i would have if someone had told me that the only way to get ahead is to go. my take is that it’s case-by-case, and you need a full year of working in a restaurant before you go. you need a year of telling friends you can’t be at their birthday parties. otherwise, i see people make the $40,000 to $50,000 investment and get out and say they don’t want to be in the kitchen; they want to be a waiter or write about the industry. when people ask me if they should go to culinary school, i say no. i say get a job, and on your days off, 