Second Careers in Food … that Failed

Published on Thursday, January 24, 2008, by Emily Matchar / Edit Post

If you’re a working stiff who loves food, chances are the thought of quitting your job and cooking for a living has crossed your mind. “I could open a bakery or move to Vermont and become a cheesemaker,” you say. What career satisfaction could be greater than watching the joy on somebody’s face as he or she tastes a spoonful of your artisanal fromage blanc?

What Vivian Olkin really loved was ice cream. So when the 57-year-old career counselor noticed that her new hometown, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, didn’t have a really good ice cream parlor, it began to seem like destiny.

She opened the Inside Scoop, a funky little storefront shop serving flavors like Guinness stout and homemade oatmeal cookie. The high-butterfat ice cream won a cult following and Best Of awards from local papers.

But the business faced one challenge after another: a quadruple rise in the price of vanilla, a failed attempt at catering, a dearth of walk-in traffic. After six years in the red, kept afloat by Olkin’s husband, the Inside Scoop went kaput in 2004.

Olkin is certainly not unique. She suffers from what Anthony Bourdain terms “Owner’s Syndrome” in his book Kitchen Confidential. It’s the destructive urge on the part of someone who has been successful in a non-food-related field to sink his or her hard-earned cash into a bound-to-fail restaurant venture.

But in the eight years since the publication of Bourdain’s bestseller, the fantasy of second careers in food has only become more widespread. Thanks in large part to media attention like the Food Network’s Recipe for Success, which chronicles the giddy early days of ex-professionals’ new gigs, it seems half of the country’s bored middle managers, bankers, and computer programmers are jumping ship to become butchers, bakers, and sausage-makers. Too bad most of them will flounder.

Illustration by Carl DeTorres

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  • ".. no one has looked at this from another angle; there are a lot of sucessful crappy restaurants out there so it's certainly not all about great food and great chefs." Yeah, murray26, what's up with THAT? There are joints that never seem to die, with their cardboard pizza and tasteless crap. They screw up a salad! So how soon can we look forward to their extinction? Doesn't seem fair at all.

  • Wow, this is so true. It really helps to understand the business of food. I teach a catering course and I can't tell you how many caterer love to cook, serve food...wine and dine the customer, but have not a clue about the business end of the industry. Never give up on your dream, but do your home work and learn your industry, learn, learn, learn and then learn some more.

  • Ok vickib...no restaurant...I have a small prepared food biz where I make the food I love and fortunately so do my clients. I am also going to be selling some of my products at farmer's mkts. Am I getting rich...no...do I love cooking...absolutely. I have worked in other more lucrative fields but got nothing out of it but $$$. For some people that's enough. Cooking is my art and an expression of...+READ

    Ok vickib...no restaurant...I have a small prepared food biz where I make the food I love and fortunately so do my clients. I am also going to be selling some of my products at farmer's mkts. Am I getting rich...no...do I love cooking...absolutely. I have worked in other more lucrative fields but got nothing out of it but $$$. For some people that's enough. Cooking is my art and an expression of who I am. I may open a take-out type gourmet place down the road and if it fails I will not go on line warning people - forget it, don't follow your dream it wont work.

    IT'S BETTER TO HAVE LOVED AND LOST THAN TO NEVER HAVE LOVED AT ALL!!!-COLLAPSE

  • So, tell us about your resto, murray26!!

  • A friend of mine had a nervous breakdown...and still had to come back and cook.

  • thank god there's only a few of you wimps out there otherwise all there would be to eat is McD's and Olive Garden. what a bunch of pussies..."oh it's so hard I need my mommy to help me."

  • For chowpatty -

    Baking bread requires you to be at the bakery around 3 am. Although I the artistry of bread baking and have a culinary degree after doing this for a couple of weeks myself I decided I like other people's bread just fine.

