John Kosko
Degree: AOS
Major: Culinary Arts Management
Hometown: Bemidji, MN
Biography:
On the Right Track
If life is a journey, then John Kosko ’12 has been all over the map. As a member of the CIA’s cross country team, he’s generally heading in one direction from start to finish. But that’s hardly the way his life had gone prior to coming to Hyde Park.
It started out simply enough—John grew up and went to high school in Kansas, then enrolled at the University of Kansas and played safety for the Jayhawks football team. Things were still going along just fine when he transferred to Emporia State University and continued his football career there.
Then, in his junior year, he injured his hamstring and contracted a case of mononucleosis, and everything changed. “You don’t really understand what it’s like to have mono until you actually get it,” John says. “I just didn’t feel well. I couldn’t play football, I was kind of down, and it was affecting my schoolwork. I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out what to do.”
There were plenty of choices, but none that he stayed with for long. “I thought maybe I’d try taking courses to eventually coach football, but playing in college made me see the politics behind it, so I changed my mind about that,” he recalls. It wouldn’t be the last time he changed his mind—or major—in a relatively short period of time. Chemistry, to follow in his father’s footsteps? “I like science, but didn’t like the classes; it just wasn’t for me,” he says. Business? Didn’t work out. Secondary education, so he could become a high school teacher and maybe coach football there? Nope, that didn’t feel right either.
What finally did feel right was something he’d loved since he was seven years old—cooking. “I was always cooking with my parents, and on weekends would get up and actually make breakfast for the family,” he says. “My specialty was ‘eggs in a basket.’ I’d help my dad with the grilling. We were big on cooking at home.”
So John finally had a direction, and after watching Sara Moulton and other chefs talk about the CIA on the Food Network, he knew where that direction would take him. He switched to liberal studies; transferred, one last time, to Bemidji State University in Minnesota; and received his degree—all while working at a local steakhouse and an Irish pub to get experience. Three weeks after graduating, he started at the CIA in June 2010. Finally, he felt like he was where he was supposed to be.
“It was the best-smelling campus I had ever been to,” he says with a laugh. “I get to do something I love every day, and I learn different techniques and approaches to doing things.”
Thanks to friend and classmate Melissa Webster, who was going out for the cross country team, John has found something else he loves doing at the CIA. “She told me I should go to the next team meeting, so I went and heard Coach (Lowell) Fisher speak,” he says. “I really liked his attitude. He’s a great guy, and he welcomed me with open arms. So I joined the team.”
John did well in his first year, finishing 22nd in the conference championship meet, just two spots away from medaling. His goal this year is to crack that top 20 (maybe even the top 10!) and get a medal, but whatever happens, he’s one happy student-athlete. “I’ve always been on a sports team, and it’s great to get that feeling back again.”
And he says it’s also great to get direction back in his life again, thanks to his passion for cooking. After graduation he wants so travel to Italy, eventually own his own restaurant, even run a brew pub. But if life takes him on a different path, this time John will be ready. “If you’re making a plan and it’s not working out, there’s a reason,” he says. “It leads you to another place. I just needed to realize what was right for me, and this is it!”
