[slelliott]

After reading some of the other welcome forums I hope this is the way it is supposed to be done according to the guy in charge.
My name is Sean Elliott and I'm an alcoholic...oh wait wrong forum. Hi, my name is Sean and I will be very soon a culinary student. I took the long way to my passion of cooking. I am 36 years old, married (will be 5 years this saturday) and have two beautiful children ages 3 and 2 (this friday). I have been in the landscaping field for 14 years. Last year I started my own company and it has exceeded all of the goals I had for my first season. For years now I have been a "home cook" I guess is the proper term, cooking everything and loving every second of it. My Mom is Italian so I also got to grow up around the best meatballs and lots of chicken cacciatore! After my first marriage ended I decided it was a good time to go to culinary school. My parents talked me out of it. I had been in landscaping almost 6 years and the money was finally starting to get good and my dad who has been with the same company and profession for 30+ years talked me out of it. About 6 months ago my wife gave me the green light with full support to pursue culinary college. Thats how I stumbled across this forum. I was researching different culinary schools and I decided I wanted to see what chefs were saying about culinary grads. I was inspired by the stories of people who had been in different professions for a long time when they made the career change to pursue the culinary arts. I also heard what many chefs were saying about getting some kitchen experience BEFORE they made the decision to go to culinary school. So I went around to restaurants and eventually got a dishwashing job. So I was never home but the job was a blast. I did everything I could to learn everything I saw. I always asked everyone if they needed help so I gained a lot of hands on experience. Needless to say I enrolled in LCB Las Vegas and right now I am slated to start November 10th!!! I just want to say that this site is AWESOME and I really really appreciate all of the advice I read. It helped me realize the passion I had for food was a time bomb in my soul ready to explode. The first day I walked in that kitchen to wash dishes was when the explosion occurred!! I look forward to many more awesome postings on this site and I thank you for taking the time to read my story.

[Mezzaluna]

Wow, slelliott, we're humbled by your gratitude. We're proud of what we have here, and it's awesome to hear comments like yours. Thank you!

As for your persistence: GO FOR IT!! With your loving wife's support and our own self-assurance, you'll be successful.

Best wishes for success,
Mezzaluna

[slelliott]

I will say honestly that it was from reading the posts on this site that led me to get a job in the kitchen. I know its kind of a DUH factor as far as working in a kitchen first to see if its a wise career choice. However with two kids and running a company I didn't think it was possible but I knew I wanted to cook. The thing that impressed me the most about my kitchen experience was that the staff was always willing to give me a quick pointer or two. I know that might be an anomaly but it was encouraging. I never got the impression that they felt I was after their job, just after their craft. I read on this site somewhere a chef saying "ask the chef questions it strokes their ego", so I did. My wife wasn't thrilled with me running a landscape business 50 hours a week AND working in a kitchen for another 30 hours but when she saw my face after I came home the first night it pretty much sealed it for her. The first thing I said was "Now I know the difference between loving something you do (for me it was landscaping) versus doing something you have a passion for". Big difference for me. So again I thank everyone for the good ideas and honest posts I have read on this site. I am very pumped that I found this site. I look forward to good conversations on this site. 111 days but who's counting right??