by Mairead Poulin ’13

Like most students beginning to think about their college plans, senior Laura Bowman didn’t realize that culinary school was an option.

“If you had asked me a year ago where I would hope to be attending in the fall, I would have said a university near New York City, probably for business or something like that,” she shares. But in the middle of her college search, at the suggestion of her mother, Laura made a spur of the moment trip to tour a school’s culinary program. And just like that, she discovered her calling.

Next year, Laura, a four year day student, will be attending the Culinary Institute of America (known as the other CIA) in Hyde Park, New York, a decision she describes as “different and unexpected from what many kids attending a prep-school go on to pursue for college.” This decision, although not one she expected to make, probably does not surprise those close to her. An avid chef who was raised alongside her mother in the kitchen, Laura is a serious “foodie” who still spends most of her time there. At age seven, she was prone to adding experimental ingredients to simple dishes like pancakes, and these days she can be found planning healthy dinners, baking for her younger brothers and her friends, reading cookbooks, researching food trends and ideas, and watching the Food Network. Over the summer, she works at Tavern on the Hill (a local restaurant), and she has recently started a food blog.

Laura’s blog, which she calls Cheftell, was originally launched as part of her final project for her Writers’ Workshop class, but Laura loves it so much that she plans to continue using it after the two-trimester class comes to an end in March. “It was exciting to finally be able to give [cooking] some purpose (for a school project) other than my own enjoyment….Nothing about it feels like schoolwork.” The blog is comprised of her own recipes, reviews of recipes and food books, food essays, and interviews with local chefs. Once she starts school this fall, she believes that her blog will evolve into more of a journal, where she will chronicle her experiences at the CIA.

Laura’s love of cooking is what has lead her to her unique career choice. “It sparked some curiosity and began a hobby. As I got older cooking not only became my hobby, but it became my passion.” Although she says that most people’s minds go straight to the Food Network when she tells them she is going to culinary school, she knows that the reality is so much more than that. Laura loves challenging herself by putting her unique spin on classic comfort foods like grilled cheese and soup (think rye bread, gorgonzola, apple slices, caramelized red onion and butternut squash or sweet potato soup), and tackling time consuming recipes. “Sometimes [it’s] fun for me to get lost in whatever I’m making,” she says of making things like pasta ravioli from scratch.

She says what she most enjoys is “the hands on aspect of cooking,” where the work is never quite done. “With cooking there will always be something you can learn and improve on, which is why I think it makes such a satisfying career.” It’s no wonder attending the CIA became such a natural fit for her: as she says, “the place is 24-7 food. Everything you do comes back to cooking.”

Laura isn’t exactly sure where her culinary career will take her – she wants to experience as many different niches through the CIA’s mandatory externships (where students travel to another state or abroad to work in a kitchen) as she can before she decides what the future of food holds for her. “I think once I am at the CIA that will become clearer to me,” she says. “The great thing about the food industry is that it is so diverse.” Whether we find Laura working in catering, teaching nutrition, photographing or writing about food, or even owning a restaurant ten years from now, one thing’s for sure: she will still spend most of her time in the kitchen. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Click here to visit Laura’s blog, Cheftell!