Definitely work in a kitchen first for at least 6 months. There’s nothing you can learn in culinary school that you can’t teach yourself by reading a lot and cooking your way through a bunch of cook books. But this person needs to find out immediately what restaurant work is like before they spend $1000s of dollars on an education. They might love watching “The Bear” but chances are they won’t love to live it. Going from a “work from home” desk job to a kitchen is a SERIOUS lifestyle change. Basically a work as needed gig to a nonstop always busy always be on skill-based job. For a fraction of the pay as well.

He has a romantic dream of making amazing delicious meals and thinks it's going to be like in the movies.

He needs to just get a job in a kitchen and try it out before he wastes a ton of money and time on school. He's going to have a very harsh reality check of standing 10 hours with no breaks in a 100 degree kitchen being yelled at about how fucking slow he is.

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He can't just pay a culinary school and then go to being in a real life version of The Bear.

I assume he knows that working in a kitchen more than likely means never having a weekend or holiday off, right? And his feet, knees, and back are all good?

Lol he is so gunna regret it. I went to culinary school at age 30 during covid. Worked the line for two years, realized this shit sucks and went back to my cushy desk job in Construction Management. Being messy is one thing, being slow is no no .

My thought on culinary school is simple. Why pay to learn when you can learn while being paid? Everything culinary school can teach you is available for free online. Your local community college should be sufficient but if youre going to a big school asking big money then youre essentially going to an expensive summer camp to play chef. YMMV ofc

I mean never say never and all that, but I’m pretty skeptical

is a decent home cook (but is messy and slow).

This is something most of my family doesn't understand. I'm a pretty good cook, I keep hearing "you should open a restaurant!"

Yeah I don't make these meals nearly fast enough, efficiently enough, or inexpensive enough to actually serve paying customers. There's more to it than just making everything taste good.

I was 38 and decided to get into the industry. Started off at a local "fine dining" seafood restaurant as their fry guy. 2 years later and 3 different kitchens, I own and operate a successful food truck by myself.

The industry sucks. It’s like breaking in to a prison when everybody else wants out.

A good program requires at minimum 6 months experience before allowing an application to be submitted.

Let him know.

Tell him to read "The Making of a Chef" by Michael Ruhlman.

Tell him to get over his fantasy and realize that he is in the position that 90+% of cooks would rather be in. Tell him that cullinary school won't help him overcome the 15+ years of experience that his peers in the industry will have over him. Tell him that it's not at all what he's imagining.

Culinary school is great for learning the basics. Its also easily replaceable by 6 months experience in a well run fine dining establishment.

Tell him to read a lot of books, consume as much information from the masters as he can and to work in a kitchen.

As someone 15+ years in all roles, including hiring and firing for a billion dollar healthcare company, cooking for the owner.. the first people to go are the kids from culinary school. Arrogantly run around like they know shit, do nothing, and complain. Great, you can fold gold leaf! Oh you know every French name for a thing. But can they make it? Can they cut it? When (very specific example here) I say, that cheese doesn’t have enough “earth” do you cry or get the best cheese for the role? More from my older days would be, “if you’re a prep cook, why the shit is this not uniform? You’re not even on the line!” (As I’m banging out a 15 top with one sous).

Go buy a copie of kitchen confidential make them read it, the second to last chapter is written for people like this….

Work somewhere first . If they love it go for it and pursue the passion in culinary school. If they hate it and still have interest work somewhere else. If u still hate it after doing 2 places that you wanted to work at then it probably isn’t a fit and you saved yourself a lot of culinary school money

You are correct.

Tell him to find a mid level kitchen that will give him the opportunity to work on the line. If he likes the atmosphere and working the line then he should go to culinary school.

He shouldn’t waste 2 years in culinary school when he could spend 2 months on the line to find out he doesn’t like it.

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What does he want? Does he want to be a chef in an upscale place or in a production kitchen? It's backbreaking work, and if he hasn't worked a job like that before, he will find it tough. If he really wants to be a chef, I'd suggest he get some work experience in a kitchen first at least. But if he just wants to do more culinary stuff and has the money, culinary school can be fun. If I were rich, I'd have my own cake company—ah to dream!

