Today’s post was inspired by Chelsea Fagan’s article 3 thoughts I've been having about money. She writes about her uncomfortableness with the personal finance community and middle-class privilege, but the line "why the f*** is a woman in as prosperous a country as America six figures in debt for a Bachelor’s degree in the first place?" resonated with me. She goes on to write:I immediately decided to write about Alyssa, a line chef working at Huertas in NYC, who I learned about in my latest read Generation Chef: Risking It All for a New American DreamAnd what can we do, politically and personally, to ensure that more people do not end up in the same situation, rather than simply explaining the best and most efficient ways to crawl out of it?
written by Karen Stabiner.* Alyssa owed close to $80,000 in student loan debt incurred while she attended CIA in Hyde Park, New York. She paid for her entire bachelor’s degree with student loans; at the time she thought the degree was essential because she hadn’t gone to college. She was well-paid for a line cook at $13 an hour – most New York City line cooks earned an hourly rate of between $8 and $12. Making ends meet after her loan repayment’s temporary reduction expired became impossible.She ended up moving back to her childhood home in Southern California to live with her mom. Her first food job had been at a restaurant on the Disneyland property in Anaheim. She hoped to return to one of the Disneyland restaurants. They paid well and offered sizable benefits. She figured with no rent and no food costs she would be able to make a sizable dent in her debt in two to three years.
Other annual salaries mentioned in Generation Chef:
Sous Chef $36,000-$38,000
Jonah (restaurant owner) $50,000.
Is a culinary degree worth it?
The chefs featured in the article Chefs Weigh In; Is Culinary School Worth It? say it is not. Jonah, Huertas’ owner, describes culinary school as a “parochial” experience and is wary of graduates, although he feels hiring Alyssa was an exception.
Then there are articles like this one: Surprising jobs with $100K salaries -- after only a two-year degree. The #1 career on the list is pastry chef. I was touting the earning potential of pastry chefs, to a friend when she brought me back to reality. Her niece made $11 an hour as a pastry chef only because she worked for another family member. After that restaurant closed, the niece moved to Denver where she now works at a popular restaurant earning $9 an hour frosting cakes and cupcakes.
Then there is the 14-year old daughter of an acquaintance who dreams of going to culinary school and becoming a pastry chef. Her father’s advice: become a software engineer, work in Silicon Valley earning $200,000 a year for 20 years, then retire and open a bakery as your second career.
*In Generation Chef: Risking It All for a New American Dream,
Stabiner follows Jonah for a little more than a year as he fulfills his childhood dream of opening a restaurant. His journey isn’t for the faint of heart; despite all his planning and positive reviews, he faced staffing shortages, $700,000 of debt, failed liquor license approvals and not enough customers. If you have dreams of someday owning your own restaurant I recommend reading Generation Chef for a reality check.What do you think: is a Culinary Degree worth It?
Please Note, I am an Amazon Affiliate
Have no clue about culinary degrees in particular, but i fear this is part of the much greater problem in this country ... that we no longer pay "craft" jobs appropriately. Well, hell, we don't pay most people appropriately. Most of the money continues to go to the top (read, owners and share holders) while the people who do the work to make the businesses - both large and small - successful do not share appropriately in the profits. Name the career and you will find that. Except as her father suggests ... in high tech. I overhead a young woman in Starbucks just yesterday saying that she was getting a degree in IT so she could make enough money to pay off her schooling, even tho she hated the major. I worry that she will also be miserable. We need to take a long hard look at how our society values work. (Preaching to the choir!)
ReplyDeleteYes you are preaching to the choir, but your message needs to be preached. Poor girl - she is going to be miserable. Why pay for a degree you know you will hate. In my company we keep hiring recent college grads for jobs that didn't need a degree ten years ago. The grads don't stay more than a year or two because they are bored and broke. We also don't pay well.
DeleteDoesn't sound like a culinary degree is worth it. The main reason for excessive student loan debt is because people are loaning money to 18 year olds who have no clue whether it is worth it and who do not understand the long-term implications of that debt. CIA may be a "name" school, but you can get culinary degrees at a variety of community colleges and state universities--degrees that will teach you to run a restaurant and cook good food. Would the CIA grad have a step up when applying for the first job? Maybe--but long term the way to make money in the restaurant business is to own the business and the less debt you have, the sooner before that happens.
ReplyDeleteAS far as non-culinary college students, think state u and living at home rather than living in a frat house at St. Whosit. With the exception of a very few schools, private schools aren't worth the extra money. Living on campus is fun, but if you can't afford it.... Start at a community college, then transfer. There are ways to keep the bills down, the trouble is most kids don't want to hear them and all they hear at school is to get into a "Good" college and make the school look good.
So true:
Delete"There are ways to keep the bills down, the trouble is most kids don't want to hear them and all they hear at school is to get into a "Good" college and make the school look good."
I also agree you might be better at getting that first culinary job as a chef, but if you are a good cook some one will snatch you up.
From the people I've known who have done this, no, it's not worth it. Most people make pennies after graduation, but they all go in thinking they'll be there next big chef worthy of a reality TV show. Granted, to get to that level you probably need training, but the schooling is far from a guarantee. It's a huge gamble.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. And good to know from people you've known it is not worth it. I also know a culinary school grad who makes less than $20,000 a year. She teaches, is on TV and writes cookbooks. If she can't make more than $20k it has to be difficult.
DeleteYikes. I do think there are cheaper options than private culinary schools, like a lot of the community college programs, but I also think a lot of chefs just start working for other chefs.
ReplyDeletePeople do need to think about how they are going to pay their loans off before accepting loans for college. Earning potential needs to be a big part of the niche, and I think schools that charge big fees without having the alumni salaries to back them need to be held accountable if a large percentage of loans go unpaid.
I like your accountability idea. Back in my day realistic salary data just wasn't talked about or given out by my high school/college. I think the internet has gotten better at that, but we still have a ways to go.
DeleteI think it's very expensive and probably it helps if you have more than a little talent. I know I wanted to be a great cake decorator and I was amazed at what other people can do. They have a natural ability. Of course I do well but I will never be their level. I didn't know that till I took a few courses. Maybe starting out with a course at your local college would be better at first.
ReplyDeleteYour talent experience is interesting. Great idea to take a couple of classes at the community college first is a great idea. There was an article in today's Milwaukee Journal about the owner of a fairly new bakery. She did not get a culinary degree. She grew up baking with her mom and uses her grandma's recipes at her store.
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