School Days
May 11th, 2008 by brian
I visited the three major east coast culinary schools: Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York; Johnson and Wales in Providence Rhode Island; and the New England Culinary Institute (NECI). I chose NECI for the seven to one student to teacher ratio and the fact that it was the least known of the tree. I figured there would be only a few cooks before me that could have ruined the reputation of the school.
NECI is located in the small capital town of Montpelier Vermont about an hour south of the Canadian border. Population varies from four thousand when the state house is in session to two five hundred when it’s not. I visited NECI in 1998 and it was -10 degrees. “OK,” I thought. “This is not going to work.” Fortunately they accept students four times a year and the following March when it was a more respectable 10 degrees I moved in.
From the start the constant attention I got from the teachers helped me improve. I was offered a chance to test out of the first year since I already had a food service management degree. I chose not to because my feeling was that I might miss something. Even the small things are important to learn in the kitchen.
The program was six months at school then a six-month externship where I had to complete six hundred hours. Then back to school for six months and then a second externship. I felt this would give me an edge in the real world because you honestly learn more practical stuff in kitchens because in school it’s all theory. Culinary school is not easy. Something like eighty percent of the people who go to culinary school change their careers within five years. But I’d known that this would be my career since I was fourteen so there was no room for failure.
My externships started in the late fall and went to spring so I headed to Florida twice remembering the -10 degrees weather. I worked first at the Marriott Casa Marina in Key West under Kevin Montoya (who is now running Norman Van Aken’s new restaurant in Key West). The second time I was at John’s Island Club in Vero Beach under John Farnsworth (a former winner of the food and wine top new chef award). The private club was probably the best experience of my life as far as learning to cook. I became fast and accurate. I owe them a thank you for kicking my butt into shape. Especially the Sous Chef Chris Sosio — my god, could he scream! Let just say I was taught a lesson or two along the way.
The thing that has truly changed in the culinary field since I have started is the invention of the super star chef. There is a direct correlation with the food network taking off in popularity and the enrollment spike of culinary schools. When people ask me about the culinary field — even to my line cooks — I tell them to really think about it then stop and think about it again. This field isn’t for everybody and the work can be arduous. It is a thankless, hot workaholic kind of existence so if that’s what you like jump in.
NECI truly did prepare me for the real world the amount of hands on training and the quality of my externships put me far ahead of others graduating. It was beautiful place to live and the people were some of the nicest I have ever met. I will forever be indebted to the school for the amount of knowledge they gave me. The opportunities I have gotten since then would have never been possible without the guidance I obtained there.
1 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Well written article.
Comment by Wanda — October 28, 2008 @ 3:43 am