You can earn the culinary degree you need to succeed in professions within the culinary arts, baking and pastry arts, restaurant management, and other related fields.
What Do You Want to Study in Culinary School?
Culinary Arts
Vocational or trade school programs in the culinary arts will provide basic training in sanitation methods, nutrition, slicing and dicing methods for meats and vegetables, and basic cooking techniques including baking, grilling, and broiling. Extensive certificate or two- and four-year degree programs would include specialty training in advanced cooking techniques, preparing food for parties and banquets, and cooking methods and cuisine from other parts of the world. This training is available through degree programs in hospitality and culinary arts. Chefs can also participate in independent cooking schools or culinary institutes.
A culinary arts curriculum could include courses such as culinary fundamentals, sauces and soups, core cooking methods, grains and vegetables, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, advanced culinary applications, cuisine of France, cuisine of Italy, cuisines of Asia, pastry essentials, contemporary desserts, modern masters, market basket cooking, and hors d'oeuvres.
Pastry Chef
Students in pastry chef school will train in a mixture of on-the-job training, as well as learning in the classroom. The pastry chef school criteria will most likely consist of the basics taught to students attending bakery school, which includes basics in ingredients, breads, rolls, pies and cakes. Pastry chefs must be skilled in both baking, as well as the specialized training given in pastry chef school.
Pastry chef school students will also be required to take classes in biology, physiology and the history of baking. Because pastry chefs deal with many perishable items that can produce bacteria such as raw eggs and dairy products, students in pastry chef school need to learn what environments produce bacteria, how to cook the food at temperatures that make the food safe and the history of the products they are producing.
Wine Studies
There are many wine expert schools all over the world. Certificate programs may include such courses as wine tasting, viticulture and vinification training, comprehensive global tasting and theoretical evaluation of major and minor grape varieties, the art of wine blending, glass comparison, food and wine pairing, water codex, and champagne sabering.
Many wine schools include a full program on wine and beverage management in the program. These wine schools not only offer what is needed to become a wine expert, but also the skills needed to manage the full wine and beverage operation in a restaurant, hotel, or resort. These programs also include coursework in knowing about other beverages served in restaurants.
Hospitality Management
Those interested in a degree from a hospitality management school might be interested in a career in hotel management, food service management, banquet and party planning, or hotel marketing or administrative and support functions. The varying levels of certificate and degree programs in hospitality management depend on the student's career ambitions.
Students who decide on a certificate or an associate's degree program at a hospitality management school will typically take a course in the following areas: hotel management, restaurant/food service management, travel and tourism management, event and meeting planning, marketing, hospitality administration, wine and beverage management, or travel and tourism administration.
