# Looking back...and Ahead...



## chiffonade

_What did you aspire to be when you grew up and did it have anything to do with cooking?_

I'll go ahead and get this out of the way: *I'll tell you when I grow up!* 

When I was a kid, my mother steered me toward the Concrete Jungle because she felt it meant financial security. Yes, I did haul in some serious income but I felt unrewarded and wound up beginning a second career at 40. My second career is in the culinary arts and although it's not quite the same tax bracket, I get a great deal of emotional satisfaction when I see anyone enjoy the product of my labor.

Now if I can only put the two together, I can be like Wolfgang Puck and be financially independent while doing what I truly love to do - cook for people.

If your chosen field did not have anything to do with cooking, I'd love to know what pointed you in that direction...If you care to share it .

Let's Discuss...


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## momoreg

I hate to be boring, but I knew all along that I wanted to be a pastry chef. I was very lucky to have that aspiration at a young age.


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## chrose

When I was really young I wanted to be a fire breathing dragon. No, really I did. After that I wanted to be a fireman. As I got older I wanted to be a veternarian but I din't like guts. Than of course I wanted to be a football player. Of course my parents poo poo'd that too. As I became a teen I wanted to build guitars and play in bands. I did play in bands for awhile. My father thought I should follow in his footsteps and go into Electrical Engineering. I did and didn't like it too much. I figured if I was going to be happy in life I would have to do something I liked. I always liked food and cooking and had many food jobs growing up so that seemed a natural progression. I did it for many a year, became a physical wreck from pushing myself too hard and basically was forced to retire from it. And look at me now! I'm back to Engineering again! I'm still not too thrilled, so hopefully I can make some of my other ideas fly. I have several inventions that I'd like to market both food and non food related. So if any of you have deep pockets, manufacturing experience and want to make 10-20 bucks let me know!


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## cape chef

I was the best "air guitarist" on my block!! So of course I imagined myself the next Claptin,Beck or Page. I still play my Air Guitar on occasion. I still can jam 

But, I grew up in my grandfathers bakery. I was destined to fill jelly donuts and make bagels, until one day i reliezed i enjoy this.

People always left "pops" bakery with a smile. Somehow i felt partly responseble for this. As time went on and I had to make some "real" choices in my life, I thought back to Pops bakery. Even though he worked what seemed a thousand hours a week he still had a "twinkle" in his eyes. This was all I needed to take the plunge. Pop is gone now...1994 he passed at 94 years of age, But I can still smell the dough rising at 3:00Am. I love you and miss you Pop
cc


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## isa

As a kid I wanted to be a waitress. I thought they had pretty uniform, a simple blue dress with a cute lace apron and a funny little lace cap, at least in the only restaurant I knew at that time. Plus I thought it must be a happy job because people are always happy to see food, specially the little pastry cart they wheeled to your table so you could choose your dessert.


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## svadhisthana

I wanted to be a "starving artist".  I'm not starving, and I'm not making my living as an artist. When my kids are a little older I'll finish college and who knows-maybe I'll be one then (minus the "starving" part).


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## athenaeus

As a child 6-7 I wanted to be Ulysses. I wanted to take a boat and go everywhere and learn everything.
I wanted to be in everyone's heart but the same time ALONE , as Ulysses was on his boat.I love solitude
Then in my teens I decided that it would be fun to be a lawyer to put myself and my friends out of trouble. In Greece it's very crazy idea to become a lawyer without having a father that exercises the same profession...
But I did it. While I was studying , because I had to work, I was working in restaurants ( washing dishes at the beginning, baking pastries I didn't even put in my mouth, later) and I got the idea of becoming a cook.
Bad idea.
After some serious studies in history I decided to go back to my original idea and work as a criminal lawyer.
Now I am off again to teach about what I enjoy most, History of Cooking.
All I know is that I cannot live for long time away from Greece.
Ulysse and his passion to find his home, still haunts my dreams.

The only thing I wish it was different is that I should have realised earlier, that truth doesn't hide in books but in other people's eyes.


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## chiffonade

When I was a kid, the image battered into young girls was _not_ waif thinness like it is now, it was hair color. Every morning for a good stretch of weeks I dashed straight to the mirror, hoping I'd awoke as a blonde. Not quite as dramatic as your fire breathing dragon, but just as hilarious.


