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A dead-end job. A stalled relationship. Listlessness. We’ve all had moments in our lives where things just weren’t quite working. Maybe you felt bored, overstressed, or just plain done with your circumstances. This kind of uncertainty can feel disorienting, and you could be desperate for a change but worried it’s too risky to try something new. What if it doesn’t work out?
A story like this played out for Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts graduate Michael Fields. His career in finance was lucrative but unfulfilling, and he struggled with what to do next.
In 2022, at the suggestion of his ailing mother, Michael relocated to Austin, Texas to attend culinary school at Escoffier. Two years later, he finds himself working for the world-renowned Texas barbeque wizard, Aaron Franklin at Franklin Barbeque in Austin, Texas.
This is the story of how Fields went from a stressed-out financier to being happy sweating through nights in a pit room preparing widely coveted beef brisket and smoked meats.
Time for a Career Change
Early on Michael was working a stressful job in finance, and caring for his mom, who was sick with cancer. He was working long hours, but also spending time with his mom doing what they always loved doing together: cooking.
“When my mom was diagnosed with cancer she couldn’t really eat much, but something that made her happy was cooking dishes that we liked. We’d look up recipes from our cookbook and just cook them.”
Michael’s mom knew how much he enjoyed cooking. In the age-old wisdom of mothers, she knew to encourage him to follow his passion. “One of the things my mom said is, ‘You’ve cooked your whole life but never really pursued it.’ And she was a motivating factor to say, ‘Go ahead and chase it. Why not? You only live once.’” She suggested Michael give his cooking interest a go in culinary school to see if he could find a job more aligned with his inner self.
Michael Fields with the prep team at Uchiko, the restaurant where he completed his Escoffier externship.
So Michael flew to Austin to visit the Escoffier campus to see if he could imagine attending school there. “[My wife and I] visited the Austin campus in July of 2022 and I met Chef Instructor Clifton Dickerson and something just felt right about it. Five months later, we packed up everything and moved to Austin.”
Michael dove into culinary school fully. He was deeply motivated to see where the cooking career path led. “I wanted to really focus and learn…all the teachers there were just very helpful.”
Transforming From Home Cook to Skilled Barbecue Cook Through Training at Escoffier
Growing up, food was the center of Michael’s family life. His mom loved to take inspiration and challenge from Cook’s Illustrated and loved preparing Italian dishes like veal scallopini to share. His Jewish grandfather loved to cook Mexican food, and their family would contribute to holiday meals by each preparing something special. Cooking even helped Michael court his future wife, when his grandfather helped him prepare chicken cacciatore for one of their first dates. But it was attending culinary school that helped Michael take all the skills he’d grown up with to another level.
For one thing, he says that his time at Escoffier helped him foster his cooking creativity by learning the key techniques. He reflected that one of his Chef Instructors told him: “[Anyone] can read a recipe, but it’s really about understanding the techniques.” Michael set to work trying out all the various skills he was asked to practice: pastry, sauces, knife skills, nose-to-tail cooking, and more.
At the Austin,Texas Escoffier School of Culinary Arts campus, students like Michael can learn barbecue techniques using a barbecue smoker.*
Michael commented that during his culinary journey at school, “It’s about figuring out where you’re creative and what your creative outlet is because we all have it…You’re flexing that creativity muscle to see what it is that you like.”
The first clue about Michael’s post-finance future came when his Escoffier instructors noticed that he was naturally skilled at barbecue.
Michael wanted to spend every moment he could during his time at Escoffier, learning what the art of cooking was. He says, “I only missed two classes the entire time I was there. I was never late.”
*Information may not reflect every student’s experience. Results and outcomes may be based on several factors, such as geographical region or previous experience.
Finding a New Career Focus: Texas Barbecue
Once Michael finished his coursework at Escoffier, he began an externship at Uchiko, a high-end Japanese restaurant created by James Beard award-winning Chef Tyson Cole in Austin. Michael welcomed this huge change of pace from his former career and soaked up the experience of working in a high-end restaurant. But this experience was nothing compared to what came next.
One of Michael’s Escoffier Chef Instructors, Clifton Dickerson, worked an event with Aaron Franklin of the world-renowned Franklin Barbecue in Austin. Chef Clifton told Chef Aaron about Michael and his passion for barbeque and facilitated an introduction.
Michael started at Franklin in July 2023 and has quickly moved through the ranks, from cooking meat in the pit rooms to the role of front-of-house cutter.* This is no ordinary progression.
*Information may not reflect every student’s experience. Results and outcomes may be based on several factors, such as geographical region or previous experience.
Michael Fields has enjoyed mentoring with world-renowned barbecue chef Aaron Franklin, shown here with Michael in his pit room.
