Food For Thought

Culinary schools are drawing top talent straight out of high school in a nation hungry for fine dining

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin is considered one of history's great gastronomes. The 18th century Frenchman, however, spent years as a lawyer before openly pursuing his epicurean calling. It's a trajectory scores of Americans have traveled in recent years as they abandoned the corporate world and sought greater happiness at cooking academies. But if Brillat-Savarin were around today, he would probably skip the law and head straight to the kitchen. The fastest-growing population in the nation's cooking schools is young people who refuse to do time as lawyers, orthopedists or even traditional college students but instead proceed directly from high school into culinary...

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