College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Preparing for a Lifetime of Change - Talk about a sweet career!
Most undergraduates come to the College fresh out of high school, intent on exploring various fields before narrowing down their career choices. But some are further down the life-decision path. They arrive with solid, real-world experience and clearly defined objectives.
Take Adam Lechter. By the time he arrived in Madison, he had earned an associate’s degree from the famed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. and tried his hand cooking at Blackbird, a trendy restaurant in Chicago’s West Loop. While he knew quite a bit about food, he wanted to learn more about the science behind it.
“Having a bachelor’s degree is a big thing,” says Lechter, originally from the Milwaukee suburb of Fox Point.
After taking Professor Rich Hartel’s introduction to food science class, which offered a sampling of the areas that comprise this broad discipline — from microbiology to genetics to chemistry — he knew that he had found his place.
“I liked the small class size,” Lechter says. “There was a lot of one-on-one contact with the professors.”
The combination of a culinary degree and a food science degree gave him a solid foundation for the next step in his career. In the summer of 2004, he had an internship with ADM Cocoa in Milwaukee, where he helped develop new chocolate products in the lab. The internship led to a job with the firm.
Lechter says it’s the perfect combination for him, part science, part culinary arts. “Everyone loves food. Why work with bacteria or fruit flies when you can work with a product you can consume in the end? What else would you want to work with besides chocolate?”