Courtesy of the Little Mexican Cooking School

I received a telephone call from a FOOD JOBS book reader who has just lost her job and doesn’t know what to do now. She wanted something new. She had worked as a caterer, recipe tester, food stylist, freelance magazine food writer and cookbook editor.

With these skills, I suggested she consider becoming a teacher in a cooking school. Her topic could be any one of the specialties or she could actually teach a course on FOOD JOBS!

In fact, I started out as a cooking school teacher in Greensboro, North Carolina. I demonstrated a complete meal in each class, but told little stories about the ingredients I was using. Many came more for the stories than the cooking class itself. I later expanded these tentative steps into a course that nestled comfortably beneath the umbrella of gastronomy.

If you want to teach, but not cook, maybe you would like to consider the endless and ever expanding topic, ‘Food in the News’. The advantage of offering these subjects is you can be in charge of your own material and develop your own course guide.

I’m teaching FOOD JOBS* and get a huge amount of satisfaction from the classes and the enthusiasm of the students.  The best part is that I learn something new every day.

Professional cooking schools are thriving everywhere. So are community colleges. Many high schools also include hospitality courses in their culinary curricula.

With the help of ShawGuides, my caller can easily locate a Culinary School at the Arts Institutes, Cordon Bleu cooking school or other professional, avocational cooking school or a community college wherever she wants to live. (She would like to move from her current location to a warmer climate in another part of the country.)

I sent her a sample course guide and advised her to adapt it so that a Dean of Education could see exactly what she had in mind. Her proposed syllabus should also include a brief outline for a series of six (or more) classes. Here below is such an example:

Syllabus Sample Template

CATALOG COURSE DESCRIPTION: FOOD CAREERS

This Food Careers course will introduce the extensive range of career opportunities. The classes will help participants evaluate their own unique skills and encourage them to explore the many paths open to them. There are literally hundreds of job opportunities available to today’s graduates.  They need only bend down and pick up the prospect that is most appealing.

SAMPLE APPEAL TO STUDENTS TO TAKE YOUR FOOD CAREERS COURSE

The reason you decided to acquire an education at XXX Culinary School is to find a career in the food field. There is almost nothing more important than developing a sense of direction and ultimately being in a position to choose a path that will lead to a richly rewarding life. Together, we will examine many specific fields within the hospitality industry.

It is essential to understand the factors that contribute to the success (or failure) of a food business. You will be encouraged to track economic, political and demographic trends as they impact the hospitality industry and exert a strong influence on our current and future food choices.

You will also discover the importance of thoroughly researching a company before applying for a position. You will receive practical guidance to write a result-oriented resume and cover letter, and learn how to develop positive interviewing strategies. Class discussions will include the art of negotiation and emphasize that acceptance or rejection of a specific offer is limited not only to the size of the salary or the number of benefits: there are other important matters that must be taken into consideration too.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

At the end of this course you will be in a position to define your goals and begin to take practical steps to plan your future career. You will be able to :

• Describe the difference between a job and a career

• Develop a strategy for job hunting

• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of working in each sector of the hospitality industry

• Identify the most influential publications and reliable web sites within each sector of the hospitality industry

• Identify food trends and extrapolate probable trajectories of each trend

• Evaluate the impact of changing consumer choices

• Evaluate the impact of changing economic conditions

• Compose a personal portfolio of your work

• Outline a plan to market your business and build client referrals

• Understand the vital importance of networking

• Prepare a business proposal

• Describe the steps necessary to achieve your personal career objective

• Describe the economic and demographic reasons that justify an entrepreneurial objective

• Assess the business impacts of the “green” revolution

INSTRUCTOR

Add your name here and summarize your background.

Sound easy? It still takes effort. If this course of action appeals, you still have to put yourself out there and do the heavy leg work. But once you have a focus and a goal in mind, the hard work turns into a matter of steps to follow down a virtual yellow brick road.

Please contact me if you have a question about your own career.

