I was honored to be invited as a guest chef and presenter at last week’s The Taste of Science dinner at NYC’s Astor Center, just one of many events organized as part of the larger World Science Festival. The dinner was MC'ed by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Chief Creative Officer of Serious Eats, and featured dishes from such renowned chefs as Wylie Dufresne of WD50, Owen Clark of Gwynett Street, and ICE alum/co-author of Modernist Cuisine, Maxime Bilet.

Not too long ago, Susan Stockton, Senior Vice President, Culinary Production at Food Network, was a culinary arts student at ICE. I first met Ms. Stockton when she spoke about Food Network and Cooking Channel at the school in August 2012. As a recent graduate, I immediately began to imagine how inspiring it would be for current ICE students, prospective students, and other alumni to hear a bit more about her incredible journey, experiences, and accomplishments in the food industry.

When I contacted her to request an interview on behalf of ICE, Ms. Stockton graciously accepted. We met at the Food Network offices at Chelsea Market. Here’s what she had to say:

I’ve heard that you’ve had previous careers in film, as a florist, a caterer, and a graphic designer. What made you decided to make another career change and attend culinary school?

I had a 12-year-old graphic design firm based in Boston in the late 80’s. At that time, Boston was in a recession, much like we are now. Clients were cutting budgets left and right. I’d also just met my husband. It felt like a good time to jump start a new life with this new person—who had a new job offer in New York City!

The last thing you want to do is open up a New York design studio in a recession. That forced me to stop and ask myself what I wanted to do next. What made me happy? I’d had other careers, been schooled in fine arts and writing and had landed a job as an art director for a small film company. After a few years, I opened a tropical plant store in Boston with movie posters collected from that job and called it "Hollywood & Vine". I always tell career-changing students, everything you learn from past careers can help you leverage your next career. Just be sure to follow your passion. So, that’s what I did.

I’d always loved cooking and entertaining. I got that from my family. Every get-together revolved around huge spreads of food. And I’d been casually catering dinner parties for friends in Boston and really enjoyed it. So when it came time to move to New York, I felt the desire to begin again.

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