NAME: Jennifer Lee
CULINARY SCHOOL AFFILIATION: Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY
PHOTO:
BIO:
Chef Jennifer Lee grew up in Mystic, Connecticut where she has had a love and passion for baking and cooking since a very young age. While other kids her age were watching cartoons, she was watching the Food Network. As a young teenager in high school Jennifer started working at her relative’s Chinese dim sum restaurant, beginning as a hostess and busser, and eventually working into more advanced positions in both the front and back of the house.
During her later years in high school, Jennifer accepted a position at a bake shop in Mystic Connecticut, where she worked in the front of the house taking orders and assisting customers, eventually becoming a barista, and helping in the kitchen with the baking.
After graduating from high school, Jennifer enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York where she graduated with an associate degree in baking and pastry arts. During her time at the Culinary Institute of America, she opened her at home bakery called J Lee Bakery, which specialized in cakes, cupcakes, and French macaroons.
Besides baking, Jenn has always had a love for photography and videography. In the past couple of years, she has started her own YouTube channel which focused on her time at the Culinary Institute of America to share her experience with her viewers who may be interested in attending the college one day. Her videos have become very popular which has allowed her to become a legitimate content creator with multiple brand deals. In the future, she plans to continue her YouTube channel while pursuing a pastry chef’s position in Boston or New York.
Contact Info / Social Media:
YouTube – Jennifer Lee – YouTube
Email – jenniferlaleebusiness@gmail.com
Instagram – http://www.instagram.com/jenniferlalee
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Episode Transcript
welcome to another episode of culinaryschool stories the weekly podcast thatis dedicated to sharing the stories ofpeople around the globe whose lives havebeen influenced impacted touched and orenriched for good or for bad from theirculinary school experience hi my name iscolin roach and i’m your host thanks forjoining us today you are an importantpart of this show where we ask thequestion what’s your culinary schoolstory so now without any further delaylet’s meet today’s guesthello and welcome to another episode ofthe culinary school stories podcast aproud member of the food media networkif this is your first time joining ustoday thanks for being here weappreciate you listening in we hope youbecome a long-term listener andsubscribe to the podcast because it’sfree we’d love to have you as part ofour community you can subscribe throughyour favorite podcast app spotify applepodcast google podcast and a whole lotmore or through our website atwww.culinaryschoolstories.comwhich is also where we store all of thepodcasts past episodes as well as ourguest bios and contact information so besure to check it out again that’swww.culinaryschoolstories.comso now without any further delay i wouldlike to introduce today’s guest who hasa great story to share with all of usa recent graduate of the culinaryinstitute of america in hyde park newyork where she earned her associate’sdegree in baking and pastry a lifelonglover of food and cooking she has workedvarious jobs in the restaurant industryincluding both front and back of thehouse she’s also an influencer andcontent creator with their ownsuccessful youtube channel with thatsaid it is my pleasure to welcome chefjennifer lee to the show jen thanks forjoining us today and sharing yourculinary school story hi i’m so happy tobe heregreat so you’re a recent graduate of theculinary institute of america so whydon’t we start are you telling us whatbrought you to the decision to go toculinary school and why did you choosethe cia yeah so i have been baking eversince i was a little kid like before icould even remember like beforei even started baking at home like in akitchen my dad actually built aplayground in my backyard and i totallyturned it into like a mud bakery kitchenso i’ve been baking like even before mymom even let me uh bake with or cookwith real foodum so i think it’s always kind ofbeen in the back of my mind but to behonestgrowing up my entire family is they’reall in the stem field so i always feltlike almost different and that i wasn’tsupposed to or allowed to go into bakingor to go to culinary school so thathonestly was not even in my mind itwasn’t even a possibility for me um ithink it wasn’t really untiluh like high school when counselorswould sit you down and say what do youwant to do where do you want to go toschool and then i kind of just had therealization that i can’t like lie tomyself anymore that i’m supposed to goto culinary school so i mean i’ve beenbaking and cooking forever but i thinkit really was um like junior year highschool that i decided that i’m i’m gonnago to culinary schoolawesome now did you tour a lot ofdifferent schools and how did you doyour research i mean how did you pickculinary institute of america and thehyde park campus yeah so um i’m fromconnecticut personally so i reallywanted somethingnot too far becausegrowing up i really i’m like i have ahuge family so we always do so muchstuff together so i didn’t want to leavethem like across the country quite yetsoi looked into johnson and wales first inrhode island um and itoured the whole campus the summerbefore i attended school and i was ahuge huge fan i actually found out thatmy aunt was one of the architects thatlike built the school and she gave melike a personal tour so wow yeah so thatwas really cool i kind of felt like aconnection from that just because of myfamily member but um sure so yeah rightaway i was really i was really into it’sa beautiful campus it’s like on thewater and everything and i was almost100um like dedicated to like going there solike that was almost my decision andthen i i also like within like this timei applied to cia just because i knew ciawas like the number one but um i don’tknow i didn’t really have the interestto go to new york and i know there arethe other campuses in like texas and uhin california but new york was the onlyone that offered a bachelor’s degree atthe time so that’s what iwas planning on doing a bachelor’sdegree i obviously changed my mind andjust did an associates but um it was thetwo that was really debating uh betweenbut yeah no i didn’t like think of likeice in california or anything else likethat so it was really just not johnsonwales in that ncia but um yeah then oneday i get this letter in the mail thatwas for like an accepted student’s dayand my parents are like you know it’sonly like two hours away let’s just gocheck it out so i went and um i stillwasn’t set on it i still didn’t want togoand my parents were like you know whatif you’re going to go to like a culinaryschool you’re going to go to the bestone like i don’t even care if it’s likejust like the title whatever you’regoing to go to the best one and um and ijust kept talking to other students iwas in the tourists with and they’relike you know i thought about johnsonwales too and then we started discussingthe pros and cons and i don’t know ikind of just chose a cia like on a whimi like that like honestly it’s justbecause of the title and i don’t knowhow much of a difference the educationwas but that’s kind of what did it forme sadly right the reputation was it thesame price basically and same packageslike financial aid i know they give youthat yeah for me yeah okay yeah evenlike scholarships-wise so we were likewhy not it’s the same cool yeah so whatare some things that you you look forwhen you’re going there like maybethere’s a listener right now that’s inhigh school thinking about huh johnsonand wales or cia or some other schoolyou know besides the finances and thecosts yeah it’s like that but what aresome things like when you went on yourtour what spoke to you what stuck outthat said oh this is cool oh i don’tlike this the dorm roomsi if i’m going to be completely honest iwent to johnson and wales and the campuswas beautiful the classrooms lookedgreat but they showed us the dorm roomsand they wanted four people to a dormroom and it was probably the smallestroom i’ve ever seen i’ve toured likei’ve toured other colleges just becauseof past family members have been tocollege and it’s it was by far thesmallest one i’ve ever seen i was likeyou know i just i don’t know if i canlive in their mom and then we toured ciaand they were like yeah even thefreshman you can get a single oh wow soi was like yeah so and they’re they’repretty nice and no communal bathrooms soi mean like i’m so spoiled in that sensei’ve never even gone to college in acommunal bathroom so i don’t i don’teven know what that’s like um but yeahhonestly besides the education and likefinancial stuff it it was just like