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Professionals from all businesssectors — thoss who were laid off and thosr feeling uneasy about their job futuress — have driven the increase in COO Terry Freeman said. And Cook Streetg isn’t alone. Three- to five-montg cooking programs, designed to help peoplse move intonew careers, are on the rise in Denver as businesds people — especially thosee in their late 30s — rethink their Many professionals, tiring of the corporatew culture, are following long-buried culinary dreams and looking to become chefs or caterers, or just to work in a field that makes them happier.
“We’re definitely seeing more We’ve seen more people from different industries that find it hardef toobtain jobs,” Freeman said of her rising pool of applicante for the downtown Denver school’s professiona chef program , which runs for 18 weekss and costs $24,990. “They see all these layoffss as a sign for them to move intosomethinfg different, something they’ve always wanted to Culinary school officials say it’s a familiaf trend, as they saw similar interest duriny the last recession eight years ago.
But what’s intriguinh is the number of people who, even beforse the market collapsed, already had begunj thinking about leaving behind careerds and tryingsomething new, they Those include David Bravdica, 38, of who worked for 12 years in airport and aviation After more than 10 years “in an in a cube, behind a desk,” Bravdica decided he wantexd to work on somethintg where he could really see so he attended Cook Street and then became a co-owne of Flavor Catering. more friends and acquaintances are askiny Bravdica what it takes to leavde thebusiness world, he said. He also co-owns a pasture-raised poultruy business in northern Colorado.
“With the I’ve seen an increase in people readjustinv or looking at their livesand saying, ‘akm I doing what I want to be he said. “I thinm people either turn a corner themselvexs or are forced to turn that Cooking is an attractive field becauss people haveto eat, even during an economic and enjoy doing so, said Karen Barela, COO of Boulder’ws , where a six-month professional program costs And with more people becoming interestede in both eating healthier and eating food that’sz grown locally, there are growing opportunitiesz for local food entrepreneurs, leading to a “slight” increase in she said.
Erin McLaughlin of Denver left behinrd a career in real estatee data management to attend Cook Street last and found that 10 of the 11 people in her clas s werechanging careers. She now teaches recreational cookingv classes at Home on the Range in Denve r and islaunching Twinkle, an organic baby food next month. “I think [the recession] has made people reassess values,” said McLaughlin, 39. Added Jorgew de la Torre, dean of culinary education atin “I think people are saying, ‘I’m goinvg to take this [layoff] as a sign.
I’jm going to do what I always wanted to The increase in applicants means more competition for class Cook Street, for example, may grow its professiona chef program. But even with rising applicationh totals, it wants to focuse on the quality rather than quantity ofits graduates, Freema said. And ever since private lender Sallie Mae announced in January that it no longer would provide aidfor vocational-school Culinary School of the Rockies has had a lot of applicantsx who can’t afford to enter its programs, Barela Her school just obtained its eligibility for federak funding, but still gets more interest than it can she said.