new here with a bit of crisis...

No mistake but don't disparage that business degree either. Will come a day it could put you in good shape to run your own restaurant or Private Chef business. Now as far as culinary school goes...well...I can only repeat what I have said before, get a job in a restaurant first and keep it for at least six months before you waste a bunch of money on a School that won't show you the real industry.

Hi Hadi, and welcome! I can see you're quite conflicted about the path of your life just now. I hope it won't be too long before you look back on these days and say, "I'm sure glad I got through that!"

I agree with Gunnar in that your business background can stand you in good stead regardless of your career path. My rabbi has an MBA, so I think the degree has endless applications. At the moment you're frustrated and perhaps feel pushed by your family; maybe you wished you'd resisted the assumption that you'd go on the path you've taken.

You're hardly the first one who's come here, looking for some guidance! If you do some reading here in the Culinary Students'/Culinary Schools forum, you'll see that others found their own paths to happier situations. ChefTalk.com has been around for a decade, so you may also profit from looking at older threads using the search tool.

I bet the professional chefs here will tell you to ask a lot of questions and find a chef who will take you in some type of position (often with no pay) to learn about what it's like in a professional kitchen. I know a man who spent months, unpaid, learning to make bread in the bakery of a highly-regarded baker in New York City. He didn't become a professional baker, but his soul was nourished by what he experienced there.

I suggest you post further questions in the Culinary Students' forum, as many more professionals- including culinary instructors- will see them. Good luck with your future plans!

Regards,

Mezzaluna

Even the most successful and revered performer must learn to deal with the critics, so thats just part of life.

Why not finish your current schooling, and get a job in a hotel where you can manage by day (and get paid) and work in the kitchen at night (to learn, not necessarily get paid)  Opening a restaurant is a great dream, but you need many sets of skills and life experiences to make it successful-and I think the business side is more important than the culinary side.  There are MANY restaurants with great food run by great chefs which are no longer in business.

Your food pairings are indeed unusual, but even if they taste fantastic, you have to learn to make them consistently, and more importantly, you must have enough people to buy them day after day to earn a living.

You can decide later whether or not you should go to culinary school-seems like you're burned out on school overall right now.

Did I mention you should finish your schooling?  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hadikhan 

oh boy,

 

just a brief introduction.

my name is hadi. currently residing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

i'm doing my honors in public administration in university. its a mixture of business and political science. i find it fairly useless to be honest... 

i HATE being in university, but i'm so far in, so might as well finish it.

plan on going to culinary school of George Brown, or a private chef school/restaurant.

cooking skills: i just cook at home with a weird sense of experimenting with foods that normally dont go together. vanilla and fish, or blueberry and chicken, guava and beef etc etc...

 

i dont really have a specific type of cuisine i gear towards more. but i am a fan of french style of cooking. and really love thai fusion food. love mediterarian/arabic cuisine. with a hint of indian (i'm from a pakistani background...)

 

crisis: not a single person in my life thinks its a good idea for me to even attempt going for culinary. most keep saying that i shouldn't venture off from my previous interests of hotel management, travel n tourism, or just business in general. 

 

after going through university for so long, i came to a realization that i can not do the routine of 9-5 each and every day. i cant do the cubical. i cant push pencils and papers and numb my mind. i just cant follow the footsteps of my previous generation. 

 

even my girlfriend/closest and dearest friend seems to be attacking me for doing something 'different' since everyone in my family and her family is coming from a business/office background. 

 

i followed my family into going into university, and i hate myself for doing so. i wanted to go to college, but was forced out of it by everyone...

 

now i'm trying to forge my own path that includes me going into culinary school to be a cook/sous chef for a few years. goal is to open up a restaurant one day. the only problem i'm having is that i'm being disowned by everyone for doing so. and since my family is business/office minded, i tend to have like friends as well. motivation at an all time low....

 

 

i know cooks/sous chefs dont make a million bucks. and i'm not really in it to be the richest guy on earth, as money really doesn't equate to happiness or success for me. just living in a well off and cozy home with no lavish luxuries here and there. 

 

i just wanna know if i'm making a mistake by following what i want to do and ignoring my world for trying to talk me out of it...

I nor anyone else here understand the dynamics of your personal family.

But, I do know a thing or two about dreams and success. It is generally accepted that to be successful you need to do something you love. But I wonder, have you explained your ideas to your family or to your friends.What are there motives for concern? 

Ultimately, the question is whether you will be happy living their life.

My suggestion is to use some common sense along with your dreams. Its great to dream big and its great to have passion and believe in your path, but use your brain and map out your future with goals. Be reasonable, be exact in what you want to accomplish. 

I have a quote I feel is very relevant that I would like to share with you, its from a great actor and the most powerful director in Hollywood at the moment.

Clint Eastwood "If you listen to somebody else, they could talk you out of anything. I've had people try to talk me out of The Man With No Name right up through Gran Torino."