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Karen Berner, Food Editor, photo courtesy of Gloria Dawson

There are very few people I know whose career paths have moved in a straight line. The real constant is how they have matched and used their innate skills with their passion and possibility. I find these people the most interesting, don’t you? Take Karen Berner, for instance.

Karen is a successful food editor of websites and print, who combined a Fine Arts degree, an editor’s eye for accuracy, and a former IBM technical writer’s ability to communicate clearly and concisely. And, she changed careers to pursue her passion for food. Here, below, in her own words, is Karen’s recipe for success:

My path to the food-editorial world was somewhat unconventional. A career-changer at 37, I decided to pursue my secret dream of becoming a professional chef by enrolling at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). But once there, I quickly realized there were many other interesting careers related to food outside of a restaurant kitchen.

My initial thoughts of happily toiling away behind the line changed when I was given the opportunity to do studio and test kitchen work for a food website geared to both professional chefs and cooking enthusiasts. It was the perfect fit; I’d be intimately involved with food, but this type of work would also tap into my creative side, one I still like to nurture every day.

Culinary Institute of America

My beginnings in the food world were humble. I started out working part-time in the CIA cookbook department, dealing with recipes for every cuisine under the sun. This job quickly led to producing food content and recipes in a test kitchen for a website. Here, I further honed my recipe development and editing skills as well as food-styling and photography abilities.

Working at a website, you’re often called on to wear many hats. So, I soon took on the responsibility of interviewing celebrity chefs. I’m sure their insights and contributions inspire many a student and food lover to follow their culinary path, myself included.

I later was able to transfer my skills to print media, working on the well-regarded Art Culinaire magazine for professional chefs. I essentially was doing the same work I handled for the website but took on more writing assignments. I also learned the tools necessary for putting a magazine together, including dealing with the pressures of deadlines and scheduling. My experience interviewing chefs came in handy; I was able to contribute to the popularity of the magazine while feeding the growing appetite for the inside scoop on celebrity and up-and-coming chefs.

I’d like to think that everything I’ve done up to now – writing, website work, technology knowledge, line cooking, recipe testing, teaching, and even experience as a private chef – has ultimately contributed to what I do today and aspire to do tomorrow.

Many have asked me what skills have made me a successful food editor. I think this can be boiled down to seven:

1. Keeping on top of food trends that you know will interest your readers.
2. Being able to purpose recipe and content that’s useful, approachable, friendly, and will appeal to a mass audience.
3. Strong writing and editing skills, and the ability to adapt to a magazine, cookbook, or a website’s established voice, tone, and style. (Think Martha Stewart vs. Rachael Ray.)
4. Strong management and organizational skills.
5. Great contacts in the food industry.
6. Solid recipe writing skills and the ability to edit ornery recipes when they’re problematic.
7. Being able to look at a recipe and troubleshoot what might be wrong with it before you’ve had the chance to test it.

Experience is key and critical to success, but it’s not always enough to land your dream job. Networking (whether via the latest social media venues or simply by getting out there and shaking a few hands) and perseverance are just as important.

Although I’ve worked in many parts of the food industry, I’m most comfortable in a kitchen, where I’m developing and testing recipes, whether for magazines, websites, or cookbooks. Having a solid recipe and ingredient base knowledge opens many a door. Why, I’ve even judged the famous Pillsbury Bake-Off baking contest. What a hoot!

I’ve also had the opportunity to teach the fundamentals of cooking to food enthusiasts and found this to be extremely rewarding.

I’m happy to share that after many years in the industry I still enjoy what I do — it’s challenging.  It’s never the same from day to day, and I get paid to eat. Not too shabby.

But it is important to keep growing, to keep dreaming up the next adventure. If I have my way, my next food adventure will be working on a TV show as part of a culinary production team. I think my test kitchen, food-styling, food photography, management, directing and editing skills will be a value add to the production.

If you’d like to contact Karen, you can reach her at kbern57@hotmail.com.

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We all face the puzzle of what to do next: there are far too many choices. For example, if  you decide to write a book with the title, The Chicken Dishes of the World, you’ll drown. You will never be able to make even the smallest dent in so large a topic. It would be far easier to narrow the field and concentrate on the Chicken Dishes of Chicago.