thejust environment just how i felt to beon campus like outside of class cool nowonce you made your mind up and youstarted talking about obviously yourparents went with you to take thesetours were they supportive of you atwhat point did they like okay you’re notgoing to go into stem you’re not goingto follow maybe some of your otherfamily members were they on board fromthe start or no soi would saymaybe i’m just really stubborn i feellike now like looking back they havebeen supported from the start i mean mymom has i think in the back of all theirminds they always knew that this wasprobably what i was going to go into andat the time i mean they they still kindof made it seem like oh she’s going togo and major into food science so theykind of still tied it back to them youknow and then it wasn’t until like ijust kept saying i was like mom you knowand i just kept talking about like myplans in the future and then they werelike you know what just we just want youto be happy just do whatever what makesyou happy and we’re always supportive soi mean even like going to culinaryschool was their idea i was just goingto go major in business at first butthen when like you know it was time andyou had to choose a college i couldn’tlike delay this anymore they were likeyou’re going to culinary school so theykind of almost made up my mind for mebut um now like i talk about it so manyfamily members especially now that i’vegraduated i found out that a ton of themeven like all the doctors andpharmacists they wanted to work in arestaurant like they always wanted toown a restaurant they love culinary andi guess i always think they like cookingbut they’re like so passionate about iti would argue they’re even morepassionate than i amabout food and cooking so i mean i guessit’s in my blood they just didn’t wantto admit it yeah yeah it’s so truebecause i’ll be on a plane or somethingand someone will talk to you what do youdo and i hate to open that door becausei don’t want to say oh i’m a chefbecause they’ll be oh that’s what i wantto dothey want to have this big conversationi just want to read my book but a lot ofthem are like doctors and stuff and i’mlike you’re a doctor you want to be achefno yeahlike they’re so they’re so into it tooand the moment you say the word chef orfood or baker they they get it’s liketheir reaction is huge it honestly makesme feel yeah it makes me feel prettygoodso take us to that first day you’rearriving you’re on campus now you’regonna check in you’re gonna meet yourroommates i guess you’re gonna what getuniforms get knife kits tell us what’sgoing through your mind and what thatprocess is like yeah so umi i guess i don’t know like so obviouslylike we had to drive it was like a threehour drive to get there so the entiredrive i was like super super nervous umi mean i was prepared like for like likepacking wise and and just like what toexpect i was pretty prepared because i itried to do a bunch of research beforeand like find youtube videos of peoplebut there are not many you know so i hadto just kind of i don’t know preparemyself but um the moment i got there imean it was really nice they had a wholewelcome team and this was pre-covered soyou know it was very normal and um theyhad like balloons and everything andthey helped i didn’t even have to carrya thing like they had a whole group helpmy family carry all my stuff up to myroom and um this is before my roommategot there soyeah it was very overwhelming at firstand when we were still trying to likeunpack some stuff um it just felt finebut then the moment my parents were likeyou know what we have to leave now i igot so so sad um and i know like so manypeople like they can’t wait to go tocollege to get away from their familyi’m like the complete opposite i could icould stay with them like forever idon’t know i’ve just always kind of beenlike that so i was so sad andimmediately they that like when i shutthe door and said bye mom i just startedcrying i was just so so sad but then myroommate showed up so i like i wiped upthe tears i was like it’s okayi’m like i’m excited now um they gave melike my entire backpack and my knife kitand my entire like uniformso yeah it was kind of surreal surrealto see yeah that it was actuallyhappening but yeah i was like excitedand scared yeahanticipation the unknown it’s all what’sgoing to happen yeahthe unknown for sure yeah now how wasyour first labs what was your first labhow was the chefs are the chefs meanwere you kind of scared did you have dolineup uniform check or early in themorning tell us about that yeah soour for at least for me for uh like labclasses we had for the first semesterjust one whole class that was just thewhole semester long i didn’t changeanything it was called fundy so likeit’s just the fundamentals thefundamentals of like baking and well idid baking but or for culinary if you’reculinary but um yeah so you have onechef for the entire semester two classesa week and it’s like an eight hour longclass so umunlike like later on semesters you everythree weeks you will change your chefsbut for this it was just that one chefso he was the only guy only chef i everreally met for that first semester andhis name was chef mccarrick i loved himso so much he was he was just like areally really nice like grandpa almostlike he was just um i don’t know he waslike well traveled and he just knew somuch and uh he was he was really reallynice and uh really understanding to liketeach you and they didn’t want to makeyou feel too afraid i know like everyonealways thinks that like everyone’s likethat like born ramsay type and there aredefinitely at that school but he wasn’tone of them he was really really greatso it was a good way to start my firstclass awesomenow going back to the dorms are theyco-ed are they separated or how how manypeople you said two in a room yes sothey have i think uh i think the schoolview tech technically speaking they havelike maybe 15 different like lodges soum there are different types so at ciaat the hyde park one there is hudsonhall which is like notoriously thefreshman building but any overflow willgo to like any of the other ones there’sone called angel and pick i ended upbeing a pick i mean no an angel sorryand that was like the best thing thatever happened to me because hudson isthe worst hall by far every single roomis tiny um it’s the oldest building andum there are communal bathrooms so thereare like doubles and triples but inangel there are only doubles and nocommunal bathrooms so i got i just gotlucky oh that’s good that’s usually anupper class dorm angel or it’s stillfreshman i mean nowadays it’s kind oflike just whoever they can fit but umtypically i feel like it’s likesophomore level yeah but they um theyalso have like lodges and townhouseswhich are like a whole different setupso for the last two semesters i stayedin a lodge which thankfully ii don’t know if it was like first comefirst serve but i was able to pick myroommates that i wanted so i got stormedwith my friends and i had a whole singleroom but it’s like a whole suite sothere’s like four rooms andevery single person gets a single roomand we get our own like huge bathroom sothat was really nice if you like likethe people you’re living with then it’spretty great great so what was yourfavorite lab class and what was yourworst and why my favorite wasabsolutely my confections class so thatso like not confections like chocolatesor candies it was um i think they calledit like confectionary arts and specialtycakes i think that’s what it was butthat’s the class where we got to likework with gum paste flowers and um weworked on mainly like cake dummies andwe covered them like covered everythinglike fondant and worked with likemolding chocolate modeling chocolate imean and um yeah that was a super funclass we made so many different flowersand i love that chef i had chef cavattium i’m pretty sure she’s still there buti think she’s she said she would she’slike retiring soon or something but umno she was great i loved um i just lovedhow she taught and that class was justsuper fun like i woke up every singlemorning even though it was like superearly and i like i was ready to go toclass unlike some of the classes i waslike dreading it umbut my least favorite i can like 100 sayit was my chocolates class reallyyeah i absolutely hated it like ilike i’m not to really talk bad abouthim but even like the chef we we reallyjust didn’t like see eye to eye too muchand umhe was just a really mean guyand i just feel like he was one of thosegordon ramsay ones you were talkingabout no but this is what i always tellpeople i feel like there are twodifferent types of me there’s like thegordon ramsay where they’re wherethey’re really mean and they like yellat you and everything but you can telllike deep down like they’re trying tohelp you know almost but then there arethe ones that are just jerks for noreason like they yell at you and thenthey tell you you’re