Nicole Kaplan worked long, hard hours washing dishes - and she loved it.

No, she's not a masochist. Ms. Kaplan, a professional flutist at the time, was tired of the isolation of rehearsal rooms. She wanted to take cooking classes in order to become a professional chef, but she couldn't afford them. So she started volunteering at Peter Kump's Cooking School, now the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, in exchange for tuition.

Since graduating from the program in 1997, she has become a nationally recognized pastry chef at Eleven Madison Park, one of New York's premier restaurants.

While Kaplan has achieved recognition that most chefs will only dream of (she has been named one of the 10 best pastry chefs in America), she's not alone in her desire to don an apron and take up a spatula for pay.

Increasingly, applicants to cooking schools are not just the fresh-out-of-college, I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-my-life set, but professionals in another field - what one expert describes as "recovering" architects, doctors, and attorneys.

A number of reasons are cited for the rise in cooking school attendance. First, cooking is considered "very cool" these days, says Riki Senn, director of the Greenbrier Culinary Arts Center in West Virginia.

Television shows such as the Food Network have given prominence to chefs and made them seem more intriguing, says Rick Smilow of the Institute of Culinary Education.

The current economic and political climate have played a role, too. High unemployment rates and the situation in Iraq have elicited a communal nesting instinct, says Ms. Senn.

These factors have translated into increasing numbers of students at cooking schools across the country. At the Institute of Culinary Education, enrollment has increased by nearly 90 percent from 1999 to 2002. The French Culinary Institute in New York City has seen an enrollment increase of more than 200 percent in the past three to four years. And the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco has almost twice the number of students it had two years ago.

Not surprisingly, many of these students are former workers in the technology industry.

Becoming a restaurant chef isn't the only option for graduates. There are also opportunities for cooking in nursing homes and grocery stores. Event planners, food writers, and recipe developers are also needed.

For those with an entrepreneurial streak, starting a restaurant or a catering or personal-chef business is another viable option, says Mr. Smilow.

But not everyone willingly chooses to switch professions. Carol Rickert was laid off last year after more than a decade in sales.

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