  • A good friend of mine's wife crested over the top of the mortgage brokering business and decided it was a good time to quit and open a restaurant. This is a gal who doesn't cook, BTW. It's also a gal who hasn't ever saved a cent in her life. She went about it with a manic zeal that put them about half a million in debt. It's a great little restaurant- a franchise that has wings and pizza and some...+READ

    A good friend of mine's wife crested over the top of the mortgage brokering business and decided it was a good time to quit and open a restaurant. This is a gal who doesn't cook, BTW. It's also a gal who hasn't ever saved a cent in her life. She went about it with a manic zeal that put them about half a million in debt. It's a great little restaurant- a franchise that has wings and pizza and some other tasty things- but meanwhile, mama hired all three of her sons to work there, doesn't pay then regularly because they run out of money at the end of the pay period a lot, my buddy is in imminent danger of losing his job due to administrative pinheadedness at his company, and guess where mama is- went on a cruise with her girlfriends. Not much evidence of a business sense there. They have such a nice little friendly bar/restaurant, it's starting to piss me off to go there knowing the inside story.

    So yeah, just because you can get houses sold during a housing boom doesn't mean you can run a successful restaurant. Especially if you can't cook worth a shit. My God, fabulous and talented cooks start them up all the time and fail.-COLLAPSE

  • I've always thought that people who decide to open a restaurant because they love to cook but have no experience in the industry are much like people who decide to open an accounting firm because they've never bounced a check.

  • I'm a 50-year-old advertising executive. Culinary school was always a dream of mine. About 8 years ago after a lay-off, I decided to take a sabbatical go to culinary school. I had the typical delusion of maybe opening my own cafe someday. Culinary school provided the perfect mental vacation. Deep in my heart I knew I'd go back into the rat race, but my time in school learning & experiencing was...+READ

    I'm a 50-year-old advertising executive. Culinary school was always a dream of mine. About 8 years ago after a lay-off, I decided to take a sabbatical go to culinary school. I had the typical delusion of maybe opening my own cafe someday. Culinary school provided the perfect mental vacation. Deep in my heart I knew I'd go back into the rat race, but my time in school learning & experiencing was extraordinarily therapeutic. I was living a fantasy. I was a top student.

    The reality check finally came when I had to complete an internship in a high-end restaurant. Total nightmare. In school, we learned how to create everything from scratch (stocks and all). I was horrified to learn about soup base, among other kitchen short cuts. The hours stank and the head chef was a maniac. To add insult to injury, I was offered a job at the restaurant. My hours would be from 6pm to 2am. One day off a week - but if someone called out, I'd be required to come in. One holiday off (and Christmas wasn't one of them). No health benefits. All this for $8.75 and hour - before taxes.

    I am back in the advertising world - but my cooking rocks! Needless to say, my coworkers look forward to when I bring in "treats' on occasion.-COLLAPSE

  • I'm a decent cook and get the "why-don't-you-open-a-restaurant" question often. Knowing what a grind it is, I started collecting matchbooks from defunct restaurants in the Philadelphia area and named it "The Dead Restaurant Society." I now have three custom presentation cases full with about 350 on display and another 100 awaiting their case to be finished. So, when asked, I just point to the...+READ

    I'm a decent cook and get the "why-don't-you-open-a-restaurant" question often. Knowing what a grind it is, I started collecting matchbooks from defunct restaurants in the Philadelphia area and named it "The Dead Restaurant Society." I now have three custom presentation cases full with about 350 on display and another 100 awaiting their case to be finished. So, when asked, I just point to the dining room wall and say "That's why!"-COLLAPSE

  • My mom asked me "Have you ever thought about becoming a chef?"

    Hell no. I do it for fun, and I do it the way I like it. Which is not 200 times a day.

  • My wife and I loved cooking, had a passion for healthy good food, and wanted to promote local and natural food. We wanted to own a restaurant....but, fortunately, we both had restaurant experience and knew that the hours and difficulties that came with one out weighted the joy.

    Instead, we created our own business model. Now we work out of our home, we cook for people who can't cook for...+READ

    My wife and I loved cooking, had a passion for healthy good food, and wanted to promote local and natural food. We wanted to own a restaurant....but, fortunately, we both had restaurant experience and knew that the hours and difficulties that came with one out weighted the joy.

    Instead, we created our own business model. Now we work out of our home, we cook for people who can't cook for themselves, we cook out of our garden and support other local growers, and we deliver pre-frozen meals to our clients.

    We cook for seniors, weight loss customers, those on medically restricted diets, and provide short term meal solutions. We live and work together as a family everyday of our lives. We are raising our own kids in the comfort of our own home while they learn about being self-sufficient and self-employed. Life is good.

