Overview

This isn’t just advanced home economics or an opportunity to create abstract art with food. It’s an intense two-to-four year program for people serious about cooking. Yeah, you’ll get to wear a funny white hat, but while wearing it, you’ll learn all the finer details of making everything deliciously edible from lasagna to a crepe soufflé. Plus, you’ll graduate knowing the difference between a cabernet sauvignon and a pinot noir.


In addition to learning about how to become a first class chef, a Culinary Arts major also gains practical knowledge in hotel and restaurant management, facilities management, and hospitality. Many Culinary Arts programs provide their students with hands-on experience through internships at restaurants. There’s a lot of cooking, from the mundane to the elegant, but the major doesn’t end in the kitchen. In complement to your instruction as a chef are courses designed to prepare you in basic business administration, from accounting to hotel law, so that by the time you complete your degree you will be ready to begin staking your claim as the next Wolfgang Puck.

SAMPLE CURRICULUM

  • Baking I

  • Basic Cooking

  • Catering Operations and Sales

  • Dining Room Service

  • Facilities Management

  • Food Service Operations

  • Food Service Sanitation

  • Hospitality Accounting

  • Hospitality Marketing

  • Hotel Law

  • Labor Management Relations

  • Nutrition

  • Personnel Administration

  • Practical Work Experience

  • Purchasing

  • Saucier


HIGH SCHOOl PREPARATION

The best preparation for a career in the Culinary Arts is, of course, a love of cooking. It’s never too early to begin developing your skills as a chef, whether it’s learning how to bake brownies or make a crème brûlée that leaves your taster begging for more. On a more practical level, take home economics and some business courses. You might also want to hang out with your grandma in the kitchen; you just never know what family secrets will turn into blue-ribbon-winning dishes.