I’m going to suggest two diametrically opposite ways to starting a job search. The first is to take your time and use a telescope to explore all the possibilities and all the possibilities within the possibilities. Only then will you be able to employ a microscope, (the opposite way), to refine your options.

You could decide to become a tea taster or a coffee taster or an ice cream taster or an account executive promoting beef or pork or peaches or pears or another commodity. You could become a personal chef.

Personal chefs are a rapidly-expanding segment of the food world. This is a food job that enables you to become an entrepreneur without investing any capital. If you are a good cook, you don’t even need to have a formal degree from a culinary school. Did you know that the U.S. Postal Service once employed a personal chef to provide meals for the cycling team it sponsored?

You could also think about becoming a private chef for a movie star, a sports hero or a television anchor.

A private chef is not the same thing as a personal chef.

A chef can earn $80,000 a year— tax free—working on a luxury yacht, cruising the Greek Islands. The perks here are: there is no rent to pay, no car payments to make and there are plenty of people to sleep with every night.

Recipe developers working for NASA come up with ideas for dinner for astronauts. They can also find employment with food companies and restaurant chains and supermarkets. Recipe testers check the accuracy of recipes for magazines, cookbook authors and food  processors.

Recipe developers are not the same thing as recipe testers.

As you see each different career category contains its own specialized branch and we’ll explore each area as we go along with later posts.

A food lover with a vibrant palate and the ability to write well but with no formal culinary degree may find happiness as a restaurant critic or restaurant memoirist.

Perhaps, you could consider a career as: a literary agent; a cheese shop owner; a food and travel writer; an artisanal bread baker; a wedding cake designer; a food photographer; a bed & breakfast owner; a food entrepreneur or investor or a teacher. There are more jobs opportunities to explore than you may have imagined.

Donald Rumsfeld

As former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, famously observed: “There are known knowns: these are things we know we know. There are known unknowns: these are things we know we don’t know. There are unknown unknowns: there are things we don’t know we don’t know.”

Whether you are interested in science or supermarkets, in engineering or accounting, human relations or writing, in traveling or staying at home, there is a job in the food field for you. Better yet, you can dream up something that had never been done before and make it happen.

After all, the food world involves history and geography, science and technology,  economics and finance, art and design, marketing and publicity and literally dozens of other disciplines. Your task is to decide which path to take.

Christopher Robin & Winnie the Pooh

I came across a lovely quote from Christopher Robin to Winnie the Pooh. He said, “Promise me you’ll always remember you are braver than you believe and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

And do you remember Dr. Benjamin Spock, who comforted generations of anxious mothers by saying, “You know more than you think you do.”

You can start your journey to find a new career by imagining you are Santa Claus. Make a list of all your qualifications. What have you done so far? Where have you been. What have you learned? Who do you know? The last thing on this list may be the most important.

Fill several sacks with all this information and pile them on the sled. Rewrite your resume. Compose a cover letter. Have a new photograph taken. Put on your Santa’s suit frame of mind. Climb aboard the driver’s seat and take the reins of the reindeer. They will run neck and neck with one animal getting his nose ahead with a surge of hope, and the other falling a little behind as his stomach churns with fear. Whichever gains the ascendancy will determine the road you take.

As Suze Ormand tells us: “You Own the Power to Control Your Own Destiny.”

Now I have two more pieces of advice. One is illegitimi non carborundum, which freely translated means, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”

I’ll share the other piece of advice next Monday so I hope to bring it with you then. In the meantime, I’ll continue the food writing posts every Wednesday.

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The idea of eating well, (or, at least better), increasingly begins before the beginning. It has become accepted that pregnant women should watch what they eat to better ensure that their well-nourished babies get a huge head start in life.

I would not have believed this had I not seen it with my own eyes. Decades ago, at the moment the government in the U.K. instituted the National Health System, it was decided that all graduate nurses who wished to specialize in a specific branch of medicine, were required to first become midwives. To this day I have never understood the logic of this, but in order to concentrate on my chosen field of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, I trudged to Aberdeen, Scotland, to assist in the birth of 50 babies. (Fifty was the number required to achieve certification.)