doing it wrong butthen they don’t tell you why you’redoing it wrong so there’s no likelearning happening so i just it’s justwhen chefs teach like that i i tend tojust get a little upset just because ifeel like there’s no it’s just notbeneficial there’s no reason they shouldbe doing that like i’m fine if they yellat me i honestly i have a i don’t know imight the household that i grew up inlike i just don’t really cry like i’mnot really phased by people yelling atme but like i don’t know like if youyell me that’s fine but there has to belike a reason as to why you have to likeshow me your like i don’t know somethinglike that so those chefs are alwaysputting like barriers up or pitfalls foryou and hoping that you kind of failyeah it’s almost like they want us tofail i just i don’t understand thatespecially when they try to like claimthat they’re they’re like helping thenext generation of chefs and they justare not doing anything to help me but uhyeah so that one was kind of like i wasjust putting the class and i was almostexpected to like teach myself and i’mjust not very good with chocolateseither so right and i was excited tolearn so was the content as well or nojust more of the instructor part of adifferent instructor might have madethat class okay or i think so i meanbefore i went to that class chocolateswas already um like not my like i don’tknow my like area of expertise and ididn’t like i didn’t know too much aboutit well i didn’t know too much about howto work with it so i was excited tolearn more just to you know broaden likewhat i’m good at but um yeah i i i thinkif a different chef taught that iprobably would have been okay with it iwouldn’t have been great at doing it buti would have it would have been a waymore enjoyable class right right yeah sotell us about the student body who’syour classmates are they all like rightout of high school or is there somecareer changes military peopletransferring in more males more femalesso that’s actually one thing i uh wasn’texpecting it’s it’s like people of allages all backgrounds i remember in my inmy last semester uh it was like less umlike range of age almost but during myvery very first class my bench partnerwas actually a 70 year old woman wowthat was a yeah she was a lawyer and shesaid out of the blue she just stoppedand said i’m going to culinary schoolgood for her but she she ended updropping out two weeks inbut yeah no there are people like i meani remember the first day the chef willbe like tell me your name um like whatwhere you’re from a fun fact and a lotof people were like oh yeah i used towork at a hospital and i hated it so i’mhere now so there are a ton of careerchanges for um for people at culinaryschool i feel like the ones that changedtheir career the older people that umyou know all of a sudden they just hadlike a realization that they wanted tobe a chef but um otherwise most peopleare straight out of high school but umyeah it’s like it’s a huge um range ofdifferent ages is it more females inbaking and pastry or more males oh forsure after my first class i have ihaven’t had a class with any males sowow yeah yeah so it’s like i i alwayssay to people like not even in like aromantic way but i have had no maleinteraction in so long i i have nottalked to like any guys at all um yeahmy first class i did have a few butafter that they just disappearedwhat do you think that is why do youthink females gravitate more towardsbaking and pastries and males at leasttraditionally towards culinary yeah idon’t know i feel like it’s stilleven though like most people these daysare verymodernized and everything i don’t know ifeel like maybe i don’t know peop i feellike it’s bad but people do associatelike baking with as a more feminine likehobby almost creative art way of doingit yeah yeah so yeah something like thatrather than culinary i feel likeculinary they’re like down and dirty andlike hot in there and it’s like kind ofwhatever like they’re like oh it’s notsalty enough throw more salt versus likebaking we’re like to a precise pointlike one gram so but there is a classwhere um for one semester the bacon kidsget to do culinary and culinary gets newbaking and i love hearing the storiesbecause my roommate was a culinary umstudent so she would tell me all aboutlike how she’s not used to scaling stuffout and how she like something failedjust because she was like point one offor something so yeah it’s veryinteresting to hear them but um i don’tknow they don’t like they don’t like thestructure of the baking and pastrythat’s culinary right they want to justbe freewheeling yeah i guess i don’tknow they’re just not as a as proper asme for uscool soi want to talk about academic classesyou have to take those too what do theylike is it is it hard is it a rigor oris it pretty easy i mean is it becausepeople don’t think that when you go toculinary school you also have to takethose english math costing humanresource whatever type of classes theyare so maybe you could talk a little bitabout those for a bit sure um well so iwas an associate i did an associate’sdegree souh associates and bachelors it’s gonnabe way different for the amount ofacademic classes you have to take so iactually only took like a collegewriting class and i actually um testedout of a math class so i didn’t have todo that so for the academic likestandard ones where it’s like math andlike language and um english classesit’s pretty similar to high school iwould say so in high school i took likei was mostly like ap student type of uhpersonso i was really used to like the reallyreally hard classes so compared to ciamy i would say my high school classeswere actually harder than than at ciabut i mean it’s different for everyonebut otherwise besides those like englishand writing and mathall of the other academic classes arelike ones you’ve never heard of we havemore like intro to hospitality andnutrition and like um i don’t know howi don’t even know what oh likeprofessionalism so they’re very uh notlike usual like academic classes rightmore like career related or specific tothat industry no very yeah so actuallyif youwere to like want to transfer to aregular college after i guarantee younone of those um classes will transferthrough and i actually asked before sothey were like yeah we’ve never likethis is not like anything that we haveso yeah so it’s really really differentit’s not necessarily hard buti think it really depends on theprofessor you get because every singleclass there are multiple professors soyou have some that are like very chilland relaxed and some are like five pagesof like essays every night so justdepends who you have so as a recent gradwhat do you think makes an effectiveteacher i mean it was a good teacher youhad good ones you had bad yeah whatseparates you how did how did youconnect with the ones that you thoughtwere good and ones that you weren’t theyweren’t so good i mean tell us maybewhat in your opinion is a good teacherso i i mean i feel like it’s uh it alsohas to do with how like what kind oflearner you are so personally like i ilove to like see things and i lovehaving like a not scary uh relationshipso i mean some chefs like i said are sointimidating and mean that they almostwant to keep that they don’t want you toalmost like talk to them so i just feellike that’s not very effective but so ilike to you know be a i like to be notafraid to speak to them and askquestions and mess up and i like it whenthey you know show you correctly and notnot stick by their method too much so imean as you’ll see like if you go toculinary school every single chef hastheir own like little like method or orsome things that they’re very very likespecific about so the ones that are okayto like not dothat i feel like are a lot better ifthat makes sense so like i’ve had somechefs where it’s like oh well you cantake um a method that you learned fromthis chef and this chef and like putthem all together and kind of createyour own thing and do whatever worksbest for you because they’re likehonestlywhatever way that you can do it thatworks best for you if you have the sameoutcome it doesn’t even matter so thechefs that can recognize that i alwaysappreciate just because there is not oneway to do things like something and umif you can recognize that there like aredifferent ways and there are ways thatworks best for you uh rather thansomeone else then i usually love thosechefs and the ones that um are just notgoing to totally freak out on you if youmess up because again like they theylike to stress that’s learningenvironment and that it’s okay to messup but then the moment you do mess upthey love to yell at you and just tellyou you’re doing it wrong so i’m like sowhat is it you gotta at least warn uscorrectly you know soyeah i i definitely think the teachersor the chefs that i um am able to havelike conversations outside of class withare the ones i usually like more i’m notlike almost like a friend you knowsomeone