The Perfect Rise: Conversations with RBA
"The Perfect Rise: Conversations with RBA" is your all-access pass to the heart of the retail baking industry. Each episode brings you inside the kitchen with leading bakers, educators, and innovators who share their stories, tips, and insights. From the secrets of achieving the perfect loaf to navigating business growth, we explore what it takes to elevate your baking craft and career. Whether you’re a seasoned pro, an aspiring baker, or simply hungry for inspiration, tune in and discover how the Retail Bakers of America helps you rise to every challenge—and savor every success.
The Perfect Rise: Conversations with RBA
E8: How CMB Derek Corsino Built a Career from Cakes, Classrooms, and Bold Yeses
What do you get when you combine a lifelong artist, a pastry chef, and an award-winning educator? You get Certified Master Baker Derek Corsino.
In this inspiring episode of The Perfect Rise, we sit down with Derek to explore his journey from eight-year-old cake decorator to Food Network competitor, high school culinary instructor, and published author. Known for pushing creative boundaries in cake design and pushing students to greatness in SkillsUSA competitions, Derek shares the real talk behind building a career in baking—and how he’s stayed relevant every step of the way.
🧁 Inside this episode, we discuss:
• How early art classes led to culinary school and a cake business
• The truth about cake mix, consistency, and customer expectations
• Why Derek tells bakers to hire artists, not decorators
• The behind-the-scenes of writing and self-publishing his cookbook
• The value of spreadsheets, knife skills, and saying YES to new opportunities
• What it means to evolve as an educator and stay connected to the next generation of culinary pros
Whether you’re a bakery owner, culinary student, or passionate home baker, Derek’s story will challenge and inspire you to rethink what success can look like in this industry.
🎧 Want more episodes? Subscribe to The Perfect Rise podcast for more conversations with bakers shaping the future of the industry.
📕 Learn more about Derek’s cookbook and work: www.derekcorsino.com
🌐 Explore RBA membership and resources: https://www.retailbakersofamerica.org
Kimberly Houston (00:01)
Welcome back to the perfect rise, the official podcast of the retail bakers of America. I'm your host, Kimberly Houston. And today we're diving deep into the world of edible art, career pivots and saying yes to what's next. My guest is none other than CMB Derek Corsino, pastry chef, food network competitor, author, and award winning educator. From decorating cakes at eight years old to launching his own cake business.
and Mentoring Skills USA champions, Derek has built a career that blends technical mastery with creative risk taking. In this episode, you'll hear how Derek's early love for art turned into a lifelong commitment to the culinary craft. He opens up about why he retired from cake making, what he's learned from the classroom, and how publishing his own cookbook became a lesson in both creativity and courage.
And he has a lot to say about knife skills, spreadsheets, and why you should hire artists, not cake decorators. This isn't just a conversation about baking. It's a blueprint for career longevity, self-reinvention, and leading with passion. So if you've ever wondered what it looks like to stay relevant, stay inspired, and still take a nap on the Tuscan coast someday, buckle up. You're going to love this one. Let's get into it.
Kimberly Houston (01:29)
Hello friends, I am so excited to introduce you guys to pastry chef and educator Derek. Okay Derek listen, I have read over your bio and I let everybody know all the things that you have done and we have so many ways this conversation can go.
Derek Corsino (01:40)
you
Kimberly Houston (01:51)
And so I just want to warn people up front as you listen to this podcast, we're going to take you on a journey. We're going to go for a ride. And I just need y'all to buckle up. I just need you to trust the process. It's going to be okay. So I think we're going to start really like simple. Okay. What inspired you to get into the baking and culinary world?
Derek Corsino (01:58)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
You know, we all have our origin stories, if you will. And mine is sitting at my dining room table, my mom teaching me art. And that's really kind where this all stems from. And we're talking like five years old, you know, there was never a shortage of art supplies. And then I, you know, I come from a family of artists. We all have our kind of avenue, whether it's music or fine art. My brother does tattooing and scenic stuff. My mother,
as a seamstress, my dad does music. And then I kind of found my own way. And while I never left fine arts, I paint, I sculpt, I still do all of that. I found at a very young age that I liked to turn my art into food. So I started as a cake decorator. I was like eight years old taking, know, Wilton cake decorating classes at the craft store. And it was me at eight. And then there was like a 40 year gap of people and then everybody else.