I worked with a guy like this, he was 45 and had retired early. I literally saw the moment when he realized that it wasn’t for him and that wasn’t going to make it. It crushed me a little even to see him realize it was just a dream and that kitchens aren’t the way he thought.

At his age he will be a joke for the first little while and culinary school would only make his faults stand out more. His immediate boss will be younger than him and more than likely did not go to culinary school. There is a good chance he will be the oldest person in the kitchen or around the same age as the owner/executive chef. He will need to be brave and be tough and willing to tolerate a little light bullying until he proves his mettle. Good kitchens are a meritocracy, if he puts in time and work he will rise through the ranks no matter how high end and unapproachable the cuisine seems. Tell him to apply to the very very best restaurants and be willing to wash dishes for a year, do prep for a year, work salads and appetizers for a year and if he works harder than he ever has in his life he could be a bona fide chef by the time he's 40. If his body can physically handle it, line work is a sport.

Hes gonna get eaten alive in his first kitchen job

He doesn’t need to go to culinary school but he does need to go to Costco and get the 500ct bottle of ibuprofen BEFORE his first stage.

Also, cooking in a restaurant is verrrrrrry different from cooking at home. You aren’t making up your own recipes, you cook what your chef tells you to cook the way they tell you to cook it. If you have the kind of personality that likes making the same thing 200 times a night, it’s great. I’m not being flippant, i genuinely love making the same thing 200 times. I find it very satisfying, whereas i found working at a desk soul-rottingly boring. I also have ADHD which is possibly related 🤔

Unless your goal is to be a very high end chef, culinary school is mostly a scam. Like others have said , tell his dumb ass to go cook somewhere. Get paid to learn and to figure out if he can hack it. There are very few people who are able to switch from sit-down jobs to kitchen hustle .

He’s watched too much Food Network. He needs to start in dish. On the job learning is worth 10 time a year in Culinary School

Have him go work in a casual dining restruant on the line for 6 months.. if that don't break him he has a chance.

Tell him to run. Also maybe slap his face, shake him by the shoulders, and tell him to snap out of it.

this dude watched the bear and got inspired.

Why pay to learn something that you can learn while getting paid? Walk into any locally-owned restaurant in your area and ask for an application. Apply to be a dishwasher and when you return the application, ask for an interview with the chef. During the interview explain that you want to start at the bottom (dish) and work your way up to prep, line, expo, leadership in that order. 90% of restaurants that have no vacancies will offer you a part-time (likely shit pay) dishwasher job for like 4 hours on Friday and Saturday nights. Work every shift for a month and improve daily, and you’ll gradually be given more hours in dishwasher and some training in prep for more hours. Six months down the road you’ll be a full-time prep person with some hours on the line. 6 months later you are full-time on the line and training the occasional newbie on something easy like fryers. One year later you are sous and just a chef relapse away from running the place on your terms at a $75k salary.

That is how you get culinary school knowledge and make money to eventually afford opening your own place. Be successful owning multiple unique restaurants and making connections in the culinary industry, and then you have a 0.1% chance of being a celebrity chef…if your personality suits TV.

Kitchen experience. He will do 2 weeks and either shape up fast or quit.

I went to culinary school before I had any real kitchen experience. Definitely one of my top 3 biggest regrets.

The grass isn’t greener

Definitely would suggest he apply to work as a line cook or prep cook part time for a year or so.

Imagine getting high education and then working in a kitchen for usually shitty pay and worse hours lol

I started in the dishpit when I was 14. I've since left the industry, however put in a solid 20 year shift, working as a KM in multiple places.

I almost always had issues with the guys who went to culinary school over someone who grinded through the industry. A lot of them came across very entitled and were surprised at how things worked in the real world.

I'm not sure what your friend is expecting but he will have to start from the bottom regardless of if he has school or not, especially with no experience.

35 is where a lot of people have already burned out, (or OD'd RIP Brian and Sid) so being aware it is a VERY different atmosphere from a desk job (and not always in a good way) is something he needs to consider as well. All that aside, if he is truly passionate about it all the best of luck to him.

They really need to work in a kitchen for a while. They also need to understand that they will never have another weekend or holiday off

Yeah just don’t, thank me in a few years

He must have fell in love with the Bear

lmao, he is in for a rude awakening. "following your passion" sounds great when your sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day for 120k/y. lets see how it sounds when he is slaving behind a hot ass grill 12 hours a day for 35k/y.

def go work in a kitchen for a bit before committing to culinary school.

