# Help



## wags07 (Sep 5, 2007)

Hi im currently a high school student and next year i am going to start attending a culinary school and i was just wondering if anyone had any tips of what i can do to get ready for it and just how to start.


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## atltournant (Apr 24, 2007)

Work in the industry for at least a full year before you decide on spending $20,000 to $50,000 on an education,then ask yourself if you can see yourself doing it for the next 5 to 10 years.

This is not a glamorous profession and it is a tremendous amount of hard work;forget hanging out on weekends with your friends or being home for major holidays,because you'll be working them.Cooking for fun at home and then doing it professionally are two very different things.

Keep in mind also that 95% of culinary school grads will NOT be in the industry 5 years after graduation.Any school will tell you that within the first week of classes.Culinary schools are crammed with right-out-of-high school students who have not yet developed the maturity or sense of responsibility/accountability to make it in a professional kitchen.


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## lepeche (Sep 8, 2007)

my advice to you is this.. Read.

Go to your public library, spend hours, days, weekends there. Check out cookbooks of restaurants you would want to work in, try some of the food out at home. Don't just read recipes, read books about technique (Pepin's La technique, La methode), read books about management (Lessons in excellence from Charlie trotter), read books about preparation and ingredients (Culinary artistry), read books about the industry (Kitchen confidentials by anthony bourdain, Devil in the kitchen by marco pierre white, Making of a chef by michael ruhlman) and more, more subjects. What most people don't realize is how multifaceted the food industry is and as a young, inexperienced cook.. until you get in the kitchen and get some years of experience behind you, why not get in the library and learn from great chefs and writers that have had years of experience behind them.


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