If You're Getting Worked Up Over the Atlantic Story About Cooking School...

Paolo Vescia

​Say you're reading Paul Wachter's latest Atlantic Food post advocating that aspiring Mario Batalis skip cooking school in favor of starting at the bottom in a good kitchen. Say you're feeling deep sympathy for those paupered young cooks who just want to make it on to Top Chef some day. Say you're also fighting off a little déjà vu . . .

Trace that lingering familiarity back to Eliza Strickland's great June 2007 SF Weekly cover story on cooks who graduate from the California Culinary Academy with $40,000 in student loans and an earning potential of $10 an hour. Strickland's feature didn't quote Wylie Dufresne. But it was a finalist for a James Beard Journalism Award.