Students find themselves in culinary school having come from many different backgrounds and having traveled down many paths. Some are cooks that are ready to move into a more challenging role in the kitchen; others want to learn new skills in baking by becoming a pastry chef; and others are building on years of cooking experience, having had no formal training. I found my way to Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School by way of music.
I knew I would eventually work in a kitchen as a chef. I grew up watching and learning from my grandmother in her kitchen, as she created wonderful meals using the ingredients from her northern Minnesota farm. Without formal training, she taught me through her examples and her artistry was evident as she showed me how to make and prepare food. It fed my desire to fun my own kitchen someday. Many years later, I’m a corporate culinary executive chef. It’s a title I wasn’t aware existed when I was a young boy in that hot Midwestern kitchen.