7 hours ago, Alex said:but if there's a good community college culinary/hospitality program within a reasonable distance from you, I'd recommend that route.
That's probably about the best advice I've seen here. I've worked with all kinds of chefs, ones that have come through the European style Apprentice programs ones with degrees coming out of their ---, and ones that have come up through the ranks. The ones that I have enjoyed working with most have come up through the ranks but it's a long hard Road and most don't make it that far. If you get a good education to go along with the culinary training, there are a lot of good fields pertaining to food that you can go into.
5 hours ago, weinoo said:(Others, like me, realized that restaurant cooking sucks, and moved on).
I couldn't have said it better. Burnout is so common in the restaurant business. If I try to list the reasons I could fill the rest of this page. Get yourself a good education along with the training so that you're not a one trick pony and you have something to fall back on when it happens.
