Posted by George on April 07, 1997 at 21:24:57:
In Reply to: Education and Culinary School posted by Antonia Chan on April 07, 1997 at 18:04:19:
: Hi everyone!
: My name is Antonia and I'm interested in being a gourmet chef in the future. I'm 18 and I'm a first year student in language and linguistics at Queen's University in Canada. I always love cooking and I always wanna be a chef. Therefore, I'll probably switch my major in the future. My question is, what kind of degree should i be getting in the university? I've read it somewhere that it'll help a lot if I have a degree in nutrition, is that true? If so, is there any particular university that offers an outstanding program in nutrition? I was planning to go to a culinary school afterwards...but i don't know which one to choose either. Is there any particular institute that stands out from the others? Also, I'm planning to go to Le Cordon Bleu next summer for their summer abroad program. But is there any other culinary school that's even better? I'll also be taking some cooking classes this summer in Vancouver, but does what kinds of courses I choose matter? Or should I take something fairly gegeneral? Basically I'm still having problems about choosing courses for next year. I would like to take something that'll help me as a chef, but it would be good if it's also someth'n that I can fall back on. I'll be tak'n as many cooking classes in the summer as I can, but is there anything else that I can do to learn more about the profession? Is there any guidelines that I can follow when I choose the Culinary School that I want to attend in the future? (since there's so many out there, but I would like to go to the best) Thanx in Advance!
: Antonia
Hi,
What might really help would be if you were to do some time in a commercial kitchen. Being a "Gourmet Chef" (this is an amateur term, you might be talking about an Executive Chef or a Chef de Cuisine) has a lot more to do with hard work and time in the trenches than anything else. You'd be surprised how many people spend a couple of years in a culinary program and when the get out into the world and get that first prep or pantry job decide the kitchen is too hot and its time to get out!
Try it, if you like it go to school!
George