Food For Thought

By Michele Orecklin

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin is considered one of history's great gastronomes. The 18th century Frenchman, however, spent years as a lawyer before openly pursuing his epicurean calling. It's a trajectory scores of Americans have traveled in recent years as they abandoned the corporate world and sought greater happiness at cooking academies. But if Brillat-Savarin were around today, he would probably skip the law and head straight to the kitchen. The fastest-growing population in the nation's cooking schools is young people who refuse to do time as lawyers, orthopedists or even traditional college students but instead proceed directly from high school into culinary academies. In 1997, only 22% of applicants to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, N.Y., were recent high school graduates. Today that number is 38%. At the California Culinary Academy (CCA) in San Francisco, nearly 20% of the 1,910 students in last year's incoming class matriculated straight from high school--a marked increase from 2000, when that number was less than 5%. At Johnson & Wales in Providence, R.I., the most common age of culinary students has hovered in recent years between 17 and 19, and Meredith Moore, school spokeswoman, boasts that these applicants are coming in with high SAT scores and extracurricular activities that could easily earn them admission to top colleges.

The publicity generated by the Food Network and chefs with their own books, frozen-food lines and cookware helps explain why many young people view cooking not just as a way to make a living but also to make their name. And while for centuries chefs learned their craft apprenticing in the kitchens of great restaurants, some members of the new generation believe that a degree from a top school will boost their credibility in the profession--and give them instant access to a wide network of alumni. "Being a chef now is like being a rock star," says Nancy Seryfert, vice president of admissions at the California Culinary Academy. Says Tim Ryan, president of the CIA, the nation's most esteemed culinary school: "We've arrived at a place where more young people than ever are interested in the profession. And perhaps more interesting--and important--so are their parents."

Even the most establishment-minded parents would be gratified to see how intensely students pursue their cooking classwork. While sophomores at traditional four-year universities skillfully avoid scheduling classes before 10 a.m., students at culinary schools willingly rise before dawn to laminate pastry dough. On their own time, they cheerfully practice the sauteing, flambeing and knife-wielding skills they have learned in class.

After two uninspired years at a liberal-arts college near his hometown of Akron, Ohio, Nathan Yanko, 22, enrolled in a two-year culinary-arts program at the CIA. He's now taking a 30-week baking and pastry program at the school's Greystone campus in Napa Valley, Calif. His family, many of whom are in the restaurant business themselves, had warned Yanko against the long hours endemic to the profession. But now that they have seen the 13-hour days he voluntarily spends in the kitchen, he says, and the delight he derives from making rolls and puff pastries, they support his decision. Yanko says the young people at his school seem more intense than many of the career changers, who, in his opinion, are "going through the motions trying to learn a little bit here and there so they can entertain their friends and family." He, on the other hand, is consumed. "I'm planning on making my life out of it. So I need to be all in this all the time, just working night and day at it."

If the sheer joy on their offspring's face is not enough to convince some parents, the employment possibilities just might. As interest in good eating has grown, so have job opportunities in food preparation and service. According to the National Restaurant Association, while the overall economy lost jobs in 2003, restaurant jobs increased at a rate of 1.2%. By 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of retail bakeries is expected to grow 16% and baking manufacturing 12%. Says the CIA's Ryan: "I'd match our employment rate against any Ivy League school. When they graduate, our students typically juggle seven or eight job offers." According to Kim Resnik, director of marketing for the Atlanta Art Institute, which has a culinary-arts program, her school placed 100% of its culinary students in jobs immediately upon graduation in 2002 (the last year for which the institute has totals) and the average starting salary was $29,591.

Most culinary schools offer two-year associate degrees in either baking and pastry or culinary arts (fundamental cooking techniques in a variety of cuisines). But to make themselves more attractive to parents and students--and to make students more appealing to employers--several schools, including the CIA, Johnson & Wales and a handful of the affiliated Art Institutes nationwide (like those in Atlanta; Pittsburgh, Pa.; and Chicago) have instituted four-year bachelor's-degree programs. Whereas the associate degree is centered on food almost exclusively, the additional course work is geared primarily toward managerial skills and includes classes in history, culture and language, an acknowledgment that a career in the food industry is far more complex than simply creating dishes that arouse awe when they land on a table. (One thing the nation's top culinary schools share with the academic ones is high cost. The 15-month associate degree at the California Culinary Academy costs $45,000, and the four-year bachelor's degree at the CIA can total $70,000; both schools offer financial aid.)

The noncooking classes are typically designed to be relevant to the food world. At the CIA, for example, an accounting class uses old ledgers from real restaurants and hotels as study guides. An assignment for a writing course requires composing menus for different palates. Such food-free classes are particularly useful for the many students interested in nonrestaurant jobs like food-product development, food styling or food writing. Katy Dearing, 19, a student at the California Culinary Academy who applied after a CCA chef visiting her high school prepared an inspiring gnocchi with roasted bell-pepper coulis, says she plans to be a private chef for busy professionals who want to eat nutritious meals.

But there are still many who dream of being the next Rocco DiSpirito, Mario Batali or Nigella Lawson, and it is for them that CIA president Ryan says he has some concerns. "Students see Sara Moulton on TV and think they could be doing that in a few short years," he says. "We need to make sure they have realistic expectations." Overall, though, most people view the high hopes and enthusiasm of adolescents as a plus. "If you're going to make it--start young," says Greystone's head baking and pastry instructor Robert Jorin, a decades-long veteran in the field. The younger the student, the more likely he or she is to stay in the business, he says. Because being a chef involves backbreaking work and long hours, it is also better suited to someone in his or her early 20s. And another thing: for the months, sometimes years, spent sampling one's homework, it's useful to have a youthful metabolism. --With reporting by Laura A. Locke/San Francisco

With reporting by Laura A. Locke/San Francisco