I have two friends who did culinary school and one presently attending, all of whom did it in their mid- to late-30s. (Is that old?) So, you may not be surrounded by old guys, but you will probably not be the only one. As for the baking, my current friend in school intends to be a baker, but is doing a complete culinary course in order to get a full education in the field. Who knows, you may go in loving to bake, and come out loving something else.

Questionland hosted a food-related week a few months ago, with a pastry chef as one of the experts. See if you can locate that person and take him/her out for a drink. That's always the best way to get good advice on such a career choice - get 'em a little drunk, so they will tell you the good and bad.

It depends on your goals. If you want to learn how to bake at home and for friends, then yes. If you want to become a professional baker, it's still something of a yes but think of this for a moment:

The ratio of cooks to bakers is really high in the industry; Most restaurants and hotels have only one or two bakers (Seattle craigslist has 312 listings for cook and 20 for baker).

As of right now at the SCA, there are 12 occupied seats in the first quarter culinary course and 21 occupied in the baking class. Now since it is possible that bakers apply earlier (they certainly wake up earlier), lets assume that no one else applies for the baking program and the culinary program fills completely to give us the maximum incoming culinary/baking student ratio. Even then, 46% of SCA's incoming students are there for baking and, if the CL snapshot is accurate, will have to fight over the 6% of jobs that are available to them).

I think it could be a great idea. Baking programs tend to attract an older more mature set, or young ladies. Most men in the program are in their early 30's - 50's. This is how it was at the CIA at least.

Overall, my experience with bakers is that they tend to be pretty mellow and more detail focused than culinary students. If this is you, you will probably do very well!

I'm in the program at SCCC, & while there a lot of 18/19/20 yr olds (ugh), there are usually a few folks in the 40s+ demographic. I can't really speak too much about pastry as I'm a culinary student, but you should know it's a lot of hard work on your feet. So if you're prepared for that & completely enthusiastic, you'll be fine.

I don't know how good of an idea it is, but I am starting the pastry program at Seattle Central this fall. Also, I'm 30, so there are at least two old men interested in it.