ABOUT THIS EPISODE
I had an admission letter to culinary school in my hand. I never used it.
Some of you told me this podcast is starting to feel like an advertisement for culinary school. It's not — and I want to correct that directly instead of letting it sit.
This solo episode is my honest answer: the specific things that became possible for me because of the door I actually had in front of me, not because skipping culinary school is better than going.
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In this episode, I explore:
- Why I never used my culinary school admission letters — and what a one-bedroom apartment in Bombay had to do with it
- The real financial gap between hotel management and culinary school in India, and why IHM Mumbai wasn't a backup plan
- What I didn't know walking into European kitchens for the first time — and the hazelnut praline moment that exposed it
- Why nobody at Mugaritz, Noma, or Kraft Heinz ever asked me how many degrees I had
- The two years I spent undocumented in Spain, and why I don't recommend anyone copy that path
- Why the real problem isn't culinary school — it's that there's no map connecting kitchens to the rest of the food system
- What I'd actually tell 19-year-old me, and what I think about the Michael Bakker and Adrian Woodhouse episodes
🎧 Fugitive Chefs explores how culinary expertise creates value across the modern food system.
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▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@fugitivechefs
English
United States
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