Cooking is hot. Today, anyone who masters the culinary arts can count on employment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts 500,000 new jobs for chefs and cooks over the next 10 years. The obsession with lucre will never be eclipsed, but for the moment it seems to be equalled by the determination to follow one's heart, come rags or riches. Forget security and perks, they are collectively saying.
Food speaks to their souls.
That's certainly true of Heather Lupa. But right now all the analytical background in the world can't help her with the crisis on her hands. In two shakes of a spatula, Chef Sixto Alonso, a robust, zealous Frenchman, is on the spot, exhorting his students to gather at the stove. A huddle forms around the mixture gone awry, looking exactly like a surgical team gazing intently at a dying patient. Perhaps a speck of flour. . . .