that uh you feel will be therefor you and to support you and help youlike a coach or a mentor rather than youknow this power struggle yeah yeah moreso yeah exactly i mean in class if youwant to be like i don’t know like you’rein charge whatever that’s completelyfine that’s your classroom but sometimeseven the chefs are like outside of classthat just choose to like keep onbullying you i’m like i’m just trying towalk and cross the hallleave me aloneso are they mostly males or females theinstructors and are they older are theyyoung or what do they like that too iwould say it’s a a huge like range oflike men and female and um old versusyoung i think mymy year that i went to culinary school alot of them were starting to retireespecially when cobin like hit they werelike yeah we’re done so some of theolder ones definitely retired andthey’re like on the hunt for more newerchefs now i think they’re they’re almostlike under staff just like every otherculinary place even the school is soum yeah recently we do i have seen a lotof younger chefs but yeah they’re it’seither they’re either very young or likevery oldi feel like there’s like no in betweenno in betweenso now that you’re graduated graduatedin december uhlooking back was it worth it is there agood return on your investment uh if youcould change something would you changeit would you do something different orwould you do it the same way you did iti get this question asked a lot and ialways likehesitate to just say like it was worthit only because i feel like it’s justit’s one of those things that i i willnever regret going and if i didn’t andsomeone was like if you could turn backtime and choose if you were to go againi still would go it’s something that idefinitely think has been beneficial umto my life because this is what i wantto do so it has been beneficial but iwill say it hasn’t been as glamorous andlike like amazing as some people put itout to be there are definitely like prosand cons to going but umlike like i said i wouldn’t like say thepros outweigh the cons it’s just i ifeel like it’s necessary so it’s almostlike it kind of sucks but you have to doit at least that’s how i feel soi always say like there arethere are definitely some liketechniques and just so many things iwouldn’t have taught myself or eventhought to teach myself or to just learnmyself but you do go in and you do feellike oh i like i already knew this likewhy did i need to like relearn this orwhatever but again that like repetitionand just umi don’t know the structure of like howthey train you to be and like um theearly hours and the stress andeverything that all kind of like goesinto um like just the experience in idon’t know i feel like it has beenbeneficial but it hasn’t been as greatas everyone always says it is so it’sdifferent for everyone though maybe giveus some specifics on some of those surenegatives that listeners to be likewatch out for this this is something youshould know before you you know signthat line and attend i would say um forevery single person that goes in it’sjust your own mindset and um how youchoose to do things and talk to peoplebutthere are definitely going to be thepeople there that will try to prove thatthey’re better than you or will bullyyou or just make you feel lesser thanand really just ignore those people doyour own thingi feel like thelike honestly the negatives of theschool are the people and theenvironment i mean every chef is supercompetitive and almost sometimes i feellike peoplelike are just tooinsane with thelike amount of like competition like thecompetitive competitiveness that they umthey choose to like involve even intheir friendships so like outside ofclass like i feel like everyone’s justvery judgmental and um and there aredefinitely like clicks of like thepeople that like will try to bully youso just ignore them do your own thing umlike this is your own experience so idon’t know just try to learn the bestyou can and meet the right people andthe experience will be way betterbecause no matter how much you hate thechef and everything no matter like whatthe type of person is everyone’s gonnalike hate it but you can’t reallycontrol that but the things you cancontrol um just try to cut thenegativity out and just uhi don’t know make it the best and mostpositive experience for you how whateverlike that is like if you meet the rightfriends or like just stay in your ownroom whatever it is just like dowhatever you can so do you think it’smore of like a cutthroat competitiveenvironment that’s instilled there andthat’s why people are kind of competingso i feel like maybe yeah it’s just likethe environment that gets everyone elselike to be like that i feel like thechefs almost don’t really um almostenforce that anymore i feel like thechefs have relaxed but the students havegotten more like competitiveso it’s just within like every studentso there are definitely people that ihave gone to school with that like willjust try to prove that they’re betterthan you and just say all these greatthings about themselves and make youfeel lesser than and it’s just importantto just either i mean you can befriendthose people that’s your own choice butum i i like i like to tend to stay awayfrom them right rightso what about other activities theextracurricular activities clubscommittees sports something along thoselines is that available or did youparticipate in anything like that wedefinitely do have clubs and umactivities in sports um but sports wiseit’s not as many as a normal college andi don’t know i don’t know if there aremany i never played any sports or myduring my time there there weren’t manythat were offered that i was veryinterested in i mean i’m not thesportiest person but i go to the gym alot so that’s kind of like my favoriteactivity i used to go to the gym liketwo times a day but um there aredefinitely clubs i’ve i had many friendsthat were in clubs iwas kind of boring i didn’t participatein like anything like that they did do alot of um activities and stuff which areto like normal collegesthey’ll sound really boring like we hadlike bingo nightmovie night things like that yeahexactly and i mean they were fun becausetechnically like our school were notallowed to have parties or do anythinglike like a normal like 20 somethingyear old would do um so i mean it is iguess as a whole we are more boringbut um but it’s okay it was it was finewhat’s the what’s the big what’s the bigthing to do up there for a campus whatdo people do what is the uh was gonna goto hyde park what is what is the drawthey go to marist they go to the collegenext door to party oh reallyi actually i never went but i heard alot of people did or they’re the onesare like really really into theactivities that go on at night so i meanthey do have a lot of activities some imean towards the beginning of thesemester especially for the freshmenthey have like so many they’ll evenbring you like out bowling and stufflike that and but that time it’s gonnalike be super super fun but then it’lldie down because as like the time goeson they’ll like put less and less effortinto it but um every fall they’re boththat’s when the most some activities goon oh coolso is there a class that you didn’t havethat you wished you had or was offeredthat you didn’t take or that they didn’toffer that you wish they did offer iwish this school um for calling like forthe kitchen classes they offered morecreative ones like foras in like cake decorating cookiedecorating um stuff like that because alot of the school a lot of the kitchenclasses that they offer or that aremandatory to take are very um like oldschool french um like high-endrestaurant fine dining type of dessertsand i mean i love to that i got to learnthat because i personally wouldn’t havelike wanted to learn that myselfbut then the school will say somethinglike oh fine dining is dying and uh youyou really shouldn’t be like doing thislike you should be learning bakery stuffbut then they don’t offer that so i feellike everything they say is just verylike hypocritical and they’ll saysomething like oh yeah like you see howlike during coven all the fine diningplaces like clothes and it’s just likethe take out bakeries and we’re likeyeah so why don’t you teach us thatstuff and they just don’t so thecurriculum hasn’t caught up to whatthey’re saying then right yeah exactlyso yeah i would have loved to learn thatmore because i do love doing more oflike the creative decorating um aspectsof baking rather than like just sittingthere and like like whisking batterscooli want to take a quick pause here atthis halfway point in the show and askare you currently in college or thinkingabout enrolling in collegeor maybe you’re a parent grandparent ormentor of a high school or college-boundstudent in either case i want to share asuper valuable free resource with youand that is the non-profit organizationcalled affordable college prepthey are a free non-profit organizationthat