Decisions decisions decisions

I have been having an internal debate with myself for the last week or so. I love cooking more every day and with the arrival of Jacque Pepin’s Complete Technique and Anthony Bourdain’s Le Halles Cookbook I am over the moon with cooking. I had planned on going to Le Cordon Bleu but a financial aid hiccup has slowed the process down. My government student loans were put on hold because of selective service saying I did not register when I was 18. I have the appropriate paper work and have started the appeal process and should be able to get the loans. The problem is that even with the loans, which is about $8,000 a year, I would still owe the school over $15,000 for the 15 month program. Le Cordon Bleu can finance the $15,000 but they are all loans and I would of course have to pay all that money back. I was all gung ho for this and ready to dive in head first but the financial aid hiccup slowed me down. My dilemma now is am I truly ready to commit myself to a business that is full of long hours on my feet in a hot kitchen at 36 with a wife and two kids? I think I am. I want to try but is it worth over $30,000 to try?

I am a snob and have always really been a snob. I have the ultimate champagne taste on a beer budget and to tell the truth it is not just any beer but the nasty cheep stuff. We are talking Old Milwaukee’s Best generic brand. Le Cordon Bleu looks like an incredible place that is all about food. Heck, the name even sounds fancy. Julia Child went to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. (Though reading her book “My Life in France” it was not such a prestigious institution as my recruiter would have liked me to believe) They also had some really cool knives and cooking tools that they had on full display in the lobby that all students got. Still beer budget remember.

But if the goal is to get drunk, cheap beer and champagne both get me to the same place. I took a tour of El Centro Community college last week and it was nothing like Le Cordon Bleu. Le Cordon Bleu only had a culinary program the whole place smelled of stocks, roasted lambs, and baking bread. Everywhere you turned there was a student in chef’s whites or instructor in chef’s whites with the Tuscany Blue embroidery. El Centro is a community college in downtown Dallas full of recently graduated high school students that are studying a wide variety of programs. There was a pocket here or there of students in whites studying but the overwhelming majority was just teenagers looking bored and studying. The advisor took my on a tour of the kitchen and it was a friendly atmosphere. When we got back to her office we looked at my old college transcript and did an unofficial plan. It was going to cost me less than $3000 for the entire program and that is counting a budget of $500 for equipment. I get the same degree as Le Cordon Bleu. Still it has been nagging at me the entire week.

I have been thinking about why I want to go to culinary school. Is it to become an executive chef at a 4 star restaurant? Nope. My goal is to own a small restaurant that serves traditional Vietnamese dishes with great ingredients. Also I get the chance to play with food and try new dishes. Just a small place where I can cook the food I love to eat with a fun foodie atmosphere. I was thinking even Top Chef viewing parties where I can serve the dishes from last weeks episodes. Special international nights where I can cook some classic French, Italian, or Mexican dishes. BBQ specials so that I can talk my friend Chris and his father in parking their amazing smoking trailer at the restaurant and we can sell all their great BBQ. I think I need to go to culinary school to understand food better. Understand how food works. That is my goal. So El Centro College here I come this summer.


Minh