Any of you retired folks go to Culinary School just for fun...after your career......

northGAcock

.......degree(d) or just to take some courses? What did you enjoy about it the most? I am a few years away from hanging it up....and recognize that a culinary degree is quite expensive. Just curious what you may have gotten out of it and if you would have done the same if you had a do over?

tamu2009

I've had this thought for years. My ex wife went to culinary school and I know how much that cost her (she went to LCB and it cost nearly 35k, thank you ex MIL for footing that bill) but she didn't know how to cook going into it so she still couldn't cook coming out of it. 

I'd love to take a few classes, to get my knife skills better, to learn how to butcher a full side of beef etc., to master the mother sauces, just all of the basics. I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on flavors, so I think those courses would help the most. But I don't think they do just classes (at least at LCB).

Bentgrass

I get down within the Mothership monthly and after visiting it, I am going to try and get into some of their sessions when traveling.  Anything I know about cooking I have learned here on the forum.  Which has been quite an experience !

Billy Grill Eggster

I have gone to different Culinary School classes for over 35 years. Long before I retired.
Wine tasting and "low country" cooking are some of the classes. My next to two classes are hog butcheries and fancy sausages. (Left overs will come home in the coolers.) 
I have been the Mothership for classes.

Thatgrimguy

You can take classes at the Viking school in Atlanta as well. It's an absolutely wonderful experience and definitely helped me get better with sauces. I want to go to CIA so bad. But I'd have to drastically change my life path. 

tamu2009

Thatgrimguy said:

You can take classes at the Viking school in Atlanta as well. It's an absolutely wonderful experience and definitely helped me get better with sauces. I want to go to CIA so bad. But I'd have to drastically change my life path. 

I would too, but I don't think I could handle the chef life. I can't stay up late enough to cook in a real kitchen for the dinner rush.

Acn

tamu2009 said:

Thatgrimguy said:

You can take classes at the Viking school in Atlanta as well. It's an absolutely wonderful experience and definitely helped me get better with sauces. I want to go to CIA so bad. But I'd have to drastically change my life path. 

I would too, but I don't think I could handle the chef life. I can't stay up late enough to cook in a real kitchen for the dinner rush.

I'd be happy to do weekend classes at CIA if I was closer to one, but this eliminated any interest in working in food. 

http://ruhlman.com/2010/09/so-you-wanna-be-a-chef—-by-bourdain-2/

GATraveller

I'm teetering on the edge of a career change and have thought long and hard about this very thing.  Interested in hearing others take on it.

Acn

@GATraveller - read Bourdain's take at link I posted, choice excerpts:

I am frequently asked by aspiring chefs, dreamers young and old, attracted by the lure of slowly melting shallots and caramelizing pork belly, or delusions of Food Network stardom, if they should go to culinary school. I usually give a long, thoughtful, and qualified answer.

But the short answer is “no.”

 

Nobody will tell you this, but I will: If you’re thirty-two years old and considering a career in professional kitchens? If you’re wondering if, perhaps, you are too old? Let me answer that question for you: Yes. You are too old.

GATraveller

Acn said:

@GATraveller - read Bourdain's take at link I posted, choice excerpts:

I am frequently asked by aspiring chefs, dreamers young and old, attracted by the lure of slowly melting shallots and caramelizing pork belly, or delusions of Food Network stardom, if they should go to culinary school. I usually give a long, thoughtful, and qualified answer.

But the short answer is “no.”

 

Nobody will tell you this, but I will: If you’re thirty-two years old and considering a career in professional kitchens? If you’re wondering if, perhaps, you are too old? Let me answer that question for you: Yes. You are too old.

I've cooked in restaurants before and have enough friends still in the industry to know I don't want any part of a professional kitchen/fine dining (which was my take on Bourdain's reference).  I know with 100% certainty that ship sailed many many years ago.    

northGAcock

This is good discussion. As a follow up to my original post, I am inquiring as I would  not go work in restaurants (been there / done that)....but rather do it for the fun and knowledge. Keep my mind active and further sharpen the skills. I have worked (and continue to do so) for a food service management company (in IT / no longer in operations)....and agree with Bourdain. It is a wicked way to earn a living. You are working for the most part while others aren't. I think I still have some quest for knowledge, and my conflict is can I stomach the cost and effort (after being retired) for something I would not apply to the industry. 

I am not trying to redirect this thread....take it anywhere you want.....just providing some further background.

Eggcelsior

I've taken some classes(knife skills) and would probably do more but I could never do anything beyond catering. I left floor nursing because I like my holidays and weekends at home. That's certainly not going to change now that I have kids.