offers remote college supportservices for students and families whichmeans that they can help you with yourcollege essays the application processfinding financial aid and much much moreand again it’s free so what do you haveto lose check them out today theirwebsite is www.affordablecollegeprep.comthat’s all one wordwww.affordablecollegeprep.comyou can also find them on facebook andinstagram at affordablecollegeprepremember you don’t have to navigate thecollege admissions process by yourselfaffordable college prep has been helpingand educating students and theirfamilies on all things college for yearswith an emphasis on saving money anddoing what is necessary to get studentsto graduate in a timely manner theaffordable college prep advisors do anexcellent job in helping students findand apply to the universities thatprovide the best fit academicallysocially and financially for them andtheir families and they do this byproviding remote support over the phoneas well as through video chat email andtext messages to help you prepare forcollege so be sure to take advantage ofthis free resource and contact themtodayokay now back to the showso let’s talk about your youtube channelbecause you started that while you wereat cia and it just blossomed and thenyou’re still going today with it andtalk about what was the impetus to startthat and how did it take off and whatwas your kind of creative thoughtprocess as you were creating those so ifeel like as a kid i also like besidesbaking i i always wanted to like famousbut um and i always like loved watchingyoutubers and i just thought like wowthat’s so smart because you don’t haveto live in la you don’t have to likelive in a big city to go to like castingcalls or whatever you can just have yourown phone or camera and just record andupload yourself it doesn’t matter ifpeople watch you like you can still putyourself out there so that has alwaysbeen something i always wanted to seewhy you always joke around like i usedto say like subscribe to my channel evenbefore i had one and i think itit took until it was may it was may of2020 so i was actually still at home umyeah this is when i got sent home fromschool during coven so i was just athome i was extra bored like more boredthan usual and i was like i don’t careabout the judgment anymore i think i’mjust going to do it and when i firststarted i was like okay well now what doi film though if i’m going to start thisso i like this one video popped up umthat was like i’m going to dress up aslike a different decade every single dayof the week so that’s what i ended updoing it’s a very bad video so don’twatch it but in the second video i waslike oh i guess i could talk about likemy experience at culinary school becausei don’t know like i feel like that’sinteresting it’s not talked about so ijust like on a whim i was like i don’tthink anyone’s gonna watch this and ijust filmed it in my room and i don’tknow like i think like not even a monthafter i just started getting emails likein my email that was like youtube youhave like this comment this comment thiscomment i was like what people arewatching it and it just uh i don’t knowit just started getting really big andafter that i was like oh my gosh i havelike a following now i can actually likei felt pressured to make more videos andit was it was like good pressure it waslike i was excited to do it so yeah ijust i was never gonna plan to makevideos about the cia but that one didreally well and i was like i guess thisis something people want to watch so ijust kept doing it sure because there’sa lot of people that may want to gothere right they’re thinking about it noyeah and that was my intention behindthose videos it wasn’t ever tonecessarily promote the school or tojust talk about stuff i just wanted tohelp people because i felt like therewasn’t a big um i don’t know thereweren’t many culinary channels for likenormal people like besides like theschool’s videos right so i just thoughtwhatever i can do to get the word outthere help them just talk about likejust everyday things besides just like idon’t know i just wanted to show them myeveryday life get them prepared givethem a heads up warningso why don’t you give us the link tothat case anyone’s listening wants tocheck those out yeah sure so um myyoutube channel is just jennifer lee umyeah cool and i’ll put that in the shownotes too with your bio so if someone’slistening and wants to look at thatafterwards perfect now that you graduateare you going to continue that uh vlogthat you had yeah so um i’m kind ofsegue in towards just like my likenormal life um here and there i’ll stilltalk about like my school but i guessnow it’s just kind of following moretowards what i’m going to do in thefuture i guess if i get like a new joband i’m like a pastry chef i’ll showthem behind the scenes of that but justwhatever wherever my life takes me uhthe vlog will just follow along my lifeyeah awesome now i did see that you wereone of the graduation speakers how didthat happen how did you get picked andwhat was that like yeah so i i rememberwhen it was like a month like maybethree months before graduation we allgot emails that were like a list ofthings you have to do and one of thosethings was we had to pick a studentspeaker for graduation and i sat there iwas like i have no idea who could speaki myself wasn’t even like in mind like ididn’t even think about thatso i just never submitted it i neversubmitted anything i was like uhhopefully i still can graduate becauseafter the deadline was over i was likethey were like sorry you can no longersubmit this i was like i haven’t eventhought of anyone and then a week lateri get an email i was likecongratulations you were picked so iguess students just picked me um whichwas really exciting and it made my daythat’s an honor huh yeah i know i waslike oh that’s so close like i didn’teven submit anyone so yeah i was likethat was like the student address rightso how did you have to plan for thatthey tell you how much time and whatyou’re supposed to say or the topic yeahso they uh were actually not veryhelpful they sent me an email about iwas like so you’re doing it um i’m i’mgonna help you along and we’re gonnalike collaborate up like on this umafter that email they really they reallydidn’t send anything else they were justlike they were like here are theguidelines andbasically they kind of just wanted me tostay like an advertisement for theschool they were just like no negativityjust say just talk about the good stuffnot too much about your life just uhwhat are the good things about cia makeit very generic so um was i really inlove with that speech no but um for liketo follow the rules that was like thebest i could think of so sure no but itwas still fun it gave me something to doduring graduation yeah and people canlook on your channel and see a video ofthat speech right a little little bit ofit little snippets yeah yeah yeah yeah iput in my graduation video so if youguys want to check that out so if youcould change that and could have saidanything you wanted to what what wassome of the things you would have addedinnow that now that you’re not there rightif i didn’t have any rules or likeguidelines in that speechi meanwhen i talk with when like joking aroundwith my friends they were like youshould just get up there and shout don’tcome to the cia i mean like i wouldn’tbe that blunt and say that because it isstill a graduation ceremony but i woulddefinitely say likebecause i think one of my sentences theyi got away with saying like through allthe times like all the stressful andexhausting times like i probably wouldhave just gone on and on and oncrazy chefs mean people you might youmight there are nights where you’re justgonna cry and does not want to wake upand go to class but you know we thoughtthrough iti don’t know i probably would have justtalked about more of the realisticaspects like not even being negativeit’s just really what happened i wouldhave said more about that um yeah butinstead it was just like life’s gonna begood life is great here love the ciais there anything you wish you knew nowthat you graduated before you startedthere like if you could say this issomething or to a listener you need toknow you need to be prepared for youneed to be expecting when you go thereit’s just the it’s kind of weird so myfriends and i talk about this all thetime we always say like the parts thatwe don’t like it’s less things thathappened or things that we’re doing it’salmost just the feeling of being thereso itit kind of sucks because it’s it’s likeyou have to learn the hard way and gothrough it yourself before you canreally tell it’s for you i mean i guesslike my problem now is like the harshreality of culinary school is you justdon’t get paid very much so if you wantto go out in the real world and live ina big city like i really want to move tonew york more than anything but it’sjust like financially can can i affordit yet but