    We even have a video that tells about our life. We love what we do so much, that we want to help others find their way to make a living while actual living. www.AdvantageMeals.com and watch the introductory video in the menu bar. You can learn more about our family on our personal business website, www.MealsLikeMagic.com (keep in mind we only serve the Topeka KS area).-COLLAPSE

  • Ever heard someone say "boy, if i had to do over again, I'd become a chef...". Well, at age 38, I found myself in Australia for a few years and not doing a job i liked, so i left it and went to cooking school.

    That was in 2003, and when we returned to Canada, i started www.thymemanagement.ca (www.chefmike.ca too) and almost 4 years later, all is good. I make 1/3 the money I used to make and...+READ

    Ever heard someone say "boy, if i had to do over again, I'd become a chef...". Well, at age 38, I found myself in Australia for a few years and not doing a job i liked, so i left it and went to cooking school.

    That was in 2003, and when we returned to Canada, i started www.thymemanagement.ca (www.chefmike.ca too) and almost 4 years later, all is good. I make 1/3 the money I used to make and 1/2 what I could make as a restaurant chef, but we couldn't be happier.It's not for everyone, but for us, it's very good...-COLLAPSE

  • I used to dream about opening a soup & bread cafe, or a B&B in the Pacific NW. Reading "Kitchen Confidential" and seeing the ass-busting hard work required in FN's "Recipe for Success" and similar shows has killed those idle dreams. At this point I don't know if I could open a hotdog cart.

    I think I'll limit my restauranting to my own kitchen.

  • I am a good cook. Dial time back a few decades and I was a great cook. That said, why on earth would I want to open a restaurant where I would be doomed to make the same thing over and over and over again to make customers happy? Not owning (or working in) a restaurant is cooking freedom!

  • I just wish some of these people starting second careers as cake and cupcake makers (we have a few in L.A.) would learn to bake bread instead! I can make a cupcake at home, but bread takes a lot more skill. I wonder if they will survive when cupcakes inevitably become less popular?

  • Cooking for a living is darn hard work. While I dream of cooking for others, the bitter truth is, I would stink at it.

    Most restaurants fail, but for everyone that tries and gets it wrong, a lesson is learned and better things grow out of the experience. Thank goodness people are trying new things and opening new places with a gleam in their eye and a blindness to the harsh truth. Makes for...+READ

    Cooking for a living is darn hard work. While I dream of cooking for others, the bitter truth is, I would stink at it.

    Most restaurants fail, but for everyone that tries and gets it wrong, a lesson is learned and better things grow out of the experience. Thank goodness people are trying new things and opening new places with a gleam in their eye and a blindness to the harsh truth. Makes for some tasty eating.-COLLAPSE

  • I think cooking can be like acting in some ways. If you start out as an actor that's one thing, but if you end up an actor, that's a whole other thing. I started my career in food because I knew I could bake a cake, I liked to eat, I get hives working in an office, and I felt I had spent way too much on my degree to pursue my career as housewife. I stayed in food, because I found it is integral...+READ

    I think cooking can be like acting in some ways. If you start out as an actor that's one thing, but if you end up an actor, that's a whole other thing. I started my career in food because I knew I could bake a cake, I liked to eat, I get hives working in an office, and I felt I had spent way too much on my degree to pursue my career as housewife. I stayed in food, because I found it is integral to who I am and that from the inside out, it moves me, drives me, and makes me happy. Passion is key, but so is persistence, and flexibility in your ideas. A secret to success can be to stay away from the restaurant business. fayefood.com-COLLAPSE

  • I have worked in the restaurant biz for nearly twenty years, since I was a teenager. I think people need to know that even very busy restaurants do not always turn a profit.
    I currently bake at a small cafe that is very popular. In the past two years my boss has had to replace several pieces of equipment. Things break. Expensive things. Also, there is always a prep cook or baker there after the...+READ

    I have worked in the restaurant biz for nearly twenty years, since I was a teenager. I think people need to know that even very busy restaurants do not always turn a profit.
    I currently bake at a small cafe that is very popular. In the past two years my boss has had to replace several pieces of equipment. Things break. Expensive things. Also, there is always a prep cook or baker there after the restaurant closes, which means lights are always on, and the AC or heat must always be on. The utility bill must be outrageous. And my boss is conscientious enough to help all of us full-timers with our health insurance premiums, and occasional paid time off, God bless her.
    Needless to say, she's not raking it in.
    I still do dream of owning my own place one day, but it sure as hell won't be easy, and it probably won't make me rich.-COLLAPSE

  • In 1963 or '64, The Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who had bought a vacation home in New Hampshire, wrote a funny article in the "Reporter" magazine about the couples who escaped the rat race in New Youk and brought their life savings to open a quaint little restaurant in the vacation country in NH.