Kimberly Houston (03:00)
Hmm.
Yes.
Derek Corsino (03:16)
But like I was always finishing my stuff really early and they were complimenting my roses and whatever else I was piping. So that's kind of where all of that started and then I was lucky enough to go to a school district in New York where they had a robust culinary program, particularly for the time in the early 2000s, you know, having high school culinary programs. It was rare. We had a small commercial kitchen, small group of people.
4,000 people in my high school, 14 people could be in a class. So there took some fighting from mom, you know, but mom, mom fought for me. She got me in those classes. That's a whole separate story we won't even go into. But, and that kind of allowed that flame to kind of just start to burn a little bit hotter. And then conveniently, I grew up 15 minutes from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. So everything kind of.
Kimberly Houston (03:56)
Hey.
Derek Corsino (04:11)
neatly progressed from there. But it really all just comes down to my love of art, and I love when you can make an art piece, and that makes people happy. And the nice thing about food is, you know, it kind of brings like ultimate joy when you hit it right. And I also love that it's disposable, so the art is gone. It doesn't exist again. It's away.
Kimberly Houston (04:12)
Thank
Mm-hmm.
Yes, I totally understand that and I used to teach bulletin classes and so I absolutely remember having like the eight-year-old in my class and then like the 40-year-old in my class and the eight-year-olds always outshine. Yeah, that was like that was my introduction to kids in the kitchen and I was like yeah this and it literally became my life's journey of
Derek Corsino (04:53)
We always kill it.
Zzzzz
Kimberly Houston (05:05)
being with kids in the kitchen and honing those skills with them and writing books for kids in the kitchen. So I totally get it. Shout out to your mom for putting you in the, was a homeschool mom so my kids didn't say things where there was always art. There were always supplies. They still are, even though my kids are grown, there are still supplies in my house and they know this. So I get it fully. I love that she tapped into your creativity.
early on in order to like yeah go do your thing go do your thing you don't have to do what everybody else is doing do your thing i think that is so cool and even looking at your cakes like things are sculpted like the art transferred over into this medium and i was like wow
Derek Corsino (05:43)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm
a retired cake maker at this point. I'm in my late 30s and I've already retired from something. And I remember like the way, as a former cake maker now, the way I approached it was never how you would learn in school. Well, this is how you're dowel a cake. And even if you're gonna sculpt the cake, you do it this way. And it's like, okay, I'm gonna take fondant and I'm gonna do all the things to it you're not supposed to. And we'll see what happens. And sometimes it would work.
Kimberly Houston (05:58)
right?
Yeah.
No.
Yes,
yes, I did that. I did that. I think that people are like do you still do takes? No, I'm retired. I shut down in 2020.
Derek Corsino (06:25)
Yeah.
I'll come out of retirement for our price. But that price has gotten very high.
Kimberly Houston (06:31)
Yeah, I don't think people
could pay me to come out of retirement at this point. I tried it once or twice and I was like the PTSD from having to deliver a cake. No thank you. No thank you. don't. ⁓ my god. Mine was a kids cake and I got ran off the road by an 18 wheeler and the three tiered cake fell over.
Derek Corsino (06:35)
you
Mm-hmm. Yeah. We all remember that one that crashed. Yeah.
Yeah, it was never our driving that was the problem. It was everybody else. I had a stack of pumpkins, minivan in front of me screeched to a halt and you can just hear them in the back go, did, did, did, did, And I'm like, I could see the location where it was going. We were almost there. Yeah. Yeah.
Kimberly Houston (06:58)
Mm-hmm. I was the one.
It is the worst. It is the one I
still know. No. Okay. Let's let's take that right. What advice would you give people who are still doing cakes right now? What advice would you give them?
Derek Corsino (07:27)
⁓ you know, the biggest thing, you know, so I had a cake shop for eight years, whether it was running out of my parents' house when it started, renting space, and then having my own kind of brick and mortar kind of thing. I was on this high horse that everything had to be scratch made. And honestly, people probably, the average customer didn't, it didn't matter to them that we were doing a scratch butter cake when we could have used a 50 pound mix. And like,
Kimberly Houston (07:35)
Thank
Yeah.
