Culinary Arts Education Getting A Degree In Less Than Two Years

Culinary Arts can be a very exciting career, but before deciding on furthering your education you may want to step back and consider exactly what it is that you want to do in the food industry. Many job opportunities don’t necessary require an education pass high school or an equivalent diploma. Short order cooks, fry cooks and even food preps often simply require on the job training. It is usually chefs, nutritionists, food managers, and those who truly envision food preparation as a form of art who will need to further their education into culinary arts.

A degree in culinary arts can usually be obtained in two years or less. The first part is obtaining your culinary chef certification and from there you can get your AOS degree. (Associate of Occupational Studies) Those who get the culinary chef certification but not their AOS degree are more often than not limiting themselves to being a sous-chef at best. It is with the AOS degree that you open the doors to so many carrier paths. On-line degrees are not recommended for culinary arts as working with foods is more of a hands on task. It’s important to be able to see, smell and taste as you are learning. A good palate is very often a chef’s best friend.

The nice thing about obtaining a degree in culinary arts is that you aren’t limiting yourself to only being a chef. If you’ve gotten your degree and started working in a five star restaurant, what happens if you find cooking simply isn’t for you? There are a variety of other career paths that you can choose from! You can work in restaurant management, as a nutritionist, you can teach others the art of cooking, you could become a food critic for newspapers and magazines, and you could even become a food stylist and photograph all that yummy goodness you see in magazines!

There may be some of you who know you aren’t interested in becoming a chef or want any type of career where food is involved. Maybe you want to learn to cook different meals for your family or learn how to incorporate more nutritious food into your daily menu. We don’t all need to want to become a chef in order to want to cook our family good nutritious meals they will enjoy. There are also a wide variety of ways for you to learn as well. You can find a local cooking class, recipe swaps, even cooking school getaways for you and your spouse.

We are living in a time where chefs are no longer tucked back away in a kitchen never to be seen. Chefs are, in fact, more recognized today than ever. Just recently one of the contestants from Hell’s Kitchen moved into a neighboring town where I live. Overnight he has made what once was a place where only the young went to enjoy their spirits a restaurant that has people waiting in lines to grab a table. If cooking is your passion, furthering your education is the key to success. Aim high and enjoy every bite.

Answering Your Culinary Schools Questions

There is something relaxing about cooking a favorite meal at home. The delicious aromas while the food is cooking and then there is the final product awaiting your taste buds. Have you ever given any thought to taking your love and passion for food and making it into a career?

Many people are finding rewarding careers in the food industry. Culinary schools are experiencing record enrollment thanks in part to television shows such as ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and ‘Top Chef’.

Each week participants put their cooking skills to the test and it makes others yearn to be in the kitchen doing the same thing. Even if cooking is not your idea of fun there are other aspects of the food industry that are taught in culinary schools.

You may want to work on the business side. Where ever your passion for food lies, a culinary school can help you find the skills you need. In this article we will cover the basics of culinary schools and what you can expect from this fiery career choice.

What do culinary schools teach?

Culinary schools begin with the basics of the kitchen. One of the first lessons you will learn is about kitchen safety such as handling knives and what to do in an emergency such as a fire. You will learn basic food preparation guidelines such as what temperature is acceptable on meats.

You will learn basic accounting, computer skills, inventory management and even some psychology. Culinary schools want you to have a diverse background because the workplace is so diverse. The most important lesson you learn is how to work together as a team. One person cannot run a restaurant or kitchen alone so teamwork is absolutely essential.

Are culinary schools all about learning how to cook?

You may be surprised to learn that culinary schools do teach more than kitchen skills such as knife handling and how to make a souffle. They also teach students how to deal with the public, how to handle finances and how to manage inventory.

There is also instruction on how to communicate effectively as well as manage employees. Culinary schools want to give you a broad background on the food industry. The more information you have the better prepared you will be when you graduate.

Do certain schools specialize in different areas of the culinary world?

There are schools that do specialize in certain cuisines but you would typically find these specialized schools overseas. The culinary schools in the United States tend to teach a broad spectrum since culinary palates are so diverse here. Should you wish to study French cuisine exclusively it would be best to attend a school in France where you can learn from the masters of the trade.

What are some of the jobs that I can expect to work in after I graduate from a culinary school?

There are a wide variety of jobs that can open up for you once you have graduated from a culinary school. You can be a line chef, an assistant baker, a restaurant manager and even be a pantry cook. Do not expect to get out of school and immediately become a master chef.

It takes years of hard work in order to obtain the level of experience that you need in order to say you are a master chef. You may study for ten years under another chef before you go out on your own. Eventually you will gain the knowledge and skills you need in order to be considered a master chef. The trick is patience and practice.

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