    The vacationers and the locals loved and appreciated these little restaurants and...+READ

    In 1963 or '64, The Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who had bought a vacation home in New Hampshire, wrote a funny article in the "Reporter" magazine about the couples who escaped the rat race in New Youk and brought their life savings to open a quaint little restaurant in the vacation country in NH.

    The vacationers and the locals loved and appreciated these little restaurants and patronized them faithfully until the owners' savings ran out, the couple closed up the quaint little restaurant and headed back to the Big Apple.-COLLAPSE

  • I was still young when I opened my own prepared food/catering business.Not a huge business but not tiny either around 20 employees, a retail location and separate production kitchen I Purchased an established business with a good client base in a fairly affluent town in Massachusetts.
    We were doing very very well the 1st 6 months we were open and then a couple of things happened that caused...+READ

    I was still young when I opened my own prepared food/catering business.Not a huge business but not tiny either around 20 employees, a retail location and separate production kitchen I Purchased an established business with a good client base in a fairly affluent town in Massachusetts.
    We were doing very very well the 1st 6 months we were open and then a couple of things happened that caused problems.
    Our biggest competitor in town built a new space quadrupling their size, Whole Foods opened aprx. 4 miles away, and when we needed to really ramp up things in the shop we just did not have the money to aggressively stay competitive with these much bigger operations.

    Under capitalization was our biggest problem, we functioned on a monthly basis, paying salaries, operating costs, etc. we had a little cushion but not much. I found that you need whatever the cost to either buy or open the business in reserve as well (if you spend $750,000 on a business make sure you have that much of a cushion) you need at least that much in reserve to weather the slow times and make improvements when needed as well as increased advertising and marketing

    Operating the business is key, it will take up more of your time than anything. You need to keep an eye on costs, on insurance, on everything besides putting on your apron and cooking.
    It is a 7 day a week 24 hour a day industry. It can be rewarding, As crazy as it was I still miss it. But it is the toughest business I have ever been involved in. Id encourage anyone with the dream to take the leap just make sure you have enough money..money money money...its the key ..and be aware of all that is involved.-COLLAPSE

  • Wow! I have issues with this article on many different levels!

    First, I'm lucky and proud to have a second career in food that has succeeded! I have a Masters degree and Counseling and was working hard (physically and emotionally) as a therapist until after a few years I hit the brick wall. Hard. So I did what any sane person would do...I decided to follow my passion and go to culinary school....+READ

    Wow! I have issues with this article on many different levels!

    First, I'm lucky and proud to have a second career in food that has succeeded! I have a Masters degree and Counseling and was working hard (physically and emotionally) as a therapist until after a few years I hit the brick wall. Hard. So I did what any sane person would do...I decided to follow my passion and go to culinary school.

    Yes, I have opened a small business that failed. Yes, I lost money and gained debt. But it all led me to where I am today: Happy in my career. I teach at a culinary school and operate a sucessful Personal Chef business on the side. Not a day goes by that I don't stop and remind myself (and others!) that my job does NOT suck!

    There are loads of career opportunities in the industry that don't involve losing your life savings or working the line forever. Remember that Americans spend over 60% of their lives at the work place! If you ask me, that's a lot of time to be miserable!-COLLAPSE

  • I *loved* the Inside Scoop, and I was crushed when I saw its doors close. I love the pumpkin, I loved the buttered rum raisin, I loved the cheap art for sale, and I loved the funhouse mirrors. My husband has never found a coffee ice cream he liked as much as yours. When I asked for an ice cream maker for my birthday, I think I might have secretly been wishing for a time machine to take me back to...+READ

    I *loved* the Inside Scoop, and I was crushed when I saw its doors close. I love the pumpkin, I loved the buttered rum raisin, I loved the cheap art for sale, and I loved the funhouse mirrors. My husband has never found a coffee ice cream he liked as much as yours. When I asked for an ice cream maker for my birthday, I think I might have secretly been wishing for a time machine to take me back to Ms. Olkin's ice cream counter. Cook books aren't quite as risky are they? I would buy a collection of Inside Scoop recipes in a heart beat.-COLLAPSE

  • I thought about opening a wine tasting bar in the early 70's, when I got out of the service. Would have been unique at that time. Then I thought, 'Do I really want to stand behind a bar every night?' I eventually got a job as an engineer, which is what I was trained for. Good thing, too. I would have hated it.