Bye.
Yep.
Derek Corsino (07:57)
Why were we killing ourselves over that? You there are certain things that we were going to always do in-house. We were always going to do our ganaches. We always going do our buttercreams in-house. But why were we killing ourselves for that? And you can tweak those things. And you can make your own version of a mix as well to just really help the production side of things. And a lot of it really is the production side. Like, why did we waste so much time and money over there?
Kimberly Houston (07:58)
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Derek Corsino (08:25)
And then, you know, if I was really give advice, hire artists, don't hire cake decorators. Train people who know how to make things. Because if you're like, ⁓ I need all these figures, here are these, you know, popular character figures. I need all of these. I give them a material. They're going to give me something that's... Nobody taught them how to work with gum paste and fondant. And you get a better product.
Kimberly Houston (08:34)
Yes.
It's good.
Derek Corsino (08:54)
You gotta tell them some rules. But, they'll figure it out.
Kimberly Houston (08:58)
Yes. Agreed. That feels like my externship where when I arrived, the like I came out of Le Cordon Bleu very from scratch, do all the things and on the first day of externship, I walked into the back room and I was like, box cake mix? What is this? And she was like, I put my money into the people, not the, and she said, and the other thing with using like
Derek Corsino (09:03)
You
Yep. Yeah.
Kimberly Houston (09:28)
mixes and of course, you you doctor the mixes up but it was that it was a consistent product and So she was like whether they had it at their wedding and then it's five years later and it's a baby shower It tastes the same
Derek Corsino (09:33)
OS.
And you can also take, you know, that high schooler who wants an afternoon job here, just add oil and eggs and water and you're good to go.
Kimberly Houston (09:50)
Yes,
very simple. that was, I was like, wow, they did not teach me this in culinary school. They did not teach me this in culinary school. But we had to make the buttercream every day. We made all the fillings. We made all the ganaches. And the girl who I ended up working with the most in the bakery was an artist. And so she would create the most incredible, like she did a foot my first week there. I was like, those toes look so real. And she was like, I mean,
Derek Corsino (10:13)
Yeah, yeah.
Kimberly Houston (10:18)
I use fondant the same way I use clay. It's the same thing. I totally agree. I think that's I don't know that anyone's ever said that on a podcast. I love it.
Derek Corsino (10:21)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
But it's also like take calligraphy classes, take the watercolor class, take the stuff, know, hang out in Home Depot. Take some Home Depot plumbing classes. You're not going to like plumb in a toilet, but you're going to make a structure.
Kimberly Houston (10:31)
Yup. Yup.
Yeah.
Yes, and who taught me Timbo? I took the Timbo class not to learn how to do the things. I just wanted to know how he was making cakes without using cake decorating supplies. He was using like toothpicks and like tips and I was like you you created a whole skull cake using toothpicks and picks. Okay.
Derek Corsino (10:45)
Thank
Yeah.
Kimberly Houston (11:06)
Like my mind was completely
blown from what we think we should be doing as K-Artists into what you could be doing to save yourself some money on the back end and a whole lot of time. So I love that. No one has said this. I love it. This is going to be a good podcast episode. So because you've been in the industry, you've been around the industry, you've gone to school, you've on Food Network, you've written the cookbook, you've done the things, right? So in your opinion,
Derek Corsino (11:15)
Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kimberly Houston (11:36)
How has the industry changed since you started?
Derek Corsino (11:40)
It's vastly different. I can think back to being in just in culinary school in the early 2000s and a French macaron, they were white. You put some like toasted nuts on top of it and it was individual cookie. It wasn't sandwiched. They weren't bright colors. I mean the movement hadn't moved over from France yet. You were starting to see it but it wasn't a thing. You couldn't sell a macaron to somebody because they didn't know what it was.
And that's kind of like a metaphor where we're always kind of going to, mean, the industry is so driven by social media now. People are using water jets to cut tempered chocolate. And it's like, yeah, because I have a $15,000 machine just lying around. And so, you know, things are changing so rapidly and getting, you know, more contemporary, but now we're also seeing, and I just watched, you know, some things of the Kupdaman.
