Is culinary school necessary?

For a few years, Tim Lanza led a double life: as a student at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and a cook at Marigold Kitchen, West Philadelphia's laboratory of modernist cooking. By the time he'd worked his way up from garde-manger to sous chef, school felt redundant.

"I was learning so much at Marigold: molecular gastronomy, gels and foams," he said. "Then, I'd be sitting in a class where we're learning how to make omelets correctly."

So, he dropped out.

Then, he got a real education. Last year, at 26, he and chef Andrew Kochan purchased Marigold.

"Doing it on our own has been a crazy learning experience," he said. "Did going to culinary school help prepare for it? I'd say, not really."

It's a common sentiment among many of the chefs electrifying Philadelphia's restaurant scene - a landscape once dominated by European-trained chefs and alumni of the elite Culinary Institute of America.

It raises a familiar question: Are culinary schools worth the money when there's on-the-job education to be had for free? And, perhaps more important, are they adequately training the talent to fuel the city's restaurant boom?

Chef and restaurateur Marc Vetri, who learned to cook on the job, has his doubts. "I just think culinary school is antiquated," he said. He thinks it's too shallow, too one-size-fits-all for a food culture that demands deep knowledge and expertise. "They're teaching things you can learn working. They have just not evolved with the restaurant world."

Nonetheless, he now teaches a culinary class at Drexel.

What culinary school offers is the hope of fast-forwarding past years of chopping onions or working at a restaurant for free to gain experience, a practice called staging .

But it comes at an ever-growing cost: Certificates now start at about $12,000 at community college or a small private school such as JNA Institute of Culinary Arts in South Philadelphia. An associate's degree runs $25,000; one at the Art Institute or the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College costs nearly twice that. A bachelor's degree at Drexel costs more than $250,000.

Yet, a 2014 survey by researchers at Cornell and Ohio State universities found that kitchen workers with degrees earned just 8 percent more than those without. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that chefs and head cooks earned a median income of $42,490, and cooks earned a median salary of $20,550 in 2012.

"It's not a very lucrative field. It's not a medical school or business or engineering school where you can do a clear return on investment," conceded Jonathan Deutsch, director of Drexel's hospitality program.

"Culinary education has become a little fetishized by the whole Food Network, celebrity-chef thing. I can't tell you how many people I talk to who have very good professional lives and say, 'I wish I could quit everything and go to culinary school.' "

The number of people pursuing culinary certificates grew by 63 percent from 2006 to 2010, according to the Education News Career Index, and enrollment in bachelor's programs nearly doubled.

Still, many chefs say they haven't found culinary degrees to be particular indicators of success.

Marcie Turney runs four restaurants in Midtown Village, and is preparing to hire for a fifth, Bud & Marilyn's. "I'll get someone who went to CIA, which is supposedly our best culinary school, and they can't do three things at once. Everyone is different," she said. (She herself attended the Restaurant School but never graduated; she was too busy working as a chef to finish her final project.)

Still, William Tillinghast, director of the International Culinary Institute at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, sees more chefs getting formal training.

"When I started, virtually everyone went the apprenticeship route," he said. "There were four or five apprentices running around most restaurants and good country clubs; there was a saucier, there was a pastry chef and a chef who would do the soups, sauces and stocks."

Today, kitchens are smaller and chefs busier. There's less prep work: meat arrives butchered and fish comes filleted. "The chefs don't have enough time to spend with the apprentices," he said.

For-profit and community colleges have been jostling to pick up the slack with expanded offerings.

At the Culinary Arts Institute at Montgomery County Community College, a recently revamped curriculum includes more hands-on classes in a new 15,000-square-foot facility with four kitchens. There's a new, student-run retail bakery and café, and a second restaurant is set to debut in February. Francine Marz, the director, said enrollment has increased 50 percent since 2013, to 165 students.

Christina DeSilva, 21, who was recently named executive chef at Taproom on 19th in South Philadelphia, said her education at JNA was crucial, providing a connection with an alum for an externship at Stateside. After jobs there and at Morgan's Pier, she felt ready to run her own kitchen. "It definitely gives you the foundation. You need to know the technique before you can start to be creative with it, and that's what culinary school gives you."

While some of the city's most vaunted young chefs are CIA alumni, including Eli Kulp, Greg Vernick and Brad Spence, there is a similiar list of young, successful, informally trained stars: Jon Nodler at a.Kitchen, or a Rob Marzinksy at Fitler Dining Room (until recently).

Colin Mason, who at 29 is executive chef at Sola in Bryn Mawr, got his education in the city's top kitchens. All he had to do was work long hours for free.

He took jobs strategically, seeking out mentors.

"For a while, I had a rule that I was only going to work at places that had three bells," he said. He landed a job at Fork, under then-chef Terence Feury, and learned charcuterie, pasta-making, butchering and pastry. "It was like going to culinary school and getting paid," he said. Even after moving to other jobs, he'd still go to Fork early in the morning or on his days off.

Some chefs say they prefer to hire educated people, but not necessarily culinary-school graduates.

Chip Roman, whose newest restaurant is the Treemont, said: "For a serious position, I like to see some kind of higher education, whether religion, philosophy, or engineering. Culinary is a plus."

Others said that, given the current pace of restaurant openings, managers aren't fretting about education: Anyone with experience has a shot.

"There's so many restaurants, and everyone is looking for cooks," said Joshua Lawler, of the Farm and Fisherman.

So, culinary school may or may not help those who want to become chefs. Of course, not every culinary-school graduate does want to become a chef.

High Street Hospitality Group started a manager-in-training program after culinary students expressed interest in front-of-house jobs, with hopes of better pay and hours.

Trainees rotate through roles from busser to bartender, before graduating to managerial projects. The program is attracting students from the CIA, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell.

"I have lots of very highly educated people who choose this as their career, and are trying to get their foot in the door," said Ellen Yin, owner of Fork and High Street on Market.

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