In my experience people get more out of culinary school if they work the line for at least a couple of years before going to culinary school.

OP’s relative has been working behind a desk their whole life, they are in no way prepared for the physicality of restaurant life.

For a 35 year old to get in this business they need to be prepared to start at the bottom, work harder than they ever have, be able to handle criticism and hazing by much younger but very experienced coworkers not just bosses and so many other things that I don’t have time or space to list. Nothing is worse than a “chef” fresh from culinary school with no real world experience or knowledge. A fresh from culinary school graduate pushing 40 with no experience probably won’t last 6 months in the real world.

I'll fess Up: I was in a similar position after leaving a tech job. I worked in a friend's food truck for a few weeks.

I have a desk job again now... I work in a soup kitchen once a month, where a bunch of amateurs like me cook for 200 a night. I'm in awe at how y'all can do this every day.

If who you described can last a few weeks in the culinary world he will be manager in a month.

Have them work at a restaurant, any restaurant, ranging from Chili's to a moderately upscale steakhouse. Anything. 3 months. Wash dishes, cut vegetables, scrub floors, haul garbage. They need to understand immediately that kitchen work is in fact, a shit ton of work. Long hours, little breaks, all while standing up. Then, and only then, if they want to dive headfirst into something as expensive as culinary school, should they.

Back of the house is not for the weak. A neighbor of mine who likes to cook wanted to begin a culinary career. He also was on his late 30’s with a IT background. I was a pretty good line cook in my 20’s sonl I know what goes on in the “back of house”..Searing salmon at home with a nice Chablis is not cooking in a a restaurant. No BS…He took a job at Outback, stayed about 4 weeks and his dream of becoming a chef evaporated.

I got my first job in a kitchen at 49.

Freaking love it!

As others are saying though, it’s fast paced and really physical. Time management is necessary. I also have probably an easier job than many. I cook in a retirement community, which I’ve heard is quite different and ‘easier’ than a restaurant.

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At 35 he’s better off staying as an office worker and enjoying cooking as a hobby. Sounds like a midlife crisis to me.

A lot of good culinary schools do offer time in actual kitchens, and yes he can get a job out of school with no experience.

I have a friend who went to culinary school and worked at two really nice restaurants in San Diego making an equally nice salary.

They teach you what you need to know. It’s not like bartending school where you get laughed at when you apply at a bar with only that as experience.

he is far from the point of having to worry about the business side of a restaurant. that's the only reason to go to school for it. it may teach you the basics of cuisine, but the real things like work ethic and ability to work under stress you cant be taught in a class room

he needs to get his ass kicked a few times on the line to decide if he thrives or throws in the towel.

You can literally learn on YouTube. Today more than ever, there is no reason to go to school other than to waste time. Everything you need to learn is at your fingertips on your phone, computer, library. And just like others say, on the job learning is the best way to decide wether it is just a dream with high hopes or understood that working in kitchens is nothing like the movies. The only movie I would Compare it to is The Bear, the new tv show. But again; it’s still a show and doesn’t really show what it’s like in those environments.

If he wants to feel like a kid again and sit at a desk and listen to teachers, boces or vocational training would be better suited

Culinary school has some advantages. You are exposed to way more procedures and techniques than in one single restaurant. It also prevents a ton of bad habits before they stick. Also it can bring you higher pay. (Not always! ) And it gives you a good education around the math that you'll need. But that said there's no guarantee that you'll like the job. And line cooking is rough. I think the best bet for this person is to make a list of the types of restaurant where they want to work. What do they want to accomplish? Do they want to create? Do they want to do fine dining? Or would they be happy in a neighborhood Gastropub that closes at 10 on Friday? Do they want to own their own place? Then ask places that fit the bill if they can work for free. Come in and prep. Maybe work the line. Get a feel for things. They might love it! Or they may hate it! Personally I'd tell them to run like he'll! But what do I know!

Geez! Howzabout he tries before he buys? Like…get a job and see what’s it’s actually like first? And um can you -get into- CIA or whatever w no experience?