All this is a preamble to say that when we nurses arrived on the obstetrics ward we could often match the contented babies to their contented mothers. The fractious, restless, sometimes low birth-weight babies, could similarly be identified with their Moms. Failure to thrive doesn’t occur at the moment of birth, but as  a result of  poor nutrition during gestation.

The risks and rewards of securing a healthful diet have lifetime consequences. Fortunately we can already see healthy and nutritious food choices taking up more shelf space in supermarkets.

Healthy food is now prepared in hospitals and company cafeterias, in schools in school systems and colleges, museum restaurants, spas, in the military and upscale retirement homes.

Local farms are providing farm-to-table fruits, vegetables, grass-fed meats and free-range chickens and sustainable fish for restaurants. And farmers’ markets are gaining more fans.

This rethinking of the food everyone will be eating is gathering momentum not only to those who can afford the very best but for everyone.

We are also seeing large food processing companies and chain restaurants  improving the nutrient profile of their foods. These are small steps, admittedly, and perhaps the cynics will be justified in sniffing that these are more public relations moves than a genuine interest in improving the diet of a very large planet. But steps, no matter how small, are still steps that offer employment for many good cooks and culinary school graduates.

How can you get in on this? How do you get started?

Decide which specific sector of the vast, ever-expanding food and hospitality field appeals to you, and make a goal to join it. For instance, Sodexo and Aramark have employees working worldwide in institutional food service, sports stadiums and facilities of every kind. Their customers are seeking fast yet healthy choices.

Check out the web sites of companies known for promoting healthy, delicious foods, such as Wegmans and Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.

Explore the employment opportunities in menu development for your local hospital and school systems. For instance, consider volunteering to teach a class of kids how to start their own school garden and develop recipes from their harvest.

Lastly, track down specific trade magazines and check out the classified pages that list job openings.

These suggestions are merely a start. You will find your own way. Whether you agree or disagree with the new Health Care Reform, there are food job opportunities to seize.

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Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob

I’ve met many students who want to write about food and I  try my utmost to be encouraging. It’s always been difficult to earn a decent living as a writer but I can’t remember a time when it has been more challenging.

Even so, there are doors that are open a crack and with a little ingenuity and masses of determination it is possible to push them wide open.

It is important to know, what exactly, a food writer does. Scott Jones, Food Editor of Southern Living and a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) grad describes it well: “Writers research, write, edit, proofread, and check facts (including testing recipes) in jobs such as: newspaper columnist, cookbook author, and restaurant critic. As a food editor for a publisher, you’ll review cookbook proposals and take an accepted book from contract to print. Editors also work for magazines, newspapers, and television shows, setting the content and style of their food section or programming. In this field, you’ll need strong writing skills, knowledge of culinary principles, and familiarity with current consumer and industry trends.”

That all sounds good. So, let’s look at the bad news first. The prospects of landing a job as a syndicated newspaper writer are slim and getting slimmer. The possibility of finding work as a regular newspaper columnist are thin and getting thinner as circulation and advertising numbers shrink, and few funds can be found for opinion pieces. Many resort to simple seasonal recipes with text, recipes and photographs provided free by commodity boards. Cross off newspapers as a potential employer unless you decide to become a hard food news journalist where hyper-local is the current trend.  This job has to be undertaken by a local writer.

How about food magazines?  As we all know, Gourmet is gone. The bad news here is though a fortunate few manage to secure freelance writing assignments. They are a precious few and they are, (sorry to say), often big names or “known” to the food editor. So forget about FOOD & WINE, Bon Appetit or Saveur and the other giants in the field.

This brings us to all the good news. The familiar food magazines do not provide the only home for your writings. Go to any of the major booksellers, and scan the incredible number of magazines that offer opportunities you may not have previously explored. Look at local publications too. Often the chamber of commerce or real estate groups publish their own (sometimes very handsome) magazines as do medical groups and other special interest organizations. And don’t forget about food blogs for food magazines.

