For chef-to-be, self-discovery is on the menu

Chuk, 37, is a student working at Technique, the teaching restaurant at the year-old Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Boston, located near Lechmere. During lunch, Chuk is in a groove working the fry/appetizer station. The orders are steady, but nothing compared to a recent Saturday evening, when he watched the chefs at Lumière, the West Newton restaurant. The kitchen was hot and, says Chuk, “people are sliding past each other - barely.

“It was continuous, nonstop action, really fast-paced,’’ he says. “[It’s] something I was not prepared for. That’s one area I’m a bit anxious about - being able to come up to speed.’’ He’s already started to test that. Chuk started an externship at Clio in Boston yesterday.

That’s not Chuk’s only concern. He worries about bringing creativity to the job. “There’s always a bit of self doubt,’’ he says. He admits he’s anxious about the impact the new work schedule will have on his personal life. He and his wife, Judy, have been married two years. He calls school “cushy compared to the lifestyle of a restaurant chef.’’ Even at his part-time job at Sidney’s Grille in Le Meridien in Cambridge, Chuk felt “protected.’’

Chuk is among the 25 percent of students at Le Cordon Bleu looking to change careers. Even though he’s paying a price - leaving his 9-to-5 job as a Web designer for Kaplan Inc. in New York for long, grueling hours in a kitchen - he thinks it’s going to be worth it. A longtime foodie, Chuk is fulfilling his dream by becoming a chef and uncovering the mysteries he marvels at as a diner. The whole program cost him about $38,000.

Technique is located on the first floor of the Athenaeum building. The cavernous warehouse space features a modern dining room and an open kitchen. Classrooms with state-of-the-art equipment occupy the top floors, which the school shares with other businesses. Students learn everything from sausage making and butchering to baking and the business end of the industry. It takes 15 months to earn an Associate of Applied Science degree. During that time, 12 months is spent in the classroom; the Technique kitchen and dining room are part of that. Technique is the last stop before students test their mettle in a three-month externship before graduating.

“Some don’t cut it,’’ says Jeff Mushin, lead chef instructor at the school and executive chef at Technique. “They realize it’s a lot of school work. This isn’t just cooking. They’re leaving here with an associate’s degree.’’

Chuk attended Boston University but left before graduating and got a job producing online content and courses for Kaplan. Food has always been a central focus of his life. He was raised in a Chinese-American family on braised red pork and Shanghai-style stir-fried rice cakes. Until now, he has only cooked as a hobby; he blogs and sends tweets about meals to his Facebook page at www.yehwan.com (his Chinese name). When his wife, Judy, recently accepted a job offer at L.E.K. Consulting in Boston, the couple agreed it was a good time for Chuk to get some culinary training.

Cordon Bleu instructor Mushin calls Chuk hard-working, smart, and curious. “It’s not enough to say, ‘I have a passion for food and I want to cook,’ ’’ says the instructor. “I think by being very curious, [Chuk] is in search of what kind of chef he wants to be.’’

Eventually Chuk wants to open his own cafe, where he’ll offer snacks and good coffee. (He’s a coffee fanatic.) “Just a neighborhood spot where you can gather,’’ Chuk says. “That’s the biggest thing I love about food - it facilitates interactions.’’

Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, 215 First St., Cambridge, 617-218-8000, www.chefs.edu/boston.