Serene wrote on Sun, 04 Jul 2010 11:42:28 -0700:

> On 07/04/2010 11:34 AM, Peter wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am not sure if this is the appropriate newsgroup to which I
>> should post, so please excuse me if it is not.
>>
>> My question is simply whether one has to go to "cooking
>> school" to become a cook in a restaurant. I ask this question
>> because I am considering making a career change. I am a
>> middle age mathematician and I have the opportunity to cook
>> at a small establishment a friend of mine is opening. I am a good
>> cook, very passionate about food, and love to cook. He
>> knows it, and is willing to put me on. Done the road though, I would
>> like to perhaps move on and I am wondering if anyone will hire me
>> without a proper degree? I don't have any
>> pretensions of trying to become a great chef or of being at a
>> fancy French restaurant: I mostly like to cook simple food
>> well using fresh ingredients.

> Just do a great job cooking, and take some classes if you have
> the desire. Classes might help you become more proficient at the
> basics, etc., but lots of chefs became successful without cooking
> school.


Did Patrick O'Donnel ("Inn at Little Washington"), Heston Blumenthal
("Fat Duck"), Ferren Adria ( "ElBulli") and Thomas Keller ( "French
Laundry") go to cooking school? It's true that Keller was an apprentice
in France.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not