Kimberly Houston (12:25)
Great!
Derek Corsino (12:39)
And we're going backwards now. But we always do that. We ebb and flow as an industry. Now we're going back to classics. And it's like, yeah, you made a petivier. How long have we been making a petivier? And people want to see that classic again. So the fundamentals we learned in culinary school are back in vogue. But yeah, it's just...
Kimberly Houston (12:43)
Mm-hmm.
Bye!
Yes.
Yes.
Derek Corsino (13:07)
the trends are more like TikTok and Instagram, real based and all of that. know, people want you to do that stuff when not necessarily professionals are making those videos. Like, oh yeah, you want me to do that? Oh, that's gonna cost you, cause that's gonna take me like six hours. I know they did it in 15 seconds, but they didn't actually. So that's really kind of like driving and changing who we are as an industry.
Kimberly Houston (13:21)
Mm-hmm.
Derek Corsino (13:37)
more and more as an educator now, I'm focusing on that next generation coming through of like, okay, there's a social media side over here. You may or may not make money over there, but you need to know your core fundamentals here and that will give you a career and a base that will last.
Kimberly Houston (13:50)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, totally agree. I think one of the things that always sticks with me is learning how to hold a knife. And like the fact that your elbow needs to be in your side if you plan on sustaining this position. And I watch so often how people's elbows are just flying and I'm like, bring that wing back in, Like I can hear my chefs a decade later yelling.
Derek Corsino (14:15)
Guess.
Anyway. Yeah.
Kimberly Houston (14:28)
Why are you flying? You're just like, what in the world? But like,
Derek Corsino (14:32)
Yeah, yeah. Or just having knife skills. So much,
and I'm pointing out every baker listening, every up and coming baker who might be listening, you might have like a day of knife skills, but you really need to hone those if you're not getting them in your formal education. You need to go get your bag, get a bag of potatoes and tournée the night away while watching your favorite TV show. Because you need knife skills and they don't just teach you the knife skills, they show you
⁓ precision and consistency and why that's important in everything we do. ⁓ because when I'm out there and I'm judging for skills USA with high schoolers and college students, that's my biggest complaint. I'm like, okay, you can do this over here. You're doing this flashy thing you saw on tick tock over here, but you can't make a baton a or a brunoise. Which means when you're cooking, nothing's consistent. So it all comes down to the fundamentals.
Kimberly Houston (15:06)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Right? Yeah.
Yes it does. And teaching children, particularly middle schoolers, they don't like to listen. And so that used to be, that wasn't, like, y'all it matters. They're like, but what? Because it does. Like your stuff isn't going to cook evenly if you don't understand this. And so just those little things and a lot of those babies that I was teaching pre-COVID are now headed off to culinary school or in their first year at Johnson and Wells. And they're like,
Derek Corsino (15:36)
No.
Yes.
Yeah.
Kimberly Houston (15:58)
Chef Kim. I know we used to like be like well if you don't leave us alone with these nice skills but like thank you and I'm like you're welcome.
Derek Corsino (16:00)
Thank
Yeah. I
always, I love hearing that their first year of culinary school, their first couple of classes, they're like, hey, I already know all this stuff. And it's like, you're welcome. Thank you for listening.
Kimberly Houston (16:14)
Yeah, right. no, 12 year old you wasn't okay with that, but it's okay.
everyday
so are you doing well in school lovely i love that so that that has been fun in order to watch those kids grow up okay so i'm trying to decide which way we're gonna go with this conversation because you have so many things on your resume so okay i got it what is a memorable success story or a moment you're most proud of in your career
Derek Corsino (16:34)
Yeah
You know, from being an active baker and pastry chef, that wasn't the highlight. The highlight has come as an educator, when you can get a student to the finish line, or whatever that line might be. And it's more of all those students who have gone on to something else. And sometimes they want to be cooks and chefs and bakers and pastry chefs or chocolatiers or butchers.
Kimberly Houston (16:55)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Derek Corsino (17:15)
And that's great, but that's also everybody else. I got a message years ago. It was my first couple years teaching as a high school culinary teacher and student graduated out. I got a message from on Instagram, like, Hey chef, I made that recipe that we made in class. And, you know, it impressed all my friends and they were, and they were going to school for something completely unrelated, but they took my classes and the joy that it brought them.
