I'M GOING TO BE A CHEF!

Woo HOO! I found out today that I was accepted into the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, CA! I haven't got the official letter yet, but my admissions rep called me and told me the news over the phone. I'm so excited.

Classes start August 15th. Now all I have to do is find $50,000 dollars and a place to live.

(Beav, I have a question to ask you.)

Good luck! And thanks :) I was going to try and get into the Culinary Institute of America, but you have to have 6 months of experience in a restaurant first, which I don't have and I don't really want to wait.

Yeah, I'm very excited. This next week is going to go by fast.

When are you going to start classes?

captain, congrats!

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I can pretend to be Swedish? Last night I was Swiss (Thanks to Bill.)

And Elphaba.. you don't know how tense/excited/nervous I've been the past few weeks.

I was going to announce my plans earlier, but I didn't want to be rejected and have to face you people.

Congrats C.O - did I not see you on Hell's Kitchen???

when you're done with classes, wanna cook me dinner?

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Beavs... I dunno if I can do a 1000 a month... That's kinda steep, but please ask. I'm coming to the city for this Welcome Weekend thing on the 11th, I believe. I'll be more than happy to see it then, and PM me your number.

But, I have a HUGE dilemma: I have no money. I have no car. I have no place to live. Oh, the difficulties.

And I'll be more than happy to cook for anybody who wants to come. I'll make spaghetti. (We all remember THAT fiasco, lol.)

Beaver, what's your name? If anyone searches through my phone book, they're gonna see The Beaver. Although The Beaver is quite sexy, I'd rather just have your name.

And add one more flame to the mix!

It's wonderful to have a dream to work toward but it sounds like you haven't completely thought this out. Six months working experience is not a long time and it would possibly enable you to save some money. SF is not a city you can pick up and move to with only two weeks notice, no place to live, no job and no substantial savings.

In any city it can take a long time to find a job especially when you are attending a school and have to work around the class schedule. Renting an apartment requires paying firsta nd last months rent up front and a security deposit that is usually equal to one months rent.

Too many young people with high hopes and no experience in life end up going to large, expensive cities to follow a dream. Their expectations on how easily they can get a job and a place to live are much too idealistic. Eventually they end up on the streets if they are not fortunate enough to have a home to go back to.

It's a harsh reality to face but you have to do your research and spend the time setting up what you will need before you go off. If it's worth having, it's worth waiting for.

I have a goal, something I want for my life. It will also require about $50,000.00 to start, an out of state move for part of each year and it's something that I've been planning. It's a five year plan that involves how to raise the money, hyow best to invest it now for maximum short term gain, reasearch on the expenses involved in teh business I want to run, the potentail return on that investment based on similar businesses in the same geographic area and the average leength of time on return. That's the way to make a major life change.

Yours wouldn't take a five year plan but you should at least plan it out and if it takes another year, at least you know what you're doing.

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ya'll are some of the meanest and most obviously jealous haters ever seen on the planet earth. here on of the most beloved and wittiest and simply most lovable characters (not to be confused with people) on bww is faced with one of the most momentous moments of his, her, or its life and all you can do is rain down the negativity. i can tell you one thing, no angels will save you people when it comes time for the reckoning, but as a but of heathen athiests you probably don't care. well, i won't be a party to your vile attempts to besmirch a poor cook, dammit. no matter how inept. ya'll should be ashamed of yourselves.

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noon? i'm planning on beers at 9:15 while helping a neighbor move. if the rain lets up. by noon, i'll be needing a soctch iv drip. repent! repent!!

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So what happened to the trust fund? I can't keep up.

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So here we are again back in The Land of the BroadwayWorld Split.

Seems there are two types of people who post here. There are those who have taken the message of too many simplistic and treacly musicals to heart and who think all you have to do is have a dream and if you stand up and belt your desires to the back row of the second balcony those dreams will come true because dammit it's your dream and nobody's gonna take it away from you! And there's ALWAYS a happy ending.

In the real world, these people are known as "enablers." In the guise of "encouragement" and "positivity," they gloss over almost ANY sense of reality and encourage others to follow through on recipes for disaster (to go with the culinary metaphor) because it's their "dream," and their dreams "feel good."

Then there's the other type of person who posts here. More influenced by theater that is grounded in reality. Able to discuss the good AND the bad of life, encouraging others to hope for the best while preparing for the worst. Around here, we're called "negative" and those who enjoy "urinating on the breakfast cereal of others." In the real world, we are called realists.

Captain_Obvious, what ckeaton pointed out about the narrative of your postings thus far rings true for me, as a reader of those narratives. What Orion and Sueleen wrote is completely grounded in the reality of making it through the world. Don't think you can cover a grand in rent a month? Of course you can't if you have to come up with FIFTY grand in a week for tuition.

I've been doing a search online for an excellent article the New York Times did in the past couple of years about the incredible grind of culinary school, and the fairly small odds that people who graduate from such schools will ever actually make a living as a chef. And for those who do, it's because they spent about 16-18 hours a day peeling potatoes for a couple of years AFTER their graduation in the shadows of full fledged chefs. The point of the article is that it is almost impossible to pay back student loans while being completely demoralized on the lowest rungs of the restaurant ladders for years and years.

I am unable to find the article at NYTimes.com because I must be searching on the wrong key words. I'd recommend the article to both you and Redhot if you had the five bucks or whatever it costs to get archived materials. But thus far I haven't found it.

By the way, it's in the best interests of the culinary schools to imply that you will have a rewarding career as a chef immediately after graduation. But the odds are stronger that you'd get struck by lightning.

Those with the gumption and the fantasy of "opening their own restaurant" have even harder roads to hoe. We're talking 20 hour days then, and MOST restaurants fail within a year and a half.

So, I'm not gonna join the chorus of enablers and say "Oh wow, how great, go for it, why not, how hard can it be, MAKE ME DINNER WHEN YOU GRADUATE."

You really won't be able to afford any ingredients to make people dinner when you graduate.

But good luck with your dream! You will make it if you spread your wings and fly!

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Updated On: 8/5/05 at 12:06 PM