A Chef I am not...a Master yes!

For a very long time I was confused as to the role I played in this world called food...yes I had a catering business, yes I did most of the cooking, I designed my menus, planned them and executed them. Yet, I was not a chef. I was not a chef, however, I know food. And I know food very well. So after years of battling and struggling and trying to come up with an answer that made sense, I finally decided, hell with it. I love cooking, I love feeding people and I enjoy making money doing it. LOL. So what I don't have a degree. It made almost no sense to me, to go attend a culinary program to obtain an associates degree when I already had a bachelors, all for a whopping $40,000 a year. I couldnt. I wouldn't.

It took me a while to get over the insecurity of not having a degree. I mean after all, you go to school to be the master of your chosen field right? Be the nerd that I was, it bothered me for years. Until one day, I woke up and looked around and saw, I had built a business centered around food, with no training.(well no formal training)

Im sure certain things would have been easier had I gone to culinary school or attained some kind of hospitality certificate, but I do not regret it one bit the way I did it. I am proud to know that I took the time and devoted the energy to learn what I do...and I do it well.

I have a close friend who refuses to do anything until she has received "proper" training. it use to irk me to no end. But then I said to myself, some of us need that and it's ok. But for me, I have realized, passion, drive and motivation can push you to learn just as much outside the classroom as you would inside.