Kimberly Houston (17:40)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Derek Corsino (17:45)
that
they had that skill that they could show off because now you know that that student, former student, is cooking from scratch. They're not afraid to do that. They have that confidence. But some of the major highlights is for the past six years, I was advising a SkillsUSA team. And for those people who don't know what SkillsUSA, it's a high school organization, also college. They do a lot of career technical competitions and such.
Kimberly Houston (17:54)
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Derek Corsino (18:15)
My honed in people mostly did culinary, baking, hospitality and such. But I've had a number of students very successful. We've gone to the national competition the past three years and to see one cook, she did it for three years in a row. The highest rank she got was third place in the nation. But just to be able to kind of do that, it's great seeing the student grow, but it also causes you as a teacher to continue to push them.
Kimberly Houston (18:26)
Night.
you
Mm-hmm.
Derek Corsino (18:44)
to show them new things so you also grow. And as a result, I got my CMB because last year I had Bakers go for the past two years with Nationals. I'm like, I've been meaning to do the thing and am I ever gonna get around to it? And I can write a grant and they can help pay for it and that's gonna be awesome and everything. But I should really, I should do it. And I talked to them and they're like, oh, you should really do that. And they got to see me go through
the entire process that they were doing at another level, but it's fundamentally the same thing. They saw me stressing out about it and go off and do it and they get my CMB and you they got to see me get the result as well. So, you you mentioned all the Food Network stuff like, you know, now as an educator, I don't do Food Network entirely for me. Yes, my ego needs to be pet. But, but it's also, you know, to keep me on my toes.
Kimberly Houston (19:15)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Derek Corsino (19:43)
and to make sure the students understand that I'm still relevant, that my skills are still relevant, and they're still where they need to be. Many times we see educators retire into education, and they're not pushing themselves anymore, and they're not growing in the industry, and they're not staying relevant. This is how you stay relevant.
Kimberly Houston (19:49)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, because where are the children? And go there. I love that so much. Totally, I agree with all the things that I was like, yep, that's my life. I get it fully, fully, fully get it. And I think for me, I never wanted to go on Food Network. I was like, I'm good. But I trained a whole lot of kids to go on Food Network. And I was like, my biggest thing was none of y'all got sent home because you did something wrong. It was great. was great. I was like, you're coming in with a different level of knowledge.
Derek Corsino (20:28)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kimberly Houston (20:33)
And
they're like, hear you in our head. We can hear you. And I'm like, good.
Derek Corsino (20:39)
Food Network stuff is such a weird thing. I started out with that stuff in just happenstance. I got a phone call because somebody else turned down a cake and made somebody a client angry. I took the cake order and they called up the production company. They happened to be doing Food Network Challenge and they're okay. Let's get on that guy's radar.
Kimberly Houston (20:58)
Yeah.
Derek Corsino (21:03)
told Food Network no more times than I say yes. I don't say that in a gloating way, but it's like they always call in like September and October. When are we most busy? So you have to say no a lot. Guess that keeps them on the on the thing. yeah, it's as it says on my Instagram handle, I'm a Food Network hobbyist. I'm not on there for any personal gain. I know that you're not going to make money off of it really get a little boost.
Kimberly Houston (21:06)
Right.
Yes, they do.
Right, but that's it.
Derek Corsino (21:33)
But
it's fun. It's fun. And it pushes you.
Kimberly Houston (21:38)
It does and I think that speaks to a lot of people getting the industry just so that they can go on Food Network and I'm like, okay, but if you're gonna do that, I need you to understand some things about a professional kitchen because if not, they're gonna exploit that on TV. They're gonna know if you know some things or not and so I need you to learn a little bit before you go do that and so.
Derek Corsino (21:54)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Kimberly Houston (22:05)
because that was my stance a lot of parents were like I'm so glad I sent my child to you and I'm like you're welcome.
Derek Corsino (22:11)
Yeah, I will
talk anybody out of doing any TV show ever.