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## kylew

I wanted to be a Choo-Choo Train. Still do, somedays


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## momoreg

Hahahaha!!!:lol:


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## thebighat

All I ever wanted to do was go out with girls and drink like the big guys. I can't tell you the trouble......
Seriously, first it was an English teacher, then a reporter, and, by the time is was too late, a cardiac surgeon. And after I started working in kitchens I wanted to be the pastry chef at the Ritz, and use the front door.


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## melina

I wanted to do classic danse, ballet, but I was too tall.
I liked the photos of my mom, she looked sooooo great and I decided to do the same.
I hope now to do other things in my life.


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## shimmer

I'm only 23, but I've gone through the What-I-Want-to-be-when-I-grow-up thought process many times. Who knows yet!

For a long time, I wanted to be a teacher. At the end of third grade, my teacher retired and gave me a lot of her 'Teacher's Edition' books since otherwise they would be thrown out. That summer was spent creating lesson plans for my sister and teaching subjects from spelling to camoflauge (hey, we lived in the woods)! We played school more than we played house (although once I stole my mother's cookbooks and we played restaurant with the most disgusting sounding items).

In highschool, I excelled in everything I took except science, although I got good grades in it I couldn't wait to get out!! I was on the speech team and threw around the idea of being a speech pathologist, but couldn't face having to take organic chemistry AND the only private school that had it was in Idaho, and I knew I couldn't live in Idaho the minute the plane got close enough for me to see the brown brown BROWN landscape.

So I went with the original idea of being a teacher, but applied it to my passion for music. I had already taught piano lessons privatetly at that point for 4 years, and had been paid to accompany people for 6. I soon learned that mixing education and music in college was practically impossible, both sides had too many requirements to finish with feeling one had mastered anything. So I changed my major to music performance with the intent of getting a teaching certificate afterwards. After an elective class in ethnomusicology, I decided I would rather be a professor, and on a whim applied to the top graduate schools in that field, was accepted with full scholarships to two, and went all the way to Indiana to study for a PhD. Hated it. Also found myself burned out on music. Went back to other things I had enjoyed as a child, which included cooking. Got a chef to let me into his kitchen, got a job in a bakery, ended up working for aforementioned chef, and now am decorating cakes. I think I would like to be in the pastry/baking profession, but am not sure how I will get there from where I am.

Other professions I have considered (some still seriously)- professional accompanist, special ed teacher, and minister (because I was raised in a church that taught women could not be ministers, and I have always believed otherwise, in fact there is a diary entry from when I was 9 that expressed disbelief and confusion at this teaching!).

I have come to the conclusion that I can be many things in my lifetime. I hope someday to add Mother to that list as well. 

Well there is my diatribe for the day. I think if there was a job in researching and collecting recipes, I would take it. I don't think it exists, but if you know of one that somehow does, please let me know!!!

~~Shimmer~~


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## peachcreek

When I was a kid I wanted to be an archaeologist. But I never made it to college. Life has a way of getting in the way of plans, even good plans. So I ended up as a cook in a pancake house. And before long, one thing leads to another and plans get put aside or changed and the next thing you know its been 27 years. 
Now I'm close to retiring from cooking and am thinking about going back to school. To be an archaeologist.


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## leo r.

I was told by a teacher,before i left school many years ago, that i should be a journalist. His point was,that i am good at remembering people,places,events etc. He also said i would make more money than a chef! I shattered his illusions by saying that i wanted to earn an HONEST living as a chef. 
There are some very vindictive people in the world of journalism. Just take a look at some restaurant critics! 
No,that`s not fair to mock the afflicted!!!
:lol: 
In all honesty, i can say that i think i made the right choice. 
It`s great to know that we have the ability to bring pleasure to so many people with our respective skills.



Don`t forget,people eat with their eyes!
Leo.:chef:


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## chiffonade

Legally!


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## chrose

I had forgotten this, but I'm now secure enough to tell it, plus I don't have to face anybody so....
When I was in Junior High (I think 7th grade) we took an aptitude test. I was destined to be one of 2 things according to this test. I don't recall the other one, but the other was that I was cut out to ba gasp... drum roll......ominous sounding organ in the background...muted screams from the underworld rise.....*A HOUSEWIFE* me a 7th grade boy! I took some heat for that one. Funny now though that I did posess some of those qualities. I considered when my son was born of staying home and letting my wife go out to work and I would be a stay at home dad. That was till I got a taste of it and realized how hard it was! Give me 10,000 key lime pies to do anyday!

