It's hot in the kitchen

SAN FRANCISCO — Cameron Cuisinier's dreams of a catering career led him to culinary school. Now he's unemployed and $43,000 in debt, and he's not alone.

From TV chefs to reality shows where the winners get their own restaurants, it's a hot time to be in the kitchen. Record numbers of would-be chefs are enrolling in culinary schools, some of which charge $20,000 a year or more. But the restaurant business has always been a tough way to make a living, and many graduates find themselves saddled with debt and working long hours at low-paying, entry-level jobs.

"When they're trying to get you enrolled in these programs, they tell you you're going to come out making top dollar," said Cuisinier, a recent graduate of the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. "I've just been way disappointed."

Industry observers say celebrity chefs like Rachael Ray and Emeril Lagasse — with his trademark exclamation, "Bam!" — helped launch the craze. The rising popularity of cable TV's The Food Network and reality shows like "Top Chef" and "Hell's Kitchen" are fueling it.

"It looks really fun on TV," said Tim Ryan, president of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., one of the country's premiere training grounds for chefs. "You've got an audience adoring you. You say, 'Bam!' and throw some stuff on a plate and everyone goes nuts.

"That's not what happens," he said. "The work is long and hard. There's a lot of pressure."

In 1996, there were 269 career cooking schools and 154 recreational cooking schools in the United States, according to ShawGuide's "The Guide to Cooking Schools." By 2006, those numbers had risen to 446 and 503, respectively.

Attendance also is rising. At CIA, 2,757 students were enrolled last year in a full-time, degree-seeking program. That's up from 2,012 in 2001, Ryan said.

The number of food service jobs in America rose from 9.9 million in 2001 to 10.8 million in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. But a small fraction of those jobs — roughly 115,000 — are for chefs or head cooks, and that number did not change significantly during the five-year span.

The vast majority of food service jobs are held by fast-food workers and wait staff, and the industry's average hourly wage was $7.73 in 2005, according to the Labor Department statistics.