Kimberly Houston (22:15)
Yeah. Right. Don't worry about what I did. I am just here to tell the story that you can do something different and that's okay. Okay, so let's see. So we've talked about your Time on Food Network. We've talked about you being an instructor. You went to CIA. You have a very artistic family. So last year you released a book.
Derek Corsino (22:17)
I will do my darnedest. And then I'll be like, don't look at my resume.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I made a book. I wrote a book. You know, as an educator, we end up with this huge Rolodex of recipes. And in these days, they're all digital anyway. And what are the more expensive things you need to do when writing a cookbook? R &D. I already did it all. So I had all the recipes, they already all worked. They're already all scaled to like the size I wanted. So I didn't actually have to do that much of like going back into the kitchen.
Kimberly Houston (22:43)
Yeah, how's that?
Yes.
Yes.
Derek Corsino (23:11)
Some of it was like, I have all this in weight. Well, if I'm going to sell this to the average public, I got to get this all in volume. But I also have high schoolers who wanted to help, and they were happy to do it for free, which was also great. So I wrote a book. So this was great. this first one, and I might end up doing kind of a series of a field guide to whatever.
Kimberly Houston (23:14)
Thank
Yes.
Beautiful!
Okay. Yeah.
Derek Corsino (23:40)
I'm playing with a couple things right now, but this one's just the culinary arts. So in here, it's some fundamental knife skill building kind of recipes, sauces, there's a whole section on pastas, dried pasta and such, appetizers, entrees. Of course, there's a robust baking and pastry section. And then a spirit-free beverage section in the back, which anybody could easily fill in the gap if you wanted to make that spirit forward.
Kimberly Houston (23:51)
in the room.
Yes.
right
Derek Corsino (24:07)
There's a Virgin Lime Ricky in here that just needs a little tequila and everybody's gonna be happy. But, you know, it was really fun. I self-published, which it's hard because for years I've been trying to like get in front of a publisher. You know, you'd think being on Food Network, people would even remotely want to take at least answer an email. They don't. Publishing is brutal. And getting on anybody's radar is next to impossible these days unless you win a James Beard award.
Kimberly Houston (24:11)
What?
Yeah.
Right.
Right.
Derek Corsino (24:38)
or your social media sensation and I just don't have the complexion for it. Too shiny Italian, it's just never gonna work. So I decided to self-publish. Me and my spouse, Katie, she helped copy edit. We did the best we could. Are there a couple errors? There were a few. There will be a second edition, like any book.
Kimberly Houston (25:03)
Yeah.
Derek Corsino (25:05)
Yeah, and I did the whole thing. I designed it all on Canva. It's full color, which is great. And then I worked with a printer and, you know, it was kind of cool being able to pick out like, ⁓ what materials you want. So like it's embossed. You can't see it on here, but like there's texture, which is really cool. Because that was an option. I'm like, yeah, for 15 more cents a book, let's emboss it. Why not?
Kimberly Houston (25:10)
Yes!
noise.
Woo!
Yeah, right.
Derek Corsino (25:32)
And then, you you register it and, you know, I got to visit now my book. It's with the Library of Congress. I'm in Washington, DC. I can go visit my book whenever I want. I'm the only one ever checking it out of the Library of Congress. But it's It's there. And my mom knows it's there.
Kimberly Houston (25:43)
Wait!
That's okay. That's okay though. It's there. And that's exciting. It's so exciting.
And after self-publishing four different things and definitely working on more, for the last couple, when I did my pivot out of baking, I didn't go back into teaching. I did that beforehand. And so I went into food photography.
Derek Corsino (26:16)
Is this?
Kimberly Houston (26:17)
And like the thing that made me stand out was because I understood fundamental kitchen skills. And I could get things done faster than just a photographer. So like I was the whole package and not you don't need to have a food stylist and a photographer and recipe. No, it's just me. I can do all of them.
Derek Corsino (26:30)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, you do it all. ⁓ huh. The more
you can do in-house, the better.
Kimberly Houston (26:42)
Right? And so I was like, well, this is a fun avenue to go down that I had no idea existed because I was like, I'm not a photographer, but I took photography classes and became one. And it's like, this is still working within the artistic medium that I don't think people like really think about that. Like your culinary skills will take you outside of the kitchen and can probably make you up. It made me way more money.
