Too Late for Culinary School and the Kitchen?

Is it ever too behindhand to go to culinary school?  I’m 50′ish and in a position to start a new career.  I’ve loved cooking and bread my whole life and could work another 15-20 yrs (Lord willing ~ I’m now in good health).  Would love to do something I intended.  How realistic is it to change careers now?  Thanks for answering.

- Suzie from Portland, OR

This question popped up in a just out Ask A Chef Twitter chat, and it deserved a longer explanation than was possible in a rapid Chef2Chef Cheeping dialogue. In short: no, it’s never too late to go to culinary school. I graduated from The French Culinary Institute in Manhattan, which hosted a diverse order of students of all ages, races and backgrounds. My class ran the spectrum from 18 to 60′ish, with plenty of career changers in every station of office disillusionment. But whether it’s realistic or not to change careers and become a cook at 50 is a trickier question. So let me fussy.

Professional kitchen work - whether it’s in a restaurant, catering business or school setting - is incredibly rigorous, as you’re purposes aware. Combine long hours on your feet with a hot, pressure-filled environment, and suddenly the rigors of preparing meals at placid seem like youthful play with an Easy-Bake Oven. It’s an invigorating environment in many ways (”dinner stretch rush” has a double meaning in a working kitchen), but it certainly wares on one after awhile. Even my 25 year-old cook friends are immobile-on-the-love-seat exhausted after a week of work (granted, they’re nighttime chefs at a popular i.e. slammed Manhattan restaurant). I’m not critique this as a deterrent to anyone. It’s just that the unique physical and mental pressures of the professional kitchen are necessary to comprehend before you shell out thousands of dollars for a culinary arts degree, and the only way to know them is through experience.  Before filling out an application, I recollect it’s essential to intern (or “stage”) in the industry area you’d ideally like to industry after c-school graduation. And this doesn’t mean you have to tackle the night shift, where you’re slogging home at 2 am. There are plentifulness of sectors in the industry that are friendly to older cooks with families (or those who simply like to get 8 hrs of sleep and see the light of day). Catering, cafe kitchens, corporate/school dining and the lunch or prep shifts in restaurant kitchens are all legitimate options.