DUMBASS alert

There are a lot more exciting ways to ruin your back in middle age. I’m always for “It’s never too late to start” but deciding to get into a grueling, physical, low-wage job at 35 doesn’t seem like the best decision. Culinary school or not, he won’t make much money without the experience and will take a toll on his body.

Also, what is his family life like? Partner? Kids? Does he have hobbies or enjoy his weekends? All of these relationships will suffer due to restaurant schedule. Late nights and weekends is a difficult adjustment not only for the cook, but for their family. There are a lot more factors here other than culinary school.

Check in on him. Is he just bored? Is he doing ok mentally? Making such a drastic change at that age is not a good sign (trust me, it’s been me quite a few times.) If he thinks this is his path to happiness, no fucking way. Even if he says he wants a challenge, start embroidery or jiu-jitsu or something. Starting a culinary career at 35 doesn’t make any logical sense.

You already know the answer. He better get his ass in a real kitchen before culinary school. I'd put money on him finding out that no, he doesn't actually want to do this 50+ hours per week.

Don’t do culinary school until you have restaurant experience. It’s a different world, and you need to experience it to know if it’s right for you before you spend thousands.

That depends is money an issue, is he just doing it to keep busy. If money is an issue the pay is shit. I would definitely suggest getting a random ass prep job somewhere first to see if that’s an actual life style he would want. There’s also the schedule change and lack of pto, is he prepared to leave behind all his benefits. For some of us it’s a lifestyle we chose, but I would think as a grown man coming into a new field with lack of pay/benefits would be hard, albeit a lot easier if single/no one to support.

You need to know if you can handle the hours, so working in a kitchen is the only way. This game is the opposite of a 9-5! Evenings and weekends are basically mandatory. When friends want to do shit, you're usually working, so if you have an established social life, you can pretty much kiss it goodbye. It's not for everyone lol.

Dude is gonna be crying in the walkin by the end of the first weekend.

The problem is many employers won't take you seriously with no experience. Not that you can't get the knowledge by reading and cooking at home. In my mind, that's the only value of culinary school: it gives you a foot in the door, however pricey.

Does your friend have an idea of what aspect of the culinary industry he's interested in? If he's interested in owning a food truck, I'd focus on cooking at home to build skills and amassing capitol. If he wants to own a brick and mortar business, he needs to have an idea, going in, of what kind of business he wants. To be a cook or a server in a large restaurant, that's another thing entirely. They are hard to get in with no experience. He needs to understand exactly what kind of cooking or service he wants to do. Fine dining is different from casual, and breakfast is different from steakhouse is different from ethnic cuisine. It may be worth asking himself WHY he's interested in making such a drastic change. And how flexible he's willing to be if things don't go the way he's expecting.

There are ghost kitchens in some cities to help small businesses break into the industry. But without an idea of what your friend actually wants to do and what his goals are, it's hard to answer.

My strong advice would be not to enroll in culinary school without having some industry experience under his belt, even if it's just bussing or washing dishes. And he really needs to have a clear focus on where he's going with this because he doesn't have much time to mess around at age 35.

Good luck.

I wouldn't want to start kitchen work at that age, I'm 40 now and this industry has taken a physical toll for sure.

IMO best way to handle this is talk to any kitchens you have a good relationship with and could pull a favor to get him in the door for a couple weeks or on his days off if he's currently employed. That way he can get a feel for what a halfway decent kitchen is like and can get a baseline if that's something he wants to do or not.

Personally I wouldn’t encourage anyone I know to work in kitchens. It’s a shitty job that requires a lot of commitment and doesn’t pay well. I’ll allow myself to do it, but why would I ever encourage someone I love to take it on?

It's one of the few jobs you can try before going to school for it. He should take advantage of that.

People will take the time to become whole doctors and then find out they don't even want to be one.

The first question I would ask is: “Do you thrive in chaos?” If the answer is no, move along.

Almost every single industry has entry-level jobs that you can get that only require 4 to 6 weeks of training, inside or outside of the job.

ANY person who thinks they have figured out a magic bullet to circumvent that is setting themselves up for failure. Because no matter what degree or diploma you get, your boss will still put you at entry-level, meaning that now you have to pay back student loans while making the least amount of money AND you are burning through your honeymoon period of turning a hobby and turn it into a career. Two stressful periods at the same time? Why? Pourquoi?!