Derek Corsino (26:46)
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know,
I tell my students all the time because they're like, well, I don't want to be like a chef on the line. I'm like, please don't. We have enough. We have enough of them. You know, and unless you want to work for very low wages for the rest of your career, that should not be a career aspiration if you want to go to culinary school because then got to pay off those loans. Please specialize. I have a student who was just accepted in a food science program at Virginia Tech.
Kimberly Houston (27:26)
Yes.
No!
Derek Corsino (27:34)
Another one, she's going to go to CIA, but she has lofty ambitions. Another one's like studying sustainable food systems. So we need all of these other areas, but having that basis of knowing those fundamentals gets them and gives them that background, like with your food styling.
Kimberly Houston (27:41)
Ooh.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and
they, you have no idea where that will take you. And definitely build a profile on LinkedIn. Because so many people found me on LinkedIn, they were like, you do all of what? Okay, let's talk. I didn't even know, I had no idea that, you know, going to Le Cordon Bleu and then taking some photography classes and writing a book, people be like, yes. So let's talk about how we can work together. So I definitely think.
Derek Corsino (27:58)
You never know.
Mm-hmm.
Kimberly Houston (28:21)
I think it's important for people to understand this isn't just we want you in a kitchen. It's we want you to get the skill set and learn the foundation and then go fly with it. Unless you're holding a knife, put your elbow into your side.
Derek Corsino (28:26)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Definitely and then when you're doing the baguettes get that elbow up
Kimberly Houston (28:39)
Exactly or else it's gonna hurt. I
got the shoulder pain to prove it. Okay, so I've got a fun question for you. ⁓ let's see. Okay, if you had unlimited resources, what's a dream project you'd love to take on in the culinary world?
Derek Corsino (28:57)
I want a little gelato shop on like the Tuscan coast where I can be open whenever I want and close wherever I want. That's it.
Kimberly Houston (29:08)
I am with you on that!
Derek Corsino (29:10)
I've had this dream for a long time. Maybe someday it'll happen.
Kimberly Houston (29:12)
Listen,
that sounds like a wonderful retirement point.
Derek Corsino (29:17)
Right? Some pastries in the morning.
When we run out, we run out. It's Italy. Nobody cares.
Kimberly Houston (29:25)
I
think that is so fun like we open at 6 a.m. We close when we're done.
Derek Corsino (29:29)
Yeah, it's okay. It's two o'clock and I want to go take a nap. I can come real close.
Kimberly Houston (29:33)
Right! That would definitely,
that would beat working in the kitchen any day. Who would we beat working in the kitchen any day? Okay. That's true. Who doesn't want to there? Who doesn't want to be there? I think that would be so cool. Okay, because you are an educator and you've done Food Network and you've written a book and you teach and you do all the things. Here's a question. What's one underrated skill that you think every culinary professional should cultivate?
Derek Corsino (29:38)
you
Hell yeah. And then you're in Tuscany.
I would rephrase that with specifically bakers and that goes back to knife skills. Because bakers don't have knife skills. Also, know how to use a spreadsheet. Nobody knows how to use a spreadsheet anymore.
Kimberly Houston (30:08)
Okay?
my god! Yes!
Yes, I was one of those people who fought the spreadsheet world and that tickled me because there are three spreadsheets up on my second screen right now because I've had to go back to that. I was like after culinary school I'm never gonna need spreadsheets again. Yes you will. Yeah, it will keep you sane even though it feels like a lot of work at the end of the day is not. Particularly if you tweak a recipe.
Derek Corsino (30:24)
That goes for anybody, anywhere.
every day of my life.
yeah.
Kimberly Houston (30:50)
And you need to go very quickly, like make that note is so much easier to have on the spreadsheet than a bunch of little like notebooks. Yeah. Yeah, it's, I agree. I don't want to agree with that spreadsheet statement. I agree with you. I definitely think they should. And you're right. Even like, even when I think about culinary school, we did like six weeks of like culinary.
Derek Corsino (30:54)
yeah.
You line up your baker's percent with it, can scale it whatever way you want. Done.
You're welcome.
