All work and no school?

Hey all, 'nother career changer here. Having recently turned 50 and gotten tired of hearing myself whine about how much I wanted to quit my high-paying professional job, ditch my graduate degrees, and do something with food for a living, I finally took the plunge.

So now I've been interviewing around with various food businesses, trying to get someone to give me that first chance. I don't know yet what I want to do in the food biz (pretty sure restaurant chefing is not on at my age, besides, I like to go to bed by 10:00), so I thought that apprenticing here and there might help me decide. Even line cooking for a while would teach me a lot of stuff I don't know, but it looks pretty brutal.

But my applications look weird - a couple of Master's degrees, no culinary education, no culinary experience. I've considered lying, but haven't resorted to that so far. Tell me true, is it totally harebrained to try to learn about the business end of food (I already am an accomplished home cook and have my own ideas about food) without going to school? Can I learn what I need to know all on the job? Bear in mind that I have no idea in the world right now what part of the business would suit me best, and that cooking a different recipe every day is my personal idea of heaven.

All suggestions and advice gratefully accepted!

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Abra

Abra...hi there! So glad you joined..you'll really enjoy this site. Lots of pros here with great advise.

Wecome Abra!

I'm in the same boat as you are. I left it all this month to start cooking school. I have no food industry experience and got the cold shoulder from all the chefs I applied to. Now that I'm in school, they are more open to speaking with me.

I'm not really sure what the best option is. I have been rather inspired by the story of the Barefoot Contessa (the name of the owner escapes me now). She quit her job, moved, bought a little shop and had no idea how to run it. She had limited food knowledge. She committed herself to learn every aspect of the business, and everything her cooks could do, she learned to do as well as they did. The rest is history! If I had the $, I might consider doing something along those lines. You could also consider something like personal cheffing. CHeck out the thread in the catering section.

Good luck!

Any idea why my occupation shows as dishwasher? What I put in was "career changer", and my husband does all the dishes!

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Abra

Abra..your title changes by the number of posts you make....

I don't now if you are interested in baking, but bakeries are alway looking for people to come in and help with the early morning baking. Usually if you can give the head chef the feeling that you have at least an ounce of common sense and WILL SHOW UP, EVERY MORNING, ON TIME!!!! they will be glad to put you to work!!! I would start locally, maybe with an establishment that you frequent and knows your face!

I have offered my services to the neighborhood French bakery, where they make absolutely real bread according to centuries- old recipes. They seem a little mystified by the offer, but are apparently considering it. I'm a morning person, so it seems kind of natural for me.

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Abra