A tasteful new career in the kitchen

Taking advantage of New York's Self-Employment Assistance Program, which provided her with more than six months of unemployment insurance benefits and business counseling, she started a new career as a personal chef on Long Island.

Now she caters to clients with special dietary needs. Although she makes about half of her former salary, "I'm much happier," she says.

Then there are those who didn't need much of an impetus to switch careers but simply disliked their jobs or lifestyles.

Kaplan, the former flutist, resented the instability of a musician's life. "It didn't suit me," she declares.

So she had no regrets trading musical notes for pie crusts.

Jim Davis's transition to a cooking career was less dramatic. He had spent more than 30 years working in hospital administration and the mortgage business before he started volunteering at L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Md. He eased gradually into his new career, which was a natural choice for him, since he had always loved to cook.

"You'll have to see me to know I don't miss many meals," he says, laughing.

Davis's road to a cooking career began inauspiciously, however. He recalls frying doughnuts with his mom when he was 8 or 9. She told him to pour the leftover grease into a bowl. So he did. But rather than pour it into a glass bowl, Davis poured the hot grease into a plastic one. Needless to say, the bowl melted, and grease dripped everywhere.

Flash forward two generations. When Davis's son, Bryan, a chef in Washington, D.C., started a personal-chef and catering business, the senior Davis wanted to help. Now the Davis team serves about 20 clients, ranging from government officials and professional athletes to writers.

His favorite part of the job? "Tasting," he says.

The life of a chef is anything but easy or glamorous, however. Most students in cooking schools think they're going to be Bobby Flay when they graduate, Kaplan says. But they're not, she adds.

Kaplan and others emphasize how physically taxing it is to be a chef. Besides, the hours are long and the pay often isn't great.

"Baking is not brain surgery," she says. "However, you need to the right kind of person to be a baker. You're not just baking a dozen cookies. You're making 500."

Kaplan urges would-be chefs to volunteer in a restaurant before applying to cooking school so they know what they're getting themselves into.

Chefs also stress the importance of pleasing the customer. "You can feel passionate about what you're making, but if people don't buy it, it doesn't matter what you think," Kaplan says.

Later, she adds, "There's crazy stuff these days," mentioning such exotic fare as beet brownies and sundaes. "I don't want to eat that. Do you?"

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