Why Pastry School Qualifies Me to Take Out Your Stitches

Okay, so not really.  But the more I'm immersed in the foodie industry, the more I'm struck by how similar it is to the world of medicine. Granted, my knowledge and terminology of the human body and its diseases largely stem from what I remember of AP Biology, dinner conversations with my dad, and extensive watching of Grey's Anatomy.  And at first, when Chef compared what we were doing to neuroscience (as an analogy, I know), I couldn't help but scoff at the parallel, but now....

Ways in which being a BAKER is quite similar to being a DOCTOR

• Three words: draw-string pants
• In either profession, it would not be unusual to hear the phrase, "I've got a bun in the oven."
• When in doubt, wear gloves.
• You still have to work holidays.  People get sick as unreliably as they need cake.  
• If yeast is included here, both paths involve the study of living organisms...although you would be hard-pressed to find a doctor putting his in a 350-degree oven. 
• Both professions require your hair to be restrained and covered, much to my chagrin.  (I happen to look a lot less androgynous with bangs.) 
• Those Dr. Scholl's "For the Working Woman" shoe inserts are much-needed lifesavers foot-savers.
• Piping bags and syringes are kind of the same idea, right??

Followed by,

The very obvious reasons why baking and practicing medicine are markedly different, which you were probably already thinking of before I even tried to persuade you that they were the same:

• Under no circumstances outside the cafeteria should you be licking your fingers in a hospital
• Um, the salary.
• Brain surgery is a matter of life and death.  Muffins are not.  
• There's a lot less blood in a bakery. And a lot more smiling. 
• People don't excitedly ask medical students to bring them home x-rays to look at.  Nor do people volunteer themselves to be guinea pigs for phlebotomy practice. 
• Patients aren't usually commenting to the nurses how lucky they are to work in a place that smells so anti-septic. 
• No normal person cringes, gags, or faints at the sight of a wedding cake. 
• If you mess up on your chocolate filigree, just start over! The same does not apply to heart transplants.