Are you thinking about a career in cooking but afraid to take the leap from your desk job and risk losing job security and other benefits? Mikael Jonsson, chef-owner of Hedone, left his successful career in law for a Michelin star restaurant.
Maybe you were a child that loved to cook like Estie Kung but right now you're in the middle of a professional non-food career that provides you the means and benefits you require.
Mikael Jonsson, a successful lawyer at a firm in Sweden, admits that he had a lifestyle he liked. He was a commercial lawyer but he wasn't passionate about being one. One day, he decided:
If you want to feel passionate, why not change profession?
He was interested in food at a young age. It was a hobby he enjoyed and experienced with his mother and grandmother in the kitchen. When he left one of the biggest law firms in Sweden, he and a few others formed their own law firm. While doing so, was blogging online at Gastroville about the restaurants he visited while on client meetings or during his spare time. However, what really pushed him to start his own business was being on a paleolithic diet. As a child, he suffered allergies, asthma and ulcers and going on this diet changed his life.
At 44 years old, he began to think about where his life would take him. He decided to take his home-cooking skills to the real world by starting over, starting his restaurant and starting to learn techniques and everything food or restaurant related.
His advice for those wanting to switch careers:
My advice to anyone wanting to do the same is to try talking yourself out of it, hard. But then, if you can't, go do it, if you have the stamina, lest you never get the idea out of your head.
Jonsson tells John Hind in the interview that it's not an easy thing to do and you will encounter many challenges if you decide to switch career.
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