“To work under Aaron and master the cooking technique of using controlled wood-fired flame is very difficult. Aaron likes to hire people that are trained because they appreciate how hard this is versus some of your ‘backyard barbecue Daves’.”
Pit Skills Forged in Fire
Franklin expects dedication and precision from his pit room cooks. The pit room at Franklin Barbecue runs six and a half days per week and requires overnight attention. Tomorrow’s barbeque is cooked the day before.
Michael started at Franklin where everyone starts: getting trained in how to properly manage the wood fires that create the perfect barbecue.
“When I first started there, I would start at 10 am and work till 6 pm, and you’re just learning fire.”
Michael enjoys learning the meticulous details of whatever he’s cooking, and so he quickly moved through the ranks at Franklin. He says that when he started, he was so curious about every step of the process, and worked hard to absorb all the important skills.
Smoked beef ribs are on the weekend menu at Franklin Barbecue.
Once he learned how to be precise with his fire management, he was moved into cooking brisket, a 4 pm to midnight shift. Brisket has to be done just right to get the perfect doneness, crispness on the outside (the “bark”), and tenderness. Michael excelled at that and was then moved on to rib cooking.
Through each role he tried, Michael continued to find his new career footing.
“Once you pass the brisket stage, you go to the rib cook which is midnight to 9 am, which is the bread and butter for them. Then, if [Franklin] really trusts you, he makes you the front-of-house, and that person is the “cutter”.”
Michael explains what a cutter is: “There’s a line of hundreds of people every day at Franklin. And part of that cutter’s responsibility is to have precise, perfect cuts. They’ve got to be eight millimeters thick exactly. You have to cut them beautifully, more extreme than what we ever had to do in school. And at the same time, you have to be able to have a conversation with this person who’s been waiting in line for three hours and put a smile on their face, to get them excited that they’re about to pay $38 a pound for brisket.”
Escoffier graduate Michael Fields cuts brisket at Franklin Barbeque.
Michael was just recently promoted to the cutting position. “Aaron started to notice that I was giving quite exciting tours. And it was because I was engulfed in the information…he saw that a lot of the customers were excited, and they loved it. He mentioned to management that he wanted me to be in the front and cutting for them.”*
How Culinary School at Escoffier Helped Give Michael a Leg Up
Michael says sometimes people suggest to him that maybe culinary school wasn’t worth it, since he’s now “just” cooking barbeque. But he also knows that there’s nothing “just” about the barbecue he’s cooking at Franklin. It’s high-end, precision barbecue that would not be possible without the attention to detail and method that culinary school taught him.
He says, “I’ve met people that have been working in restaurants since they were sixteen or seventeen years old and never went to culinary school, and they’re fantastic cooks, but they don’t know what they’re doing. Meaning that they don’t know why they’re doing it…Culinary school gives you the confidence you need to get in the door much more easily than if you were just to go work in a restaurant.”*
*Information may not reflect every student’s experience. Results and outcomes may be based on several factors, such as geographical region or previous experience.
Michael is also clear that it was the relationships he built with his Chef Instructors that gave him the opportunity to even meet Aaron Franklin.
An Escoffier Chef Instructor demonstrates how to cut an artichoke for an Escoffier student.
“I would never have gotten the opportunity…they would never have hired me straight off the street, ever…At Escoffier, the Chef Instructors notice when you care and show up, and you follow the instructions. It’s simple, but people don’t do it. And when you put in that effort, they see it.”
Life Lessons from Cooking: Find Your Creative Joy
If you ask Michael about what he feels he’s really gotten out of his journey through culinary school into a cooking career, he has this to say. “Three years ago, I was sitting behind a desk computer…I never thought in a million years I’d be doing this. So, you just have to sometimes trust your gut.
Michael is so grateful his mom encouraged him to follow his passions, and that his path has allowed him to honor his mom’s life with the thing that made them so happy together.
Michael’s story just goes to show that reinventing your career is not only possible but likely, with the right support and training. That dead-end job you hate isn’t a life sentence! You can find a new path that reflects your true interests by being open to what’s possible, and to taking some calculated risks.
Ready to explore your passion for cooking and how culinary school could support you in finding your dream career? Contact our admissions department to learn more about our in-person and online culinary programs and how they can help you forge a new career path. You never know where you might end up!
IF YOU LIKED THIS ARTICLE ON HOW CULINARY SCHOOL HELPED LAUNCH MICHAEL FIRLDS’ COOKING CAREER, READ THESE NEXT:
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*Information may not reflect every student’s experience. Results and outcomes may be based on several factors, such as geographical region or previous experience.