instead i mean if i don’twork 10 hours a day 10 plus hours a dayin a kitchen making minimum wage forlike a few years can i even afford tolike move out if i don’t like save up sonow it’s almost just like i’ve graduatedbut i’m almost gone lazier so it’salmost like i i put myself through thatbefore and i know what it is like and ijust don’t want to work 10 hours in akitchen anymore which kind of sucksbecause if i don’t do that it’s likewhat am i going to do did i just wastemy degree so right now it’s almost justlike i need to save up uh to do thethings i really want to do but to beable to save up i have to do a job thati don’t necessarily want to do almost soi feel like that is something it’s justlike you have to really keep in mind therealities of what this is going to belike after you graduate but that’s whati would tell myself and what what doorsthat degree will open for you which onesyou still remain closed right becausejust because you have that associateswhat is that going to get you in themarket exactly i feel like now it’salmost like you just feel like youwasted your time and your money almostbecause the jobs that i can get a highschooler can get so it almost makes youfeel like oh was it even worth it andobviously in the long run like if ireally want to own a place in the futureif that has helped like those skillsthat cia has taught me will help thatlike tremendously but like if we’retalking about like right out of collegeit hasn’t like none of nothing that ciahas taught me is really helping me yetor like even the title it’s not reallyhelping me too much because the jobs ican get like i said anyone can reallyget so right especially now anybody ifyou want to work in the food serviceindustry you get a job yeah dying forpeople and that’s why now like more thanever it i almost feel like i don’t wantto always because and i feel bad becauseit’s like i want to help thesebusinesses but um it’s just sounderstaffed that when i worked duringthe summer if i wasn’t feeling well andi called out sick we had to just closethe whole place because if i wasn’tthere no one was making the cakes andthen i feel so guilty it’s like do iprioritize my health or in my well-beingor like just helping the place keep likestay running so you have to really justthink about all of that and right nowit’s like it’s like i’m not even lazybut i don’t know it’s like i want towork but just not under thecircumstances almost which sounds reallyselfish but it’s kind of just how it isnow you were originally going to go foryour bachelor’s degree and then youchose not to just get out with theassociates is that because you had thatrealization that this wasn’t goinganywhere necessarily or was it becausethe place cia wasn’t what you wanted orhow did that make you change so iactually uh i actually thought likefigured that out like during my firstlike semester there so i just got abunch of warnings from people that didgraduate with a bachelor’s saying don’tdo it so then i started questioning ohwhy why not like you got one was itreally that bad and basically how ciaworks at least is that if you get abachelor’s your course runs the sameexact like you do the same exact classesand everything as an associates but thenthe moment an associate’s person wouldgraduate you stop and you will just takea bunch of academic classesso you take the same amount of umkitchen classes and everything and forthe most part you take the same classesbut then after you’re done with all ofthat you’re just going to take a setamount of academic classes and thereason why i chose not to do abachelor’s is because i found out thoseacademic classes aren’t reallybeneficial in like almost a resume sensesoif i were to decide one day oh i amgoing to use my like bachelor’s like abusiness degree like like culinarybusiness degree that business degree isnot recognized by the world as abusiness degree it’s more justrecognized as a culinary business so iflet’s say i really wanted to escapebaking for a little bit work a nine tofive all of a suddenthat company might not recognize thosecredits or degree like that degree as abusiness degree so that’s why i justchose not to i was like if i’m going ifi really want a business degree that badi’ll just go to another like normalcollege and just get that but yeah rightgo to a business school where you’reexactly recognized and instead of goingto a culinary school which you’re notgoing to get any more lab classes you’rejust going to get business academics soyou might as well go to a businessschool exactly it’s not if you want togo for a master’s they’re nottransferable at all yeah exactly hmmmakes sense so it was a good decision torealize that so yeah give you some goodadvice i know yeah um is there careerdevelopment there is there a place thatwhen you graduate that helps youfind jobs or get you on interviews orcould set you up or set the graduates upfor success so they have like a whole umlike you sign in as a student like thisis like a whole website that um has alink to a bunch of like employers andstuff like that so it’s less the schoolwill help you it’s just more like theresources they provide so the resourcesare there like if i really wanted toreach out to someone i have like a wholelist of people that i can reach out toso like technically speaking like theykind of do but they’re not going toone-on-one help you reallyit’s kind of just for you to figure outyou know do it on your own it’s likeyeahjobs listings yeah here’s some jobs youcan reach out we’re not going to be likethe middle person now you said you wentthere because of the name culinaryinstitute of america does that help whenyou go get a job with other alumniyou’re like hey cia cia give me the jobdoes that help or no so now that i’veworked like back of house um and like iwas able to say like i went to the ciaor i was i’m a current uh student at thecia it almost doesn’t it does but itdoesn’t so there are there are types ofpeople that were um like bosses thatwill say oh that’s so impressive orwe’ll be like wow the cia or there arethe types that will say oha cia student they’re going to thinkthey’re better than everyone else andthat is what i’ve come across they’rethe i i’ve had a boss that were like ohyou go to the cia i’m like yeah is thatbad they’re like oh well you knowcia students they they tend toyou know be really stuck up and you knowand this fancy pants yeah exactly andthat’s kind of what i’ve like beentrying to escape i’m like no no i just ijust went there i trust me i’m not i’mnot like thatso it helps but um you have to presentyourself not in that way not in the ciaway yeah don’t expect the name just tocarry you right it’s gonna have to comedown to your skill level and yourpersonality yeah and just who you are asa person because again there are thereare the types that will be reallyimpressed by the name but then there arethe there are the ones that will be likealmost turned off by itdid you find that in general when youwere working that culinary degree nomatter where it’s from as opposed tosomeone who came up to the hard knocksschool you know worked on their own andgrabbed it that way is there adifference they look down at you likeyou’re the college person or i i youknow i actually wouldn’t say they lookdown on people that graduate from aculinary school they do um appreciate itbecause there are basic things that theydon’t have to teach you becauseespecially when i workedat a bakery in the summer we were reallyreally short stuff like everyone elsebut so we were trying to hire someonenew someone was really interested butthey had almost no culinary or bakingexperience like in their background atall so my boss ended up just being likeoh i’m sorry we can hire you justbecause they don’t have the time now totrain you so i guess like in like nowsetting if you do have a degree theythey don’t view that as bad just becausethey trust you enough to hop right inand just get things done versus likesomeone that needs training and theydon’t necessarily have the time to tolike teach them soit’s like good and bad i guess dependingon how times are right right surein the past and probably still to thisday there’s been problems in ourindustry that has plagued it you knowthings sexual harassment bullyingalcohol abuse drug use you knowlots of stress you know people talkingabout mental have you seen anything likethat in your experience whether that bein school or out there in the workforcenow is it changing is it still bad ithink it’s gotten a lot better um it’sdefinitely still a thing it’s not ithasn’t just gone away but um like inschool definitely some of the chefs thatare almost make it seem like they’re notthere to help will definitely cause youstress and depending on the person theymight not take it well and they mightjust want to drop out that’s why ialways tell people like yeah you’regonna get accepted to the cia theacceptance rate’s like almost 100 butmore than half of my class that istarted with are gone