Recipe for debt.

• Position: CAREERS - Brief article

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The age of celebrity chefs has inspired tens of thousands of young people to enroll in culinary school, with many dreaming of being the next Bobby Flay or Emeril Lagasse. But with the pay for restaurant cooks averaging $9.86 an hour, few graduates make enough to pay off their student loans. Erica Reichlin, a 2005 graduate of the California Culinary Institute, says the school helped her build good skills. But she now owes nearly $84,000 in federal and private loans; her payments are about $600...