From Chef to Programmer

I started my culinary journey fresh off of high school, I would watch a lot of cooking shows and even worked in a restaurant weekend nights when I was a senior in high school. I knew it was something I enjoyed it and it gave me a purpose, I needed discipline in life and instead of signing up for the military I wanted to be part of a brigade of amazing chefs and cooks. So after little to no thinking I joined a culinary school that had a bootcamp structure and off I went into my culinary journey. Things started off great, I met amazing people and worked at some really nice places but as everyone knows the life in the restaurant industry is not all glamour in fact the opposite, missed birthdays and holidays was the norm.

Fast forward 7 years and the pandemic hit everyone especially the restaurant industry as a whole, amazing places where closing left and right and everyone was uncertain about everything. Being stuck at home it got me thinking about my future a lot and what I wanted, I looked for things to do and stay productive and that's when I found coding as a escape from everything. I bought a Udemy course on sale for $20 and I really got into it, but ultimately I always wanted my own restaurant. I was stuck and at 26 I felt I didn't have a lot of time left to decide my future.

Lets fast forward again to 2023, now I have a baby at home that depends on me for his future and now the daunting question comes back, what should I do with my life? I didn't enjoy being in a restaurant anymore, I realized I was not cooking for the people I wanted to eat my food and it was more of just a job. Coding came back into play but I was very hesitant to dive in fully, thoughts like am I good enough to code? What even is a programming job like? Ai is here, is it even worth it? and all these questions where constantly in my head but luckily I had this really good friend of mine that I went to culinary school that transitioned to coding around the same age as me that really inspired me to take the leap.

Now it is September of 2023 and I finally decide to join Flatiron coding bootcamp in NYC, I said to myself if I do this there is no turning back no matter what. Now I am currently ending phase 3 of the program and has just felt like a flash and probably the best decision I ever made. I went through many struggles in the program both personal and technical but I am still here ready for the next challenge.

For my phase 3 project I made a GUI using python and custom tkinter that for its main function is to make a prep list for kitchen staff in a restaurant. Yes somehow I always end up doing something with food or restaurant related and I think that is a good thing, I can combine my skills together to make something useful. I have a more clear path to where I want this career to take me and have met amazing people throughout this journey. For anyone in the fence about jumping into tech I say go for it and don't look back, in cooking its impossible to learn everything there is to learn but that does not mean you can't be good at it, same goes for programming.