I'm going to culinary school

After six and a half years of covering government and politics for newspapers, I'll be carrying kitchen knives instead of pens and a pad of paper when I head to The French Culinary Institute in New York City in June.

Cooking is my sanctuary. When I came home from a long day at work, I would make a meal and whatever stress I had would be smoothed out. The simple act of chopping onions, sauteing them in oil and smelling the aroma would relax me. I could concentrate on each step of a recipe and that would be the only thing I would be thinking about---not work, not deadlines, not upcoming assignments.

After I started the Hummingbird Appetite blog a year ago, I began cooking a lot more. The blog helped me realize that I wanted to fuse food and writing as a career. But for a time, I was too afraid to make that switch from hard news journalism to food until my husband blurted out the obvious.

"Why don't you just go to culinary school?" he said. "You talk about food all the time."

"Really?" I said, giving him a tight hug.

I had thought school wasn't an option if we would only be living on one person's salary and tuition was so expensive. But Matt was very supportive. I saved money and took out loans. This week, I got a letter reminding me to attend orientation.

There's uncertainty in making this change. I don't really know what I'll end up doing. I just know it will have something to do with food.

7/3/2011 update: It's been more than a year since I wrote this post and I have to smile. I still want to combine food and writing. But writing---I know how to do. Cooking is what I need to focus on. That's why I got a job as a line cook.