the only restaurant I knew at that time. Plus I thought it must be a happy job because people are always happy to see food, specially the little pastry cart they wheeled to your table so you could choose your dessert.

[Svadhisthana]

I wanted to be a "starving artist". I'm not starving, and I'm not making my living as an artist. When my kids are a little older I'll finish college and who knows-maybe I'll be one then (minus the "starving" part).

[Athenaeus]

As a child 6-7 I wanted to be Ulysses. I wanted to take a boat and go everywhere and learn everything.
I wanted to be in everyone's heart but the same time ALONE , as Ulysses was on his boat.I love solitude
Then in my teens I decided that it would be fun to be a lawyer to put myself and my friends out of trouble. In Greece it's very crazy idea to become a lawyer without having a father that exercises the same profession...
But I did it. While I was studying , because I had to work, I was working in restaurants ( washing dishes at the beginning, baking pastries I didn't even put in my mouth, later) and I got the idea of becoming a cook.
Bad idea.
After some serious studies in history I decided to go back to my original idea and work as a criminal lawyer.
Now I am off again to teach about what I enjoy most, History of Cooking.
All I know is that I cannot live for long time away from Greece.
Ulysse and his passion to find his home, still haunts my dreams.

The only thing I wish it was different is that I should have realised earlier, that truth doesn't hide in books but in other people's eyes.

[chiffonade]

Originally posted by chrose
When I was really young I wanted to be a fire breathing dragon. No, really I did.

When I was a kid, the image battered into young girls was not waif thinness like it is now, it was hair color. Every morning for a good stretch of weeks I dashed straight to the mirror, hoping I'd awoke as a blonde. Not quite as dramatic as your fire breathing dragon, but just as hilarious.

[KyleW]

I wanted to be a Choo-Choo Train. Still do, somedays

[momoreg]

Hahahaha!!!

[thebighat]

All I ever wanted to do was go out with girls and drink like the big guys. I can't tell you the trouble......
Seriously, first it was an English teacher, then a reporter, and, by the time is was too late, a cardiac surgeon. And after I started working in kitchens I wanted to be the pastry chef at the Ritz, and use the front door.

[Melina]

I wanted to do classic danse, ballet, but I was too tall.
I liked the photos of my mom, she looked sooooo great and I decided to do the same.
I hope now to do other things in my life.

[Shimmer]

I'm only 23, but I've gone through the What-I-Want-to-be-when-I-grow-up thought process many times. Who knows yet!

For a long time, I wanted to be a teacher. At the end of third grade, my teacher retired and gave me a lot of her 'Teacher's Edition' books since otherwise they would be thrown out. That summer was spent creating lesson plans for my sister and teaching subjects from spelling to camoflauge (hey, we lived in the woods)! We played school more than we played house (although once I stole my mother's cookbooks and we played restaurant with the most disgusting sounding items).

In highschool, I excelled in everything I took except science, although I got good grades in it I couldn't wait to get out!! I was on the speech team and threw around the idea of being a speech pathologist, but couldn't face having to take organic chemistry AND the only private school that had it was in Idaho, and I knew I couldn't live in Idaho the minute the plane got close enough for me to see the brown brown BROWN landscape.

So I went with the original idea of being a teacher, but applied it to my passion for music. I had already taught piano lessons privatetly at that point for 4 years, and had been paid to accompany people for 6. I soon learned that mixing education and music in college was practically impossible, both sides had too many requirements to finish with feeling one had mastered anything. So I changed my major to music performance with the intent of getting a teaching certificate afterwards. After an elective class in ethnomusicology, I decided I would rather be a professor, and on a whim applied to the top graduate schools in that field, was accepted with full scholarships to two, and went all the way to Indiana to study for a PhD. Hated it. Also found myself burned out on music. Went back to other things I had enjoyed as a child, which included cooking. Got a chef to let me into his kitchen, got a job in a bakery, ended up working for aforementioned chef, and now am decorating cakes. I think I would like to be in the pastry/baking profession, but am not sure how I will get there from where I am.

Other professions I have considered (some still seriously)- professional accompanist, special ed teacher, and minister (because I was raised in a church that taught women could not be ministers, and I have always believed otherwise, in fact there is a diary entry from when I was 9 that expressed disbelief and confusion at this teaching!).

I have come to the conclusion that I can be many things in my lifetime. I hope someday to add Mother to that list as well.

Well there is my diatribe for the day. I think if there was a job in researching and collecting recipes, I would take it. I don't think it exists, but if you know of one that somehow does, please let me know!!!

~~Shimmer~~

[Peachcreek]

When I was a kid I wanted to be an archaeologist. But I never made it to college. Life has a way of getting in the way of plans, even good plans. So I ended up as a cook in a pancake house. And before long, one thing leads to another and plans get put aside or changed and the next thing you know its been 27 years.
Now I'm close to retiring from cooking and am thinking about going back to school. To be an archaeologist.

[Leo R.]

I was told by a teacher,before i left school many years ago, that i should be a journalist. His point was,that i am good at remembering people,places,events etc. He also said i would make more money than a chef! I shattered his illusions by saying that i wanted to earn an HONEST living as a chef.
There are some very vindictive people in the world of journalism. Just take a look at some restaurant critics!
No,that`s not fair to mock the afflicted!!!

In all honesty, i can say that i think i made the right choice.
It`s great to know that we have the ability to bring pleasure to so many people with our respective skills.



Don`t forget,people eat with their eyes!
Leo.