Wegmans is just one of the many excellent supermarket publications, and then there are the huge number of trade magazines: FOOD ARTS, Chef magazine and Chef Educator Today, Nation’s Restaurant News, Restaurant Business, Restaurant Hospitality, Tea Times, Mushroom Growers, as well as catering and specialty food industry publications. Check online to find the names of the astonishing number there are.

There are other ways to dip your toe in the food writing world. There are food writing courses and coaches and writing programs to choose from, though I highly recommend New York University Steinhardt Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health.

But whichever direction you decide to travel, you must write regularly. The difference between a writer and a professional writer is the professional never gives up.

There are three reasons a writer becomes successful; no one knows what they are.

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Jacques Torres

The enormously talented and exuberant Mr. Chocolate, Jacques Torres of Jacques Torres Chocolate, has had a career rich with many firsts, lovingly wrapped in chocolate. (World-class pastry chef, Dean of Pastry Arts at the French Culinary Institute, James Beard Foundation Award Winner, TV host, author, humble chocolatier, to name a few.)

Why chocolate? “Chocolate is a magical product, the food of gods and lovers,” he says.

When asked: What is the best training to follow to become a chocolatier?

He answers: “Education trains your mind. Practice trains your hands. You have to be willing to make lots of mistakes and that will undoubtedly lead to many discoveries. Work in the best quality places—start where you want to end up.”

And: What advice do you have for someone looking to follow your footsteps?

He responds: “Work hard, stay late, arrive early, never compromise on quality, try to learn from the people who are already in the profession and are having success, ask questions, listen to the answers.

You must have passion for this business. You can’t learn to have passion. You either have it or you don’t. Don’t get into this business unless you have that passion. If you do, then the long hours and hard work won’t matter to you.

Always stay positive. Your mind has great power. If you continually think positive thoughts, you will be more likely to succeed. Never let those around you know when you’re stressed or tired. Take control of your emotions by focusing on the good.”

Jacques Torres shop, NYC

According to a 2009 Forbes article, Jacques Torres Chocolate, launched in 2000, today comprises 50+ employees, two factories and five retail stores in New York, Atlantic City and Michigan, while pulling in $10 million in revenue in 2008, up 43% from 2007.

Forbes further reports: “That’s some tasty growth in a crowded $16 billion industry, especially at the high end where Torres plays. Small gourmet shops have caught fire in the last decade. About a dozen niche chocolatiers have popped up in New York City in the last five years. Even Hersey has piled on: spending $60 million to acquire Joseph Schmidt Confections and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, two San Francisco chocolatiers, and a year later, scooping up Dagoba Organic Chocolate in Portland, Ore.”

If you think the sweet smell of chocolate  is calling your name toward pastry arts school, it is only a matter of finding a place to learn.

Matters Of Fact:

• Many Americans believe that chocolate has a positive influence of their psychological and physical well-being — 52% say chocolate boosts morale and 46% say it revitalizes them.
• New advertising messages suggest that chocolate is heart-healthy (especially on Valentine’s day).
• When people say they’d kill for a chocolate bar, they don’t actually mean what they say: strictly speaking, an addict may kill for a fix but chocoholics experience a craving — not an addiction.
• Video game makers have developed a series of chocolatier adventures with sweet success similar to the Farmville experience.
• The Lindt chocolate company has annual sales of $2.1 billion. The Barry Callebaut company has annual sales of $3.5 billion.

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David Ansel, the Soup Peddler

It’s been snowing so much lately and much as I love my students at the CIA, all I wanted to do today was stay at home and read by the fire after making a pot of mushroom barley soup. This reminded me of a unique food job: soup peddler extraordinaire David Ansel and cookbook author. I asked David to write about himself for my Food Jobs book. Here he describes how he created his unique recipe for success.

“An idea occurred to me whilst sitting on a porch swing at a magical house in South Austin, Texas: What if I could make a living cooking food and taking it to people’s homes? At the time I was at my wits end, trying to figure out anything I could do for a living instead of being a mediocre computer programmer, I figured making soup was worth a try. Soup was the only thing I knew how to make halfway decently.