they all droppedout within the first month wow so it’slike can you handle that it’s a lot ofstress and a lot of pressure forsomething thatyou know you’re not going to get paid alot for in the future like right away soit depends on the person but yeah stresswise i i feel like no matter what nomatter how well you can handle it you’regoing to feel a lot of stress but um interms of even like like safety and likesexual harassment and stuff like that ifeel like personally i have beenfine like every single environment thati’ve worked in has been reallyprofessional and really amazing but likewe’ve had chefs um that i still talk tonow that are great that will say like ohyeah i take that very seriously likewe’re not gonna let anyone bother youespecially like as a woman in likefaking i feel like a lot of likeculinary people might feel i don’t knowlike they’re better than you because ihave had a friend that went on aninternship and she had an old frenchchef that threw stuff at her and she hadto go to the hospital she had like somany bruises on her from like sheephands and stuff like hurting her and shewas just too scared to speak up becauseshe didn’t want to lose the job so imean it’s definitely still a thing it’sdefinitely still present um you justhave to make sure you’re careful and youuh find the right places to work atright and speak up if it does havebehind human resources like get out ofthere i guess yeah no and that’s why i’malways like i am like i encourage you tosay something even if you’re scared justbecause like you don’t want to gothrough that you know so these 50 thatdropped out do you think it was becausethey picked the wrong career to startwith i think so they didn’t really knowwhat they were getting into like thatlady that you said was 70. she went inthere she probably thought oh i’m justgoing to cook some lunch and have a goodday and then you’re going to stand onyour feet you got to clean you got toscrub pots and pans is it like a shock ifeel like the people that end updropping out are the ones i expected aculinary class versus a culinary collegei feel like even in movies and tv showsit’s not like a culinary college is notportrayed it’s always just like someoneliving a home and they’re gonna go to aculinary class cook for an hour and havea chef be like that that like souptastes bad and then they’re gonna belike all right and just go back home andjust relax and that’s i feel like what’sreally shown in media but it’s just notlike that at all and i feel like halfthe people that go are just like theydidn’t realize how much almost like amilitary school it is it’s very likeit’s very strict there are things youhave to do there are things you can’t doyou have to follow rules and it’s uhyeah the hours are long and it’s notlike a normal college so yeah i feellike the people that do drop out are theones that didn’t realize that it’s justnot for them or they didn’t realize howtough it was gonna be so what was someof your what was your earliest labclasses you guys had to go to oh timewise yeah oh uh five in the morning whatwas that i think uh why am i likeforgetting right now i’m pretty sureit’s five yeah five something like thatlike a breakfast class or baking yeahbaking surprisingly was uh not as earlyas culinary which is i think i thinkit’s weird because usually you know likebreads classes they make you show upreally early but i didn’t have to dothat so i the earliest i had to wake upwas like 3 30 just because i like to getlike an early start and like take mytime to get ready but you know like onething i always tell my cousins that umjust go to regular colleges he’s like ohyeah i have an 8 a.m and i showed uplike right at 8 a.m so like i’m all setlike if we had an 8 a.m you have to bethere at like 7 45likeno later than that you know just andthey’re like why and they’re like do yougo in and set up we’re like no we juststand at the doorjust just to show the chef that we’reprofessional and we’re readysothat’s like stuff you have to like thinkabout it’s like you have to like take intime they won’t let you in right theycheck your uniform they won’t let you inthey do the lineup and no you go homeyeah check check your nails check yourhair check your shoes make sure they’reclean no stainsnow how uh how’s the food there how isthe cafeteria food is the studentscooking for the studentsdid you get to eat in the labs tell usabout that yeah so that’s something i’mlike i like to passionately talk aboutin a positive and negative way so soyeah in like our lab catching classes wedepending on the chef you can definitelylike take home what you made and eat inclass sometimes so that’s definitelyallowed that’s it’s great i love thatbut um the part that i always think is aproblem that the school needs to changenow is our we have one cafeteriatechnically it’s called the egg sothere’s like a little marketplace that’sa place where everyone hangs out andit’s like a normal cafeteria so unlikenormal colleges it’s not like a buffetper se we have different stations andthe food option is greatso many people at school love to talkdown about it and they’re like oh it’sgross and i feel like those people arejust like picky eaters almost i’m likeif you compare it to normal collegesthis is great we’re getting like nicemeals but sometimes i mean there arecases where a lot of people get thestomach bug i don’t know if it’s justbecause it’s a change of like whateverbut i definitely got it and everyoneloves to blame the egg that’s like thething that everyone does they’re like ohi got the stomach bug from the egg andum easy turns so yeah yeah everyone justloves to say that but um the thing ihate is that the school is really smartabout not having to pay a lot of peopleso the people that run that are thestudentsand the only problem with that is thatwe all have the same times that we’re inclass so once those students get out weget out too and when i’m ready to eatit’s closed so that’s why i’m like youcan’t just hire someone in that inbetween time or something becausethere’s the am class and the pm classbut what about that time in betweenthey’re just closed well that’s wheneveryone’s off so it’s like the timewhen i’m ready to eat and everyone elseis ready to eat like i can’t eat sothat’s why it’s like it’s like some ofmy friends are they’ll be like oh i wanta midnight snack i can just head to thecafeteria i can’t because the times arestrictly whenever classes so that’ssomething that i definitely think needsto need to change i mean but otherwisebesides the egg we do have like our mainum hall where we have all the kitchenclasses and the culinary kids will servethe anyone else so there are like otheroptions but yeah i just feel like thetiming so when they’re doing theirproduction you can go buy the a labclass and grab a bite yeah definitelymade yeah oh good and so the am studentswould work the pm cafeteria and the pmstudents who work the am but whenthey’re in between there’s nothinghappening which is probably right aroundlunchtime right when everyone’s out yeahit’s just like it’s just all cleaned upand it’s just everything’s just likeclosedand yeah usually just one station that’sopen and there are not many options soyeahwho are the workers those are like workstudy they’re students that are justworking on campus to help with theirtuition i think it’s uh it’s a mixture ii definitely have had a lot of friendsthat have just like worked there but umotherwiseyeah there are just like people thatthat’s just like their job so it’s likea good mix it’s an easy way to get a joboh for sure yeah rather than have toleave and go somewhere elseand there are like many different likeplaces in on campus that you can get ajob so job-wise there are a lot ofthings that you can do how’s the weatheroh it’s fun up there it’s kind ofupstate new york i mean you get a lot ofa lot of snow i mean no problem snowdays they have a close yeah i only everhad had one snow day though i haven’tgotten that lucky it always knows on theweekends which always sucksbut um no yeah so i’m from connecticuti’m only like two hours away so it’sexactly the same um like whenever it’sraining here it’s raining there wheneverit’s snowing here it’s snowing there solike when i facetime my family i’m likeyou guys have snow too they’re like yeahso i’m very used to my roommate was fromla in california so this was like one ofher first times ever seen snow so shewasn’t very used to it but uh it wasnothing new for meso now that you graduated what’s nextfor you what’s your immediate plan whatdo you what’s your long term what do youthink you’re going to be doing fiveyears from now what’s what’s your what’syour goal you know i have always been avery uh like a structured planned personi’m kind of crazy like that in middleschool i made like my ten year timelineof what i’m going to do i’ve definitelylike fallen off of that a little bit butum yeah so this month i decided i wasjust going to take like a month off umkind of just like