BTW this is a great thread. It is interesting to see how so many of you have evolved and what happens in life. Peachcreeks post was poignant I thought. It's great to read for a change about people like us. I want to hear about all of you, not Martha and Anthony, Pierre and Marcel (you get my drift).
So those who haven't posted and you know who you are. It doesn't have top be exciting, boring lives are fine. We want reality here people it makes good TV


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## april02

--- sorry to have to say this but I haven't decided exactly yet... But, since I'm only seventeen... However I do have it somewhat narrowed down. I'm still debating between music education and Culinary school... either way I'm taking a year off... If I decide culinary is it I want to work in some pro. kitchens before I spend 40k of my parents money to go down the toilet... and if I do music I wanted to take a year off to really concentrate on theory and work a lot more with my voice teacher. So, I guess in answer to the question "I'll tell you when I grow up" But I haven't even started to do that so I'm allowed... hehe...--april--


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## athenaeus

Greece is your country, I don't know if you will like the weather though.


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## chiffonade

You're allowed. You sound very responsible to consider your parents' money as something other than the product of trees.


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## nancya

Wonderful thread...always so nice to learn more about you nice people. A _housewife,_ Chrose? Oh my.

I dreamed of many things - a ballerina, an archeologist, a nurse [I still have a little golden book called "Nancy Nurse"],a forensic pathologist --- yep, I wanted to be Quincy.

But I was the kid that everyone came to talk about things with, so no one was real surprised when I ended up a shrink.

Now....I think I want to be a computer geek.


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## mezzaluna

Mom was a teacher and for various reasons I spent a lot of my early life trying to be her in many ways. I became a teacher of kids with physical disabilities and had a good run with that for about 14 years; it was hard work but is still paying off in rewards. I have always loved cooking and all things culinary (I have always leered at the gadget walls in kitchen supply stores and fondled good cookware!  ). I subscribed for years to cooking magazines and have a very large collection of cookbooks. But I never pursued professional cooking past a stint as a lunch cook/waitress in college. I guess I never listened to my heart, which has never ceased whispering to me to explore culinary work further. Parental approval can be overpowering for some of us.


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## chrose

You know as good as that might sound you may want to rephrase that. Or is that, how do you say in your language...._Fruedian!!!!!_


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## anneke

Chrose!!!! You dirty little housewife you!


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## anneke

Ok, now I must pay up.

When I was a child, I was convinced that I could do whatever I set my mind to. First and foremost, I wanted to be a psychic. I tried, and tried... (Sigh!)

I also wanted to be an astronaut, then a graphic designer. I was about 8 by then.

Chrose, I too did one of those tests in school. They said I should be a auto repairman so there you go!!

As a pre-teen, being heavily involved in classical ballet, I thought I would take ballet as far as it would take me, then I would quit in my prime and become a businesswoman. At 16 I became a ballet teacher and was principal dancer ina youth dance troupe. Did that for a few years but that's as far as it went. 

The same year I entered university. Dad wanted me to do business but my heart was (don't laugh) in economics. I was a staunch Monetarist and Milton Friedman was my hero. Post-Keynesians were the enemy and had to be destroyed!! I realised after 6 years of this that instead of analysing capitalism, I'd be better off partaking in it. So I did. Went back to school and got an MBA. Became an analyst, then a stockbroker, then an IB consultant. 

And you all know the rest. Back on miminum wage am I, finishing up my culinary degree. What happened to trigger this decision? Nothing. I just started paying attention.


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## leo r.

Chiffonade,thanks for pointing out that we can please people legally. To be honest,i`ve seen some people produce dishes that border on a criminal act .We also are in a profession where science and art meet.

I like your nickname,nice classical French term.
Don`t work too hard,Leo.


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## nancya

@ Bond!

You guys are too much!


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## fodigger

I've always wanted to be a chef at least when I really started thinking about it. I did for awhile though harbor a fantasy about becoming a dentist. I think it was to inflict untold pain on my enemies as my dentist seemed to do to me back then.


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## nancya

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: fodigger! My dentist was always quite nice to me!