  • Well, I wouldn't say that this article makes me want to open my own bakery/cheese shop/flimflamafloofloo charcuterie joint, but it does make me want to go out and buy my products from those places to help them make it!

  • Well, add me to that list. I owned a cheese shop for 3 years- thinking it was exactly what the affluent community I lived it needed. But you know what? Even if you have a superior product, and at a better price than the Whole Foods with amazing care given to the product, knowledgeable service and tastings and classes and pairings and education and all your energy and money...

    When your shopper...+READ

    Well, add me to that list. I owned a cheese shop for 3 years- thinking it was exactly what the affluent community I lived it needed. But you know what? Even if you have a superior product, and at a better price than the Whole Foods with amazing care given to the product, knowledgeable service and tastings and classes and pairings and education and all your energy and money...

    When your shopper that you've spent so much time educating is in Whole Foods anyway- you've trained them well enough to increase their confidence when they reach for that easy purchase. And then you are gone.-COLLAPSE

  • So no one has looked at this from another angle; there are a lot of sucessful crappy restaurants out there so it's certainly no all about great food and great chefs. I'm 51 and currently enrolled in culinary school and though I don't have any grand illusions it's the most fun I've had in a long time.

  • I've added this to my favorites so I can come back to it and read it every time the idea that I could totally open a cafe crosses my mind.

  • Very, very true. My parents worked in a restaurant (my dad was a cook for 17 years) and the life is extremely hard. Long hours, hot gruelling environment, staff issues, etc. People need to work in the business to really understand what it's like.

    There's another small, but strange group of people who think they should open up a food place: people who "love" to cook, have cooked at a children's...+READ

    Very, very true. My parents worked in a restaurant (my dad was a cook for 17 years) and the life is extremely hard. Long hours, hot gruelling environment, staff issues, etc. People need to work in the business to really understand what it's like.

    There's another small, but strange group of people who think they should open up a food place: people who "love" to cook, have cooked at a children's camp for a week, and think they are wonderful cooks - even though I think their food is too crappy or mediocre to serve in a restaurant. Not sure where this delusion comes from.-COLLAPSE

  • You think you want to get into the restaruant business? You have no experience? Everyone tells you you make the best Flimflamafoofoo and you should open your own joint? Try fast food management, if you can handle that for about three years you might maybe have the stuff to start thinking about a possible career in running your own joint, MAYBE! I've been in and out of it for thirtyfive years, the...+READ

    You think you want to get into the restaruant business? You have no experience? Everyone tells you you make the best Flimflamafoofoo and you should open your own joint? Try fast food management, if you can handle that for about three years you might maybe have the stuff to start thinking about a possible career in running your own joint, MAYBE! I've been in and out of it for thirtyfive years, the food business is the roughist and sometimes the most rewarding. Oh and by the way if you can't pay cash for all your start-up, forget it, you'll never get out of the hole, And then theres the help...............-COLLAPSE

  • I worked in a pizza restaurant right after graduating from college. I preferred cooking to waiting tables, and had a great time. That said, I worked my little tush off, and came home exhausted after every shift. And I was just an employee! My experience pretty much cured me of working in food, though I've been told by friends and family that I should start a cafe, based on my home cooking. When I...+READ

    I worked in a pizza restaurant right after graduating from college. I preferred cooking to waiting tables, and had a great time. That said, I worked my little tush off, and came home exhausted after every shift. And I was just an employee! My experience pretty much cured me of working in food, though I've been told by friends and family that I should start a cafe, based on my home cooking. When I read Bourdain's book, the "owner's syndrome" concept completely made sense. I'm happy to pursue my profession (art/teaching) and let the food professionals be food professionals.-COLLAPSE