A few months ago, my sister stumbled upon a description of a class at the Institute of Culinary Education (aka ICE) that, for my birthday, she registered me for, “Culinary Career Exploration Day,” an eight hour day full of lectures and a professional-style cooking class all aimed at helping the hapless and career-confused decide if culinary school or any career in the culinary industry is right for them. Absolutely perfect for me, right?
The day was fascinating and seemed to pass in a flash and while I was exhausted at the end of the day, it wasn’t exhaustion from meetings or reporting to bosses (or, worse yet, the gym). It was blissful exhaustion from demonstrations of ideal knife skills, learning how to stuff a chicken breast with goat cheese, and learning that you can actually make money in the food industry.
The cooking portion was taught by Chef Karen Schley, an affable, easy going, articulate chef who is an actual instructor at ICE. Before donning our aprons Chef Karen pointed out to us the increased interest in the food industry in the past twenty years due to celebrity chefs, the Food Network, and reality television shows like Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen. She asserted that those aspects of being a chef (fame, fortune, psychotically abusive little English men) are a tiny percentage of the realities of the food industry. She then went on to emphasize hygiene in the kitchen and keeping your cutting board/station clean (”always think of sushi chefs,” she said).
It took the dozen of us approximately four hours to prep and make a mixed salad with tomato concassé (peeled and seeded little tomato cubes) and sliced cucumbers with a basic vinaigrette, a breaded chicken breast stuffed with herb goat cheese, roasted vegetables (cauliflower, parsnips, potatoes, asparagus), and a rice pilaf (fancier word for fluffy rice with onions). I have to admit, my knife skills were pretty kick ass, but I still despise making rice.
All fun and self-discovery aside, the class was one giant publicity/orientation event for ICE, but that was to be expected. At one point, when we had sat down in the kitchen at a white clothed table to enjoy the fruits of our labor for lunch, the associate director of admissions joined us and made sure none of us walked out the door without her card and without our goody bags which, among other things, included brochures about successful ICE alums and how to apply.
The management lecture portion after lunch was led by Steve Zagor, the head of ICE’s culinary management diploma program. He was a funny, slightly awkward, but clearly very experienced “restaurant guy.” He rattled off his credentials, which included stints as a big time restaurant consultant for PriceWaterhouse Cooper, owning several restaurants, and teaching marketing and finance at NYU’s well-known food and nutrition program. He went through hot food trends in NYC in the food world (diners, locally grown produce, cupcakes, Asian fusion, etc.), as well as important aspects of the American demographic today (the average age of Americans is getting older, families go where children are welcome).
I loved every minute of it and am now more conflicted than ever. I had written culinary school off, saying, “absolutely not, never,” but now I’m not so sure. I experienced this inner turmoil to some degree when I visited the Culinary Institute of America, but it seemed so unattainable that it was easy to push the notion out of my mind. The fantasy of going to school to cook all day and study food all night thrills me though. For me, there is nothing about that that does not appeal to me. So where to go from here? I’m not sure. Sigh.
I wish I had never gone.