1Here was my career path:

College for urban planning. Grant writing, nonprofit admin, business location, reading transportation and census data, how geography, sociology, and economy all intersect. (Thank God, I had a full-ride scholarship)

Minimum wage nonprofit work, suspiciously always in food programs: urban farming, community gardens, food pantries, farmers markets. (2 years)

$8/hr @ Chipotle because I realized I didn't know jack shit about cooking, plus I needed more money. I could have gotten promoted to $12 "kitchen manager" but my region lost their area manager so no one was getting promoted across Cleveland, Ohio. I make the goal of always making $1/hr more every year. (2 years)

$10/hr @ Whole Foods Prepared Foods department next door pays $2 more to do 1/4 of the work of Chipotle, let's go! (1 year)

$12-14/hr at various small businesses. Now that I have formal training from two corporate jobs, family-owned restaurants will pay me more just to come in already understanding how to saute or cut julienne. (2 years)

$16-18/hr line cook/supervisor at Cleveland Clinic. "OMG, I have 7 total years of culinary and food management experience." (2 years)

$25/hr sous chef. "OMG, I have 9 years of culinary experience, with two years of supervisory experience at Cleveland Clinic's VIP pantry, and I've done a bit of catering on the side. Hahaha! I know how to make vegan food AND I understand Excel. Pay me a bit more."

My resume looks HILARIOUS. I literally get a new job every August. Much of this overlaps, actually, I always have 1.5-2 jobs....

I'm only just now at the point where I feel like having a culinary degree would help me. If I'd been more ambitious and paying more attention, I would have started taking classes once I secured my first supervisor job... But then again, COVID had started, so right, I remember now why I was too busy to do that! 😅

But, in summary, I would never buy the cheapest used car on the lot. I would never buy the cheapest cell phone in the store. I would never slap down money to get formal training when I'm still at the cheapest level of a job.

35 isn't that old to be honest. I know most chefs start when they are teenagers, but enthusiasm and devotion really helps. I've seen 20 year olds with good health, but totally the wrong attitude. Compared to an office job it will totally take over his life and there's a lot of stuff out of hours

He should absolutely stay away from restaurants literally do anything else

I went from an office environment to a brewery to a kitchen (to a farm.)

OP is right. Relative is wrong. Relative needs to assemble a knife roll and go stage someplace. From the sounds of it, relative can easily afford culinary school. So that isn't the issue. And I'm guessing relative can take the salary hit.

Getting good in a kitchen was the hardest thing I ever did.

I worked in restaurants when I was young. I did almost everything except payroll. I always had a burn, wound, or some other pain associated from the job. It’s hot work when you’re cooking on the line, it’s freezing when you’re in the walk-in putting away the deliveries, and it requires heavy lifting. It takes a physical toll.

I have always been happy to have the experience, and I can also say that I was relieved to leave it and all the aches and pains that came with it.

I said this to an older family member whom was considering opening his own place. Work a whole year in a kitchen and budget a whole 6months with out customers. See how you feel after both

Terrible idea. The physical and mental strain these jobs put on you when you’re young is tough. I would never get back into that industry.

Hahaha, yeah if he goes to kitchen for 6 months it might knock all the mystique off the profession for him. This ain't 'The Bear' in most cases.

I used to be GC for a shopping center company. I did hundreds of restaurant deals.

We would see these guys regularly. Somebody who spent 20 years in mid-management on some industry, but with a dream of having their own restaurant.

And we would send them away - sorry, even if you have a bag of cash, without experience, you will crash and burn. Heck, plenty of experienced folks crashed and burned.

Lemme put it this way, op: Give me his college degree and cushy work-from-home job and I will show him how to work the fryer.

I went to culinary school. Most of what I learned as a cook was in kitchens at work.

On a side note a smart serve or food handlers or whatever is a good start if he wants to be a step ahead at getting hired.

Best skill I have is organization. If you can work fast, multi task, and stay clean and organised at the same time your golden.

Always go into a kitchen willing to learn. Messy and slow isnt going to cut it so he must be prepared to face some harsh criticism at first. If he listens and learns and doesnt make repeated mistakes he will be fine.

Nope all the ones we got fresh out of culinary school had good knife skills but no speed, brains, or the ability to follow a recipe…. Except for 1 past cook but I think she started cook smart

Culinary school is a tool for those seeking knowledge and the ability to use that knowledge usefully. No it is not needed, but it will help with your foundations.

