Just curious, are you going to finish your dissertation if you decide to pursue the culinary arts? I have a feeling that being in the middle of that process might hamper your decision making. Besides, just read a lot of the topics here and you will see a lot of us have various degrees and they can be a definite advantage to have versus just a culinary degree (so I have been told). If you look up the member list, there is a member named Anneke who just started culinary school. She has a Ph.D. (I am pretty sure.) You can look up the topics that she has posted either by searching or there is a feature in the profile (this takes a little while.) I did this with someone else who I felt had a similar path and it really helped to read what they went through before me. So sorry this reply had to be a dissertation (well not quite.)
Graduating with a PhD and only thinking of cooking! 
