(FORTUNE Magazine) – The Labor Department predicts that demand for restaurant cooks will increase twice as fast as jobs generally over the next 13 years. Overall, cooking school enrollments increased an estimated 10% in 1991, vs. a 7% average rise for all private vocational schools. The recession and layoffs encouraged some to become chefs. But the economy isn't the only impetus, as shown by a sampling of new trainees at the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont, where tuition, room, and board for a two-year associate degree cost a total $30,400. Shawn Parker, 26, came out of the Marines four years ago swearing he'd never sell insurance. But he did, working for his father's agency in Evansville, Indiana. He also did a lot of cooking. ''I kept thinking there's more to it than meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I researched cooking in the library and found out the hospitality industry was growing and people are eating out more. Once I knew I could make a living cooking, that decided it.'' Besides, Dad's business was down. The photo shows him with fellow students Mary Ceglarski, 31, who quit as a market surveillance analyst for the Boston Stock Exchange in 1991 -- ''I always wanted to be a chef. I love to make people happy'' -- and Patrice O'Hear, 31, who is taking time off from her yacht-chartering brokerage business because ''I got bored.''