Drained doctor leaves patients for pastries

Janice Shih might be the most educated pastry chef you'll ever meet. Shih attended Johns Hopkins University, followed by medical school at George Washington University, then practiced for eight years as an obstetrician/gynecologist before realizing that baking, not medicine, was her calling.

"Everyone would say, 'You're a doctor; it must be so great to be able to save lives,'" she says. "But I felt like I was just pushing papers and feeling pressure to see more patients in less time. It was very draining. It just wasn't fun anymore."

So in 2004, at age 38, she swapped her stethoscope for a rolling pin and enrolled in the pastry program at L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, Maryland.