Law Student Considering Change

Hello Anca and welcome to Chef Talk.

Many have walked where you wish to. I recommend checking out the Culinary Students/Culinary Schools forum, because there are plenty of members here in your shoes.

We hope you fully explore all the great assets of this community. I'm sure you'll get plenty of good tips, such as working for free in a restaurant kitchen, trying out various venues (institutional, commercial, catering, etc.).

Welcome!
Mezzaluna

P.S.- my niece is a lawyer. She recently left a small-town practice and became in-house counsel for a large medical center. Her speciality is medical malpractice defense. She loves her new job!

Hi Anca
Welcome and thank you for sharing your feelings about your current career path. Law school is very difficult, I know, as my husband is pursuing a degree too. It's very easy to see the negative aspects to such a vocation, but remember that there are a world of options available to you with a law degree and many avenues to explore for making a good living.

There is a big difference between loving to cook and working/owning a restaurant. Just as there is a big difference between enjoying watching "Law and Order", "LA Law", or "Judging Amy" and such shows on TV and actually practicing law.

In food service, even after culinary school, your initial earning potential is relatively low. The average hourly pay for a CIA graduate in a high-end NYC restaurant is about 12.50/hour. You are also required to work a 60 hour+ week. Most times you are put on salary which eliminates access to overtime pay, thus reducing your hourly wage (the legality of this is questionable). I remember plenty days when I felt privileged that I'd only worked 11 hours instead of 16. Don't expect generous benefit packages either. Many do not offer any benefits at all. Plan to work nights, every weekend and be especially busy around holidays, if not working holidays as well.

In general, professional kitchens are not peaceful environments. They are hot, noisy, fast paced places with slippery floors and lots of people getting in each other's way.The work makes very high physical demands on your body-lots of lifting and carrying of heavy and awkward items (often they are large, heavy, hot and liquid). Generally, the higher you rise on the monetary scale the further away from actual creative cookery your responsibilities become. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are not the majority. The more salary you receive, the more your job involves administrative duties such as scheduling, ordering, food cost control, standards definition and maintenance (this can be remarkably difficult), recuiting, training and trouble shooting. Drug and alcohol abuse are also not foreign to this profession-even if you abstain, I guarantee you will be dealing with the fallout resulting from fellow employees' use. Plan to work with plenty of bombastic hot heads with few people skills and the inability to see a situation from anything but their own view.

I know I paint a largely negative picture, here, and my intention is not to disparage any of the hugely talented, creative and dedicated people who frequent this forum-only to give you a little taste of the reality of the foodservice business. I've met and trained many a starry-eyed culinary enthusiast with romantic ideas about owning and running restaurants only to see them become enormously discouraged and demoralized by the realities of the business. There are certainly many vocational options for people who love to cook. I suggest you find and read a book by Mary Donovan titled Careers for Gourmets and Others Who Relish Food. It's a terrific resource and may help you to find a way to do what you love.

Hi Anca,
There is nothing quite like actually working in a restaurant kitchen, and it should be possible to get some experience before you decide to ditch law school for good or make another big investment in education. Where I am apprenticeship is also an option and is the route I've decided to take.
Best wishes.