Kimberly Houston (31:17)
which included our knife skills but then after that we we use my hands
Derek Corsino (31:17)
Mm-hmm.
You never used them.
No. And then you get in the real world and you're on the brink of like, oh, well, pastry is done early. I'm going to send you home while you're hourly. I don't want to be sent home because you pay my rent. So it's like, well, I'm going to go, know, cooks don't listen. I'm going to go slum it on the line. And, know, you need to be able to sling it. So you need those fundamental skills.
Kimberly Houston (31:31)
Right
Yes.
You did.
Derek Corsino (31:47)
And don't tell me bakers you don't need to know how to braise something because braised pineapple is delicious
Kimberly Houston (31:52)
Yes, there's so many. You know
what my most viral post on TikTok and it's so dumb is me chopping up Oreos.
I was like, what? ⁓ the content I have posted, me chopping Oreos. And it's literally because my elbow is in my side and people are like, how is she doing that? And I'm like, this is how it's done. Yeah.
Derek Corsino (32:03)
Yeah. Yeah.
Oreos.
It's the basics. We all have that chef who's in the back of
our brain and they're yelling at us and threatening to throw a sheet pan at us. Yep.
Kimberly Houston (32:26)
Yes, like what
are you doing? And I'm like, y'all, it's just Oreos. I'm proud. It's just cookies. There's nothing special about the video, but it's so everything. And I did not. And I'm just like, you know what? This is so dumb. But yeah, like those things are super important. Okay. So this conversation has been so wonderful.
Derek Corsino (32:31)
Yeah. Right. Hopefully you got a sponsorship out of this.
Okay
Kimberly Houston (32:51)
And I'm like, I still got 12 more questions to ask you, but I won't. I will not for the sake of our audience. If you could give any advice to someone, I'm going to say two pieces of advice. One, because you're an educator, I want you to speak to students who, or they might not even be students, people who are just kind of thinking about, maybe I want to move into the industry. I would love for you to give them a piece of advice. And then secondly,
Derek Corsino (33:13)
Mm-hmm.
Kimberly Houston (33:20)
I would love for you to speak to people who've been in the industry and maybe they've been afraid to test out other things like maybe doing a book or going on a show or traveling and doing whatever. What advice would you give those two groups of
Derek Corsino (33:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
It's kind of the same piece of advice. It's say yes. When opportunities knock, say yes. If you want to write the book, you need to kind of say yes to that and you need to find the time. If your menu is kind of eh right now, you need to make the time and find the time to do some R &D. know, remember why we were having fun with this industry to begin with. And it's the opportunities of somebody who's
Kimberly Houston (33:38)
Okay!
Derek Corsino (34:06)
Maybe a student, somebody who's in high school and there's a catering opportunity, say yes, do it. You can join a career technical organization like SkillsUSA, say yes, do it. You never know what's gonna happen from saying yes. You you're in culinary school and somebody is like, hey, you wanna go help down with the US Open? Yes. Do you have time? Probably not, but you'll sleep when you're dead.
Kimberly Houston (34:17)
Mm-hmm.
Derek Corsino (34:36)
And you know say yes to all these opportunities and that's probably how I've had such diverse career is because yeah, sure. Okay, let's go do it Why not? Let's give that a try if I fail that's fine because you can fail upward you can fail forward But if you never say yes, you're going nowhere
Kimberly Houston (34:54)
Mm-hmm.
Exactly. ⁓ my gosh That was so tweetable that Back when there was Twitter not anymore, but yes that But yeah, okay, so it still flies. It still flies see That was incredible. I think that is the perfect place to end Literally just say yes
Derek Corsino (35:02)
you
and we're on Blue's Dino
Yeah, it works. It works.
See us.
Kimberly Houston (35:22)
I think that is a very small but very impactful piece of advice and when I think about my career over the last 12 years I did all the things because I said yes and I never even thought about it. I was just like, sure I'll figure it out. But like yeah say yes. I think that's great. Thank you so much for taking time to come and join us on our brand new RBA podcast.
This has been absolutely wonderful guys. I will make sure everything is listed down in the show notes, link to the book, a link to the website, a link to all the places you can go find Derek and connect with him online. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate you so much.
Derek Corsino (36:03)
Thanks for having me on.
