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Need advise from people in the industry.

post #1 of 8
9/25/05 at 2:57am
Thread Starter 
HI,

I'm thinking to go to culinary school (pastry and baking), but I would like to know from chef or somebody's point of view about this.
I'm in the early 30's and actually I've been working in the bakery for couple of years. (baking, decorating, and bit of managing).
My goal is to wider my network and open my own business.
I'm interested in CIA (Hyde park) for associate degree or Johnson and Wales (associate in baking, bachelor in entepreneur) or San Francisco Baking Institute.(which is totally hands on and only 16 weeks) or Seattle Community college (Baking and pastry program).
I wonder if you could tell me their reputations in the real world and which one do you recommend better in my case.
Thank's in advance.

Novi
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post #2 of 8
9/29/05 at 8:23pm
well novani,
this is comming from a chef that never went to school.... what more do you think you could learn by going to school????? could the money you spend on school help you with xtra capitol to start your place???? and being in my 30's like you could you handle going back to school???? think about it i now am part owner of my own place things are getting better all the time....and if when you awsner these questions you feel school is your best option by all means do it
http://www.fsmgr.com
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post #3 of 8
10/1/05 at 7:09am

Went back to school

Although my story isn't quite the same (I changed careers altogether) I went back to school to get my culinary degree at age 32 and went for a full-time 2 year program at Kendall College in Chicago.
Figure out exactly what it is you want/need to learn and determine whether going to culinary school will be a "cost effective" way to do it.
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post #4 of 8
10/3/05 at 9:49am
Thread Starter 

Thank's for the input

Thank you for the input!

I've been thinking about what you guys said, and actually I like the idea to learn more about the business part rather than the culinary part. Since hiring the right person is part of the business too.
Any suggestion where to go though?

Novi
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post #5 of 8
10/6/05 at 7:23am
culinary students vs "learned myself"....

since im right in the middle (cordon bleu dropout)

ill tell you to go to school.

youll find people in the kitchen who know more than the european classically trained chef cause they got a nice shiny text book.

then there are superchef men like thomas keller who would rather rub **** in his hair then go to school.

eaither way, you need a good head, and determination.

school, you pay for the name, so forget j&w, CIA is the name to have on your resume
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post #6 of 8
10/6/05 at 4:32pm
Thread Starter 

School is still important?

HI all,

Thank you for all the suggestions.
I actually just got back from J&W in Rhode Island since I was just curious between CIA (Hyde Park) and J&W for a long time. (I spent a week for a program at CIA before).
I could see the J&W gear toward High school students more so than adults.
I personally like CIA better, it seems to be more professional in some ways and more serious.
Other than that, is school still imporant to go even we eventually would like to open our own store? Because seems like all these schools prepare you to become a good employee instead of a good employer.
I mean the classes seems to be an introduction level.
Is it better just to take a specific professional course (ex. Bread, pastry, chocolate, etc) rather than taking the whole program?
What do you guys think?
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post #7 of 8
10/6/05 at 6:37pm
unless you wanna specify in one thing, take everycourse. even though i loathe the somewhat feminine manners of baking and the like, im glad i was choke-chained into taking the classes.


you dont wanna specify in garde manger and end up being a sous chef for a hotline
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post #8 of 8
10/7/05 at 8:33pm
Thread Starter 

Opening a business

Hi all,

Just wonder if anybody could give me some inputs what it takes to open your own business.
Do you think the entrepreneurial/business classes would be the biggest part of it more so than the skill part?
Where should I start?

Thank's
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