think about what i’mgoing to do and just really take thetime and like think about it so rightnow all i’m working on is just likeyoutube and just like instagram justlike content creation type of stuff andi’ve been lucky enough to be able tocollaborate with some brands lately sothat’s been really fun and i’ve beenworking on that um i’m definitely not ata state where i can do social mediafull-time but even though i love it umso i definitely do have to jump backinto uh just being like a pastry chefbut umafter this i am just i’m seeking forjobs like right now as we speak so ihopefully willfind one but so basically i don’t wantto move out from my house yeah i think iwant to wait till like the end of theyear just uh just like i just want tosettle a little bit just kind of save upand then i really wanted to move to newyork in the city and but my parents justthink it’s a better idea for me togo to boston first because they’re likeboston is kind of you know it’s a citybut kind of less and uh i have family inboth in new york city and boston but i’mlike way more in boston like right inboston so they’re like i feel likethat’d be really good for you and i’vekind of just uh i’ve settled on that andi think that’s fine with me so i thinkafter this year i’m probably going tomove there and uh there are a ton ofbakeries that i’ve always admired thereso um i would definitely be reallyinterested in working at some placeslike that i mean like i feel like thebest situation would be tofind like a food media type of jobbecause i love doing that um so but iprobably have to like la or something soi’m kind of just okay with anythingright now i’m just kind of i just wantexperience and i’m not looking foranything really long term i just want tofind what i like and don’t like but umin the future the goal has always beento open a bakery sothat is definitely still the plan buti’m just not ready for that yet becausethat means i would have to settle downand find a place i really want to livebut i’m it’s probably going to be inlike la that’s where i’ve always thoughtso great so if someone’s listening thatwants to offer you a job or someone’slistening that wants to reach out andask you more questions about cia oranything else how can they get a hold ofyou sure yeah um well you guys can uh goon my instagram it’s jennifer l a andthen lee led so that’s my instagram youcan definitely shoot me a dm um i havemy email always it’s jenniferla leebusiness um gmail.com and that’s linkedin my youtube and my instagram and ithink we discussed my youtube before soyeah you can uh find any of that myresume is always in my like links in mybio so perfect i’ll put all those twoagain into the show notes in the bio soif anyone’s listening thank you be ableto reach out and contact you awesomethank youso now with this youtube channel you’rean influencer so maybe tell us two threeinfluences uh that had an effect on youwhether that’s personal or professionaland as you’ve gone through it you wantto give a shout out to someone that hashad an influence on you iso i know a lot of people always saylike their mom or dad or like theirfamily personally like i love them and ilook up to them but they have definitelynot influenced me for vistalike funny enough i thinki mean i’m not like the biggest like i’mnot like still a huge fan of her oranything not not like in a bad way butum giada de laurentiis that’s how yousay her name from the food network yeahi grew up instead of watching likecartoons i love watching the foodnetwork and i remember every single timefor some reason when i turned on the tvit was her show so i always ended upjust watching her show and i uh that waswhat i wanted to do when i was a kid iwanted to be a food network star i meani i could still want to do that maybebut um yeah she definitely made mereally want or just like enjoy watchingfull cook and not bake so that wasdefinitely an influence but um everyonehelps me in different ways but for foodwise i would i always she’s always mygo-to answer just because i feel likeshe’s what really like influenced me towant to do this awesome great well as wecome to the end of our chat today beforewe wrap up is there any last-minuteadvice or guidance that you want toleave with the listeners something youwant to share whether that be aboutgoing into this as a career or evengoing to culinary school or the culinaryinstitute of america i would sayjust really like just listen to yourheart it sounds really cheesy but if youif you can’t decide if you want to go toculinary school or not just really sitdown with yourself and just think can ican i see myself doing this in like 10years can i see myself being able to putup with all the stress and everythinglike that and if you’re reallypassionate about it just do it becauseyou don’t want to regret it later on youdon’t want to be like my old benchpartner that decided at 70 that she wasgoing to go to culinary school so iwould just say like if you really wantto do this and you feel so passionateabout it and you love it i would sayjust do it because i mean you can alwayschange your mind like them but um it’sno i mean it’s a good field to be init’s a lot of work and it’s reallystressful but i mean i love it so i meani always complain but i still go back toit every single time right do you thinkculinary school is needed or required ii don’t think so i definitely don’tthink so i know a lot of people that aresuper talented one of my good friends uhsam she started her own business and shenever went to culinary school she justalways had the interest so she wasself-taught and she’s doing really wellright now it definitely it definitelyhelps especially if like stuff like finedining like i said i never really hadthat much of an interest in like doingthat type of like entrepreneur stuff soi never really would have pushed myselfto learn myself so in that sense i i ido love i love the skills that uh theschool has taught me and the disciplineso it definitely helps it’s like anadded little bonus but if you’re able toteach yourself and you’re okay withdoing that then i don’t think it’snecessary at all experience is keyhonestly yeah good yeah so like you saidsomeone is thinking about doing it dothe research do that due diligence youdon’t get there and then have to dropout you know make sure this is reallywhat you want and so you can enjoy thatexperience get the most out of it yeah ithink it’s important not to like likeglamorize culinary school too mucheither it’s hard and it’s tough and uhit’s tiring but um it is fun at the sametime but i feel like a lot of people ifyou really if you really just need um tolike decide just think of it in a reallyreally realistic way yeahi know some of the schools like johnsonand wales they have what they call likefly-ins where students especially inhigh school can come to the campus forlike a week in the summer or weekend andlike kind of test it out and do a trialrun that may be some good advice forsomeone that’s kind of on the fence gotest it out kick the tires before oh forsure i don’t know if cia offeredsomething like that or you could take ityeah after um after well they had theaccepted students day where they kind ofjust gave you a tour it was pretty briefbut um it actually wasn’t until after iaccepted that i went to something calledgreen and gold weekend which we stayedovernight and everything but i’m sure ifyouask the school be um more than happy tomost culinary schools are pretty sociallike public places people love to treatit like a museum so even just like evenif you’re not interested i’m pretty sureyou’ll be able to uh like ask andthey’ll be okay with it yeah walk aroundyeah let’s check it out go for a tourand stuff maybe sit in on a class andsee what it’s all about before you goand oh yeah that’d be greatwell that’s just about all the time wehave for this episode i want to firstthank you jen for coming on the showtoday and sharing your culinary schoolstory with all of us we reallyappreciate your time and your honestyand your insight on the culinaryinstitute of america yeah thank you somuch for having me i love being heregreat thanks again and i enjoyed ourchat bye bye byeand the big thanks and appreciation alsogoes out to all of you the listeners wehope you enjoy the show and this episodeyou all are a big part of this show soplease let us know what you think yourcomments are always welcome and theyhelp us in making the best show possibleyou can email them toculinaryschoolstoriesgmail.com that’s culinaryschoolstoriesgmail.comor even leave us a voicemail at areacode 207-835-1275that’s area code 207-835-1275and if you like the show we have a bigask of all of you and that is to sharethe podcast with everyone you knowand to give us a positive rating andreview on apple podcasts okay until ournext culinary school story take care andbe well bye byeculinary school stories is a proudmember of the food media network English 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