Get a Culinary Arts Degree and Get Ahead
Going berserk with a knife
Remember the ‘Long Kiss Goodnight’ in which Geena Davies starts chopping like an expert in the kitchen?. If you want to learn those kinds of chopping skills for real, it’s easier to try and get a culinary arts degree than become a secret assassin. Even then, it's not easy!
Of course there are plenty of excellent reasons for committing long-term to a gourmet cooking course to get a degree in the culinary arts besides learning to speed chop. First of all, if you have a passion for cooking, a degree will open all kinds of doors for you in the restaurant business. And if that appeals to you, then you will have to commit to a minimum of three years before you have a qualification that will carry enough clout to set you on a lucrative career path in the cooking industry. That’s why you need passion. It may only take ten seconds to fantasize about, but it can take half a lifetime to turn into reality.
Professional qualifications in the culinary arts
The field of culinary arts is a broad one. The first job that occurs to most people is that of a chef. It's high profile, creative and we see celebrity chefs mixing their magic on our screens almost every day. But it’s far from being the only one. A quick selection would include:
- restaraunteur
- catering director
- food and beverage manager
- sales manager for a major food or cookware brand
- government health inspector
- hygiene councillor
Although it’s not a requirement to enter the food industry, a degree in culinary arts will pave the way for the highest paid positions. The courses themselves teach everything from food preparation and nutrition to accounting and law. Many cooking schools teach the business aspects of the food industry, so you can expect some in-depth tuition on business management and running IT programs such as CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems. To expand your knowledge and understanding of the chemistry that goes on in the kitchen, you may get the opportunity to play with food in a laboratory.
Managing people
Mixing and warming food up is only one half of the chemistry that makes up the culinary sector. People chemistry is at least of equal importance. You'll be taught about client management, which is essentially good business communication and marketing. Whether you're in a kitchen or business administration, you'll learn how to manage teams and individual coworkers. Because of that, a practical placement in a hotel, restaurant or catering business is a key part of any culinary arts degree.
The practical aspects of a bachelor degree course are key to success both during the course, and afterward when you are looking for employment. You'll need more than a fancy chopping technique to make an impression on hardened professionals. You'll need to develop good people skills. Kitchen management, from giving clear instructions to buying and storing food, is extremely important. You'll have to get good at planning. But the single attribute that will ensure success in the cooking profession is a passion for all things to do with food preparation.
