Here are 4 reasons why joining your local chapter could give you a competitive advantage over your peers whether you are going to enter culinary school, are already a student, or someone that is already in the industry

“The first thing that impressed me about Washburne, of course, was the price but I certainly wouldn’t have enrolled there if I thought it was some sort of bargain-basement school,”

Second degree burns, stitches, being assisted by paramedics in the hallways, sleeping in chairs, and pulling 10 hour restaurant shifts after class: These are things I have seen students go through while attending culinary schools.

I would purposefully get in trouble because I really loved being in the kitchen. It was the first time in my life that I felt I had a purpose and was good at something.

The Vegetarian Resource Group is a scholarship that you want to apply to as they have announced that they are awarding two scholarships with each recipient receiving $5,0000.

Washburne Culinary Institute is already a quality, yet inexpensive, culinary arts program but they still provided about $50,000 in scholarship money for 2010.

“It’s the hardest and most stressful thing you will ever do. It’s a mentally taxing, unfulfilling, and unrewarding until it becomes a reality. If you want it that bad, you go after it and you don’t compromise.”

Rob Levitt, of the soon-to-open Butcher & Larder, swears by his Forschner 5 1/2″semi-flex boning knife. It cost him a mere $30.

Rick Bayless – Top Chef Masters’s winner, Michelin Star recipient, author, and successful business man did not attend culinary school but he did get his Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies as well as doing doctoral work in Anthropological Linguistics. He is formally educated but grew up around the food industry.

I would often hear in the halls, “But I don’t need this English class. I want to cook!”