IACP Cooking Teacher of the Year, 2002 Culinary Consulting Thinking about a career change? Do you dream about a job in the world of food? Is cooking school right for you? I love to work with people in all different careers--legal, high tech, parents getting back into the workplace--to explore their career options in the world of food and cooking. Twenty years ago, I made a big career change myself. Armed with a Masters degree in higher education administration, I was working as associate dean of students at Occidental College in Los Angeles. It was a great job, but something was missing. I cashed in my retirement plan and enrolled in cooking school full-time at the California Culinary Academy (CCA) in San Francisco. The CCA was très French back then, and we learned all sorts of traditional dishes like Veal Viennoise and how to make head cheese after butchering a pig. (I almost became a vegetarian that day.) It was physically rigorous, more like boot camp than college. Each day we were graded on everything from attitude to the cleanliness of our chef uniform. For one Garde Manger test, we had to memorize something like 60 classical salads and their dressings. Cooking school teaches you a lot about becoming a chef, but it certainly doesn't make you a chef. And it's definitely not for everyone. Is it right for you? I enjoy meeting with clients who are considering making a career change into culinary arts. If you've been thinking about making cooking your vocation, I'd love to talk with you. Once I've had a chance to review your resume and any other important information about you, we can cover plenty of ground in an hour or so. If you think a consultation like this might be valuable, please email me. A first-hand account of my recent internship with Lidia Bastianich at Felidia Restaurant in New York More about my career in culinary arts Return to Top.