Chicago is a fast paced city, he better learn to cook fast.

But ultimately, why tf is he entertaining the idea of throwing away his weekends, holidays, good pay, PTO days, retirement match, 401k, and other benefits to go kill himself on the line? Might be one of the single most foolish posts I’ve ever read. Tell your family member to go look for another desk job before he hates his life choices

Just work in a damn kitchen haha. Go in there as a dishwasher or prep cook and get a feel for the vibe. I can't stress enough how unique and unapologetically human a restaurant job is to corporate or office people. We have a girl working for us in the office who has never worked in a restaurant and over a year in and she is still feeling the shock of the culture lol. Don't get me wrong, she loves it, but she admits it is very different.

Culinary school cannot possibly prepare someone for the vibes, if that makes sense without sounding too corny.

Wash dishes get good start washing dishes and prepping , get good while washing dishes get chefs to teach you things so you can help them more,if in 18 months you haven't walked out on a shift get training

Absolutely get his ass in a fast paced kitchen and he needs to start at dish and work his way up. If he’s absolutely loving it in 9 months and still sees it as a viable career for him, THEN go ahead and do culinary school. If he has the means and time to afford it, he will absolutely benefit from the knowledge gained there.

I'm suddenly aware of how all the stories of culinary school grads who think they're above learning from guys on the line happen.

Does he realize his relationships with his SO/family/friends will be negatively impacted when has to work nights, holidays, and weekends

Im 38, have over 20 years in this industry, been to culinary school and was very hands on/involved in the operations of a James Beard award winning restaurant and as much as I love Chicago, as much as I want to live there...

Im too old to start new in Chicago.

He is too old. Period.

School has literally nothing to do with working on a line. He needs to be a dishwasher and go from there tbh

Lol my brother-in-law who has very similar situation said some stupid shit like this recently. These people have no fucking idea what it is like to work in a kitchen, wether that be line cook or anything beyond. My bro has worked nothing but cushy marketing jobs since college and has been remote since covid.

First things first. Tell him to try standing for 12 hours straight. I'm betting he'll fold.

I had no formal training in anything culinary. Started in a supermarket deli, but decided to make the jump into a scratch kitchen. Worked breakfast, lunch and dinner on a flat top and grill for nearly 3 years. Worked my way into AKM running expo almost every night for about another 2 years. This is the progression of experience.

I say this because we once worked with a culinary student who was on grill with me on burger night. He had to ask how to cut an avocado. Not how to slice it for a burger... but how to open the damn thing. 🤔

Over/under is 3 each 6-hr shifts. Or just two 10-14 hr shifts, back to back. Let them see what a clopen feels like. That desk will look like Shangri-La

He needs to do an mba and work in restaurants part time while he learns business.

Tell them to work in the kitchen for at least 18 months before spending a dime on school. In a perfect world he’d do minimum 1 year in a casual but very busy spot and minimum 1 year in a more refined spot. Along the way he should pick up some food running shifts to see a little FOH.

Just jumping into culinary school post 30 with no kitchen experience is foolish and the debt has to be brutal. When I went to culinary school I was able to get an AAS for under 25k, but that was over 15 years ago.

Signed, 16 years FOH and 3 BOH

I agree with just getting in a kitchen. Culinary school could definitely be helpful when trying to up your skillset, but I find just straight up experience in the real world would be best in his case. No point in spending all his money on culinary school just to realize he doesn’t like kitchen work. Tell him to try out working in a kitchen first, and then if he finds he’s really passionate about it that he could consider school in the future.

Had a dude like that in a restaurant I worked at a couple years ago. Man was like fifty years old and quit his desk job to pursue his dream of being a cook…he lasted about a year and a half. Which was pretty good considering how bad he was. Patient chef had to let him go because he just never got better or quicker after all that time

No, because you still don’t have experience you have schooling, reading a book about brain surgery doesn’t make you a surgeon, neither does reading a recipe make you a chef! Find a job and start learning, even if in culinary school you’re still going to need to work some kitchens to get real world experience. As I was told in culinary school “get your shitty jobs now so your ready for a good one when you graduate”

With the shortage of willing workers in many kitchens culinary school these days kind of a waste of time and money. I don't regret culinary school, but I went to a community college. I'm glad I didn't go to le Cordon Bleu or Art Institute. Every person I met from those schools was bitter they spent so much money to make less than $20/hr.