Though I had no culinary training, I had dabbled with cooking dinners for large groups and had been spending time at the restaurant supply store. There I found little white buckets that would be perfect for taking food to folks’ houses.

Once I decided which soups to make, I had to think about how to get it where I wanted it to go. I don’t like driving and much prefer to ride my bike. I decided to deliver soup by bicycle around my neighborhood.

I needed a name for the business. I went back to the porch swing. Soup Subscription Service for Savory Soul Sustenance? Probably not. The Soup Man. Eh. Need something cute. How about Soup Peddler? Soup Peddeler? Which spelling to use? I’ll use Peddler, just in case this thing gets too big for bikes.

I sent an e-mail to my friends and neighbors describing the service. Sunday afternoon, I’ll bring you a bucket of soup on my bike. Seventeen brave customers took me up on the offer. I went out and bought an eighty-dollar pot and made gumbo in my own kitchen (not entirely legal but I had to start somewhere).

Three short years later, my staff of soup makers, peddlers, and I cook and distribute 10,000 gallons of dozens of different varieties of soup to the porches of Austinites over the course of an eight-month soup season. We now work out of a commercial kitchen. I also realized that it was not about soup, it was about lovingly-made food.

the Soup Peddler's Slow & Difficult Soups: Recipes & Reveries

I became the Ferris Bueller of Austin, liked and respected by hipsters, soccer moms, and tattooed punks equally. I have been referred to as an “American folk hero.” My cookbook, The Soup Peddler’s Slow and Difficult Soups: Recipes and Reveries, followed.

How did this happen? The task of describing the breadth and depth of the entrepreneurial effort is nearly impossible. Boot camp for the Army? Nothing. Swimming the English Channel? Yawn. Raising a child? Yeah, sorta. Spending an eternity pushing a boulder up a hill? You’re starting to get there. Of course, most of those comparison cases have their rewards, and entrepreneurship does too.

Starting your own business means you never look at the world or the people around you the same way again. It takes every ounce of your soul, and the risk is that you’ll be left with nothing to show for your efforts. The potential reward is huge, though, not the least of which is having your destiny under your own control as much as is humanly possible.”

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FOOD JOBS really all goes back to two themes I’ve embraced throughout my professional life: finding a niche and taking a risk.

I remind myself that I originally wrote this book to explain and explore for:

Butchers and bakers

And tillers of acres

And food-trivia players

And carrot purveyors

And wielders of woks.

For food fashion leaders

And recipe readers

And fitness-freak jocks.

And salesmen

Who breakfast on lox,

For taste counterfeiters

And writers of letters

And restaurateurs

And entrepreneurs

And connoisseurs.

For greeters

And seaters

Of meeters for brunch

And ladies who lunch.

For winers

And diners

And buyers making deals by the bunch.

For eaters of noodles

And bakers of strudels.

And packers

And craters

And vanishing head waiters

And food innovators who act on a hunch.

For sommeliers with tastevin flying

So clearly implying

They’d like a gratuity

Akin to an annuity

And then a drop more.

For cake decorators

And cookbook creators

And people who munch.

In short, this is neat

For all who eat…

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The conventional culinary job is no longer simply peas and beans and carrots, rather it encompasses an enormously vast array of  options. One can become a chef in a restaurant or a personal chef for a family; a food historian or a food folklorist; a recipe writer or a recipe tester; a flavor maker or a public policy food fighter…

Yet more options open up after you’ve attended culinary school. Which cooking school you apply to is a personal choice largely determined by your particular goals. High-profile schools offer more in terms of visits and cooking demonstrations by superstar chefs, but smaller schools may provide more nurturing environments and are less of a financial burden.

Where the school is located, what times of day or evening classes are offered and how large the classes are also very real consid- erations for many would-be culinary students. Unlike traditional colleges, culinary schools attract students of all ages. Some have special needs that are not always anticipated by other institutions of higher education.