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## zorba the greek

When I was at school I wanted to be a lawyer but as Athenaeus said it would be a very crazy think to do in Greece without a ready to work for clientele and I wasn't that crazy. ( Yes Athenaeus, I am suggesting something!)
I left Greece for Sweden .I started studying medicine doing every kind of job you can imagine.Even cook in a greek tavern in Stocholm 
I became a shrink and I work with drug addicts. 
Now I want to realise my primary dream of childhood. I didn't care what I would do as long as I had my friends with me and doing nothing , only stupid things that boys in their teens do.
I have swore that I would never step my foot again to Greece. I deny to speak Greek ( although this hurt some cute buddies of mine ) 
But I decided to go to a good shrink and help me threw this.In the near future I want to return to Greece and start doing nothing with my old friends.


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## shroomgirl

from early on a mother, then an archeologist, missionary and by the time I was 11 a chef....well, that went over like a lead balloon, so I got a scholarship in diatetics at a college in New Orleans instead of going to the CIA....I followed my future husband who was at Tulane law school at the time.....well, after one semester I moved back to Memphis and started taking back packing and music ed....which then progressed on to early childhood ed....Sp I worked at an ad agency and French restaurant and went to school......got married moved to a small town in the middle of no where....took cake decorating classes, taught myself chinese cooking, made bread, made jam, made pickles, made 3 sons and .....15 years later started personal cheffing, culinary classes, catering, events...wonder where I would have been if I'd have made my own way and gone to the Cia instead.....probably would not have been a good fit in the long run...


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## chefboy2160

As a youth I realy wanted two professions , to be an Astronomer in the winter time and an Archeologist the rest of the year . Problems with my parents drove me into the army on my 17th birthday and as a young rebel in there I was punished by being transfered to the mess hall . Some punishment I loved to cook and this was a blast for me . Now I do food for a living and am an amateur Astronomer and Archeologist . For the future who knows?


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## suzanne

Growing up, I wanted to be: a ballerina; a locksmith; a (medical) forensic investigator, a teacher, an interpreter/translator, a writer, an archaeologist _(does anyone else see a trend here for CTers?)_ -- most of them based on books that I read and loved.

In high school, I had no idea anymore, except maybe the translator bit.

In college, I started along that route (comparative literature major) and got side-tracked into theater. First I thought I'd be a costume designer. Until I realized that you have to be able to draw. Oh well. Then I mainly stayed a techie -- building sets, props, etc. and a stage manager.

Would have stayed a SM after graduation, but I had to earn a living, so ... Became a typist in a really innovative NYC government office _(for you skeptics, that is *not* an oxymoron!)_. My boss sent me to programming school, so I became a computer programmer (ANSI COBOL, for those of you who want to know a dinosaur). Stuck with that for several years, adding systems analysis, all for government agencies. After about 7 years, moved to Washington, DC and soon gave up computers for theater: still techie and SM. Three years later, moved back to NYC to run the box office for a concert hall. Did that for 6 1/2 years, until I got tired of the s.o.s. all the time.

Around this time, my partner -- wait, by then he was my husband -- left his NYC govt. job and struck out on his own as a Management Consultant. I joined him. Have worked with him for 16 years now. During that time, went back to school for an MBA in Management/Organizational Behavior, and started the "what shall I be if I grow up?" cycle again. Arts Administrator? Nah, been there, done that. Also actually worked as a researcher on an organizational/industrial psychology field research project, so maybe a college professor of OB? No, I had too many friends in academia and knew how crazy the politics there can be.

Eventually I decided that of all the things I liked doing, cooking was *it*. So I went back to school, again. Graduated 5 1/2 years ago, and since then have been: line cook, several times, interspersed with: catering manager, pastry chef, and kitchen manager. What's next? ....... Line cook, sous chef, or foodservice management consultant, if I can figure out a way to get clients.

It really is fascinating to me how many of us aspired to the same careers. There's got to be meaning in that. Especially since some of those careers have elements of investigation, constant learning and discovery, _just like cooking!_ Nancy, Zorba, Bond -- what do you make of this??

Anyway, my chef-instructor at school always said to us, "Follow your bliss." Maybe not very original, but good advice!


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## kokopuffs

I wanted to be an astronaut. But alas, I discovered frying pans and garlic!


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