Are short culinary schools worth it?

I waited tables from the ages of 19 to 27. My boyfriend is a cook and so are lots of our friends. We like to cook and bake for each other, which rules. You'll also come across cooks who couldn't be bothered to open a can of beans when they get home. YMMV. I worked with cooks and chefs who had the highest level of certification (in Canada, it's a http://www.sceau-rouge.ca/[email protected]?lang=eng) but lots just had work experience, a year or two of school, etc. My favourite head chef ever was in his forties and had been working at that same restaurant since he started washing dishes there as a teenager. Some downfalls: One thing: Cooking in a restaurant is nothing like cooking at home. At home, there's rarely somebody screaming in your face to "GET IT UP ON THE LINE NOW MOTHERFUCKER YOU'RE TOO FUCKING SLOW!" No, not every chef is Gord Ramsay, but you need to learn to be fast and efficient. When you work in a kitchen, you learn to do it THEIR way because the the guy that's been working there for fifteen years doesn't give a shit how you learned X at school or at the last place you worked at. Some of the restaurants I worked at had kitchens that were brutally hot in the summer. Nah, scratch that. ALL of the restaurants I worked in had kitchens that were brutally hot in the summer. Oh, and kiss evenings and weekends goodbye! Some Good Stuff: Maybe I was just fortunate to have good jobs along the way, but working in an insanely busy restaurant was always kind of fun. With good cooks and servers working, you could put out great food in volume and have a laugh. In every restaurant I have ever worked in, there was a tight-knit social group and I was always a fan of the work culture, even though you sometimes had shitty times at work. It wasn't like now with my big kid job, where you don't really make friends and party with your colleagues. A few years ago, I worked with a woman in her fifties who had just finished her first year of cooking school. She worked hard and made great food, always with a smile on her face. I found out through our conversations that she was a retired banker and I came to realize that she was doing it for the love of learning. Getting paid was not a necessity for her, which was good because they were only giving her $7.50 an hour. I'm not trying to discourage you here. My boyfriend just started cooking a few years ago and he's 36. And he's awesome at it and he likes going to work. But he makes about $12 an hour and has no benefits (job security - ha!). Then again, if he's pissed off with something at work, he is welcome to stroll right into the owner's office and voice it. Few people in the working world have that luxury. Outside of restaurants, there are lots of options. Hotels are a good option for steady work, possibility of benefits, etc. A few of the cooks I know have gone to work at the central kitchen for our city hospitals. Another chef I worked with landed a sweet job at a nursing home and he loves his job and charms the pants off the old folks, gets paid about $20 an hour, and has full benefits. There's a marine cooking course at our local school, so that qualifies people to cook out on the boats, which involves long stretches at sea but also long periods off and good money to boot. So yeah, school is a good idea, but working in a kitchen is one of the those things you can try out before you sign up for school, which isn't too bad a deal. Have fun!

I have learned a heck of a lot from an online school called http://www.rouxbe.com.

Please, please make sure you actually want to work in a restaurant before taking a spot in a culinary school.

Just keep in mind in this economy the only no-experience necessary job is dishwasher. That's not a bad thing. It's a pretty good way of seeing if the pacing is right for you without having a ton of stress placed on you right away.

As I said, I intend to find work to make sure that I do, in fact, actually want to work in a restaurant before going to the expense or trouble of going to school.

Does it offer any cred toward haute cuisine sous-chef and chef positions No, but it can get you up to speed fairly quickly on the essentials, which, if you're actually serious about your intentions, you'll want to have before starting.

My (real) dad is an old-school Le Cordon Bleu graduate - a qualification with which he essentially did nothing, except be a food reviewer and turn out AWESOME amazing French toast and the world's best gilled cheese sandwiches when I was a kid. So food reviewing and private catering are also options if you turn out to not like the world of restaurant kitchens. Also: culinary arts education is hard. Technique is hard. The science of food is hard. Meat cuts are both hard and boring. People obsessed with the best glaze for a ham in rigorous programmes are incredibly competitive and crazy. Just so you know it can be like that.

I'm not looking for general advice on my career options as a cook. I'm mightily aware of how little home cooking resembles restaurant cooking. Although I do appreciate your warnings in the spirit they were given. I'm specifically looking for information on the sorts of short and cheap programs I've been finding available throughout the country. At home, there's rarely somebody screaming in your face to "GET IT UP ON THE LINE NOW MOTHERFUCKER YOU'RE TOO FUCKING SLOW!" That sounds downright fun when compared to the general smoke-up-the-asshole passive-aggressive bullshit I've found in the software business.

I work at a fine dining restaurant and while they do hire some people who've been to cooking school, the head chef actually prefers people who don't have that background. He loves the teaching process, and would rather just start cooks off from scratch - teaching them his way of cooking. When he's in a pinch and needs to hire someone knowledgeable, he mostly looks at their in-restaurant experience. Most of the cooks started out in 3 to 6 month unpaid internships, if he thinks they have enthusiasm for learning and have developed skills, they get hired at $9 or $10/hr. If they advance to the dinner line, they might make $11 or $12. Of our three sous-chefs, one went to school and two walked in off the street and worked their way up. They make $35,000/year and generally work 11 to 12 hour shifts five to seven days a week. (seven days when one goes on vacation and the others have to cover, and when we have special dinners about four times a year) From the other comments on this thread, it really seems like school can be useful but isn't mandatory. Perhaps you can explore different types of cooking jobs, and maybe try to talk to different chefs to get their take on the question before you decide to school to not-school.