Dreamer Goes to Culinary School
My younger sister, Karen, is an inspiration to me because a couple of weeks ago, at the age of 48, she left her home and three cats in Minnesota to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America (CIA) school in Napa Valley, California. She is enrolled in the eight month long pastry and baking class, and claims she is one of the oldest students there.
As an experienced and prizewinning baker, she has earned dozens of ribbons in the state and local fairs over the years and has had her recipes featured in cookbooks. But her practical experience didn't seem to count as much as a formal degree when it came to employers. When she repeatedly got turned down for jobs working in the test kitchens or as a culinologist at General Mills (where she's been working in the area of ingredients and labeling), she had the chutpah to check into cooking schools in order to get the background that would help her get the type of job she ideally wanted.
My sister's neighbors, friends, and I all help out by feeding her cats and watering her plants while she's gone. Her dedication to really go for her goals is making me re-evaluate my own once exciting dreams that I had given up on years ago.
By:Kim Cope