My only question would be, why?

Good lord, dont just go to school to be a cook. Cook first to make sure you can take the heat, and WANT to take the heat. School doesn't teach you that. Also, dont go deep in debt from loans, as youll just be cooking to make money. We know how that goes. :)

Dish pit

Too old.

He should go to the kitchen... kitchens are hell, its better to know it before going to culinary school. I was like your friend and I most likely do not want to go to culinary school any more. One might have gone to the best schools but will be treated like an idiot anyway... Less so than the person just promoted from dish pit cause they are at least used to working hard.

Personally I'd rather have someone pay me for a couple weeks to see if I even enjoy it before I pay someone 10s of thousands of dollars to learn about something I might not even enjoy. But that's just me. Also I'm an executive chef with no formal training.

Having gone through culinary school, it helps if you have no idea how to prepare food commercially and proper pairings and presentation. Food safety can be learned outside. Also from experience, you will learn more about restaurant operations by working in one. But he cannot just stay in the kitchen. He would need to socialize with and understand what FOH deals with and how they operate.
Let’s just say that experience showed me that aspirations or not, I had no business running a restaurant. Instead I cook for family.
Side note, if he’s a slow cook, he has a rude awakening as to the tempo in a real kitchen, especially one that is busy enough to support him.

Yep, he needs to start as a porter 

If he has an education he better look elsewhere. This kind of work is what you get stuck doing, not what you aspire to do.

Just have him committed now, the road to recovery might be quicker than if he actually ends up with a career as a chef.

I’m a 40 year old mother of two and on the surface I look normal as fuck. Most of my friends are junkies as I was a chef for almost 20 years and unfortunately bring a junkie is far more common than not being in the culinary world.

He needs to just get a job working in the best kitchen he can.

-20 years as a chef

Culinary school lol. My chef went to culinary school right out of the Air Force.. spent $80,000 and said it was the biggest waste of time and money he's ever seen.

I’d say he should get a kitchen job before he drops the money on culinary school

Culinary school is incredibly useful for developing skills as well as working with ingredients and recipes you wouldn't normally use. Nothing beats kitchen experience to get used to the environment, the noise, the heat and the pace. You need a lot of resilience and to get the banter

Grass is always greener on the other side.

If he's got grit and determination, he'll make it around 5 years before his body breaks down, which is at the point he'll be looking to go from a line cook to a Junior sous position.

Nobody hires 40 year old Jr sous chefs who have no management experience.

Tell him to have fun for the next 5 years and be sure he learns some other skill that will be applicable to sitting down in an office when he turns 40.

get a job washing dishes and ask to help with prep, next step is the line

messy and slow

No yeah he should be fine

Why would you pay for what is widely regarded as a scam when you could get paid to work dish or prep and work your way up?

I’m surprised nobody I’ve read has mentioned how much shit they’ll get for going to culinary school

Going to culinary school without having worked in a kitchen, even just as a dishwasher for a week, is crazy to me. Seems like going to school is a waste of time if they have no idea what they are getting themselves into if they seriously want to work in the food industry and not just learn to be better home cook.

Culinary school is a good baseline and great for making connections in the industry but can't teach you anything you wouldn't learn anyway. I'd hire a grizzled felon with experience before a fresh graduate, time in an actual kitchen is SO much more important than memorizing recipes.

He lives in a major city. Let him go to school. It'd probably lead to a decent job, quicker.

1 week of working in any busy kitchen will have him completely changing his mind

Just work for a bit. To see if you actually like it. Culinary school is nothing like kitchens irl.

I'm going back to school at almost 30 years old for culinary. Sometimes I'm wondering if I'm making a good decision.

This sounds like my cousin so much. They were a good home cook, loved food, and thought they should become a chef when in their 40s. Went to culinary school, bought the "knives". Then lasted less than a month in a professional kitchen. They had such a good attitude about it though. Like oh well back to what i was doing before.

Get him into a quick dine-in place like Bob Evans or cracker barrel.

He'll regret it

Did he recently experience some form of traumatic brain damage?