Why Most Chefs Start So Young

I was watching some food talk show the other night while drifting off to sleep. Last thing I remember was hearing Bobby Flay, nationally known restaurateur, Iron Chef, and host of about 39 shows on the Food Channel acknowledge that he had dropped out of school in 10th grade.
Was I surprised that the multimillionaire Flay had given up so early on formal education? Not really, because like most successful chefs I’ve met over the past years, he had a singular understanding and intense passion for what he wanted to do long before most of his classmates.

You talk to most high school or even college seniors and many have only a vague idea of what they want to pursue. I must admit I fell into this category as well.

But talk to a kid who has a passion for cooking, and chances are it will manifest long before his/her senior year of high school. Elmar Prambs, long-time exec at Trio, was apprenticed at age 9 to a chef in Germany. Former Austin chef Will Packwood, who presided over Emilia’s, 7, and Cibo, got a job as head pastry chef in a restaurant near Waco while still in Junior High school! The current chef at Trento, Alex Kahn, told me when he was 13 that he wanted to go to Hyde Park Culinary Academy in New York. He accomplished that and much more, and was never in the slightest doubt about his goal.

I’ve often wondered about this kind of culinary single-mindedness that characterizes the stars and rising stars of the restaurant industry. Is it a genetic predisposition?

Perhaps. But without question I have seen the phenomenon too many times to question its reality. I guess we foodies should simply be grateful for all those intense young women and men who approach the understanding and preparation of food like it is a quest for the Holy Grail.