Many professional schools have three divisions: culinary skills, baking and pastry, and hospitality management. Students at some, (though not all schools), are able to combine programs. A degree program can extend for anywhere from six to 38 months with tuition costs varying from $10,000 to more than $70,000. In all cases, financial aid is readily available.

The schools with larger endowments, like The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales, often have more highly qualified and experienced faculty, better-equipped kitchens, a more extensive library, and even, sports facilities. These schools, and others in major culinary metropolises, may offer student housing, indicating that  they attract students from around the world. They also tend to have higher tuition fees than smaller, non-residential schools.

There are many factors to consider before enrolling in culinary school, and prospective students are urged to take their time before making a decision about what is best for them.

An Associate of Occupational Studies (A.O.S.) degree from a top-tier school is believed to carry more weight when seeking employment, but this is not necessarily so. Great students with good attitudes are offered terrific jobs, no matter which school they attend.

You may prefer to enroll in a small school where there is a strong focus on the individual and a small class size. In the culinary program at Paul Smith’s College in Lake Placid, New York, for example, there is a 14:1 student to faculty ratio. Teachers, mentors and advisers are always on hand. The college has a magnificent library, and its lakeside campus, nestled in the magnificent Adirondack Mountains, is an excellent destination for winter and summer sports enthusiasts.

Community colleges in every part of the country offer degree programs in culinary arts. In addition to more affordable tuition, they allow students to live at home — another cost-saving consideration.

Remember that culinary school should be viewed as an investment and a beginning. There is still much hard work ahead. One more piece of advice: as you scan ShawGuides for suggested schools and begin to apply for culinary school, ask someone at the reference desk of your local public library for the Occupational Outlook Handbook. It lists all kinds of information you would need to know, (including the salary) of just about any occupation you can imagine.

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Watercolor by Tomihiro Hoshino

Changes are taking place so fast that many of us are both looking forward to the future and simultaneously dreading what might be in store for us. Some days it feels as though every assumption we ever made has changed.

Within the last couple of weeks I’ve heard from two friends who lost food jobs that they have held for several years. I tremble too when I hear rumors of cutbacks and layoffs. Maybe you do also.

A measure of bravery and sense of adventure involves our willingness to take a risk.  The trick is to plan ahead, keep the connections with friends and colleagues strong, imagine the worst and be as prepared for other next step as possible.  Or, as it has been said: “Don’t wait for the hurricane to arrive until you decide to repair the roof.”

Whether we know it or not, we are all taking risks all the time. Even if we are classified as full-time employees, we are all freelancers.  The axe hangs over our head by a slender thread.  The only security we have is our ability to transform our knowledge and experience into stepping stones to the next opportunity.

Change is the only constant in the continuum of our life. If we stop pedaling, we’ll fall off the bike. If we keep going, no matter how slowly, we’ll eventually arrive at the place where we want to be. If we stand still, there is an illusion we’re coasting, but, in fact, we’re falling back.

Can I tell you a little story about my friend Lucy?

When Lucy was a young college graduate she wanted to be a top notch reporter. Her employer decided she would be a good secretary. Lucy remained a secretary all her working life, toiling anonymously for a weekly news magazine. She often had to work late.

I remember she once said that working for a magazine was like being in a whorehouse: lots of hanging about, punctuated by bursts of short sharp bursts of intense activity (when the deadline approached).

Lucy retired at age 65 with a handshake, medical insurance and a small pension. At her going away party, her colleagues gave her a gift certificate entitling her to take six watercolor classes. She was thrilled. Other than wanting to travel the world as a reporter, the other wish dearest to her heart was to become an artist.

After finishing the course, Lucy signed up for another, and then, another. Pretty soon she discovered the greatest watercolor paintings were created in Japan.

Lucy booked a flight to Tokyo. She was hampered by being unable to speak the language. So she learned the language. In her late sixties, she bought a house in a small village in Japan, where she could continue to study and paint. She finally took a risk and realized a dream.

In the immortal words of Robert F. Kennedy:

“Some dream of things that are and ask why?
Others dream of things that never were and ask why not?”

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