Tips for Getting Hired in the Culinary Arts Industry
So, you make a good omelet, a reputable barbecue rub, and a legendary mac-n-cheese.
Are you sure you can make it in the culinary field?
Culinary Arts takes passion.
Art takes passion, commitment, and dedication. The culinary arts take long hours and weekends in loud, hot, and demanding kitchens. However, culinary work welcomes those who thrive on action, creativity, and recognition.
Culinary Arts education channels your passion. The field expects much more than a family chocolate-chip recipe or a special pasta dish. The right culinary education cultivates the senses, introduces the treasure of herbs, and raises the bar on taste.
Culinary Arts takes discipline.
You do not just walk into an opening as Head Chef or Food Channel host. A life in Culinary Arts begins with personal discipline and develops over time and experience. After all, a recipe is both a process and discipline.
Culinary Arts, as we know the field today, began in heavily-disciplined environments. Regimented corps of workers prepared and served highly-structured meals 24/7 in huge European palaces. Everyone had a title and a function - from poultry or fish experts, bakery and pastry techniques, or garde manger and charcuterie, and the officiating line cooks, sous chefs, and head chefs. People worked their way through multiple stations to hone their experiences.
But, Culinary Arts also assumes you come to the table with perfected mechanical skills. You need classical carving skills, principles of kitchen organization, and ability to fry, braise, stew, pan fry, grill, baste, roast, and boil. And, you want more than basic skills in setting up the mise en place and preparing the leading stocks and sauces.
Culinary Arts takes safety awareness.
Any kitchen must run cleanly and safely. It takes work and know-how to protect your customers and co-workers from food-borne illness. It takes lessons in produce and meat selection. And, it takes knowledge of food chemistry and the mathematics of weights, measures, and volume conversions.
Culinary Arts courses can put you to work in food safety to learn what it takes to run a safe working kitchen. It starts with the expectations of personal hygiene for management and staff. Regulations rule the flow of food, meat, and perishables. It requires understanding of the local and industrial regulations on kitchen sanitation and food safety standard.
You may manage purchasing, menu planning, and equipment maintenance. But, you will certainly share responsibility for immediate and continuing sanitation procedures, monitor care of ventilation and plumbing, and manage pest control. You will want to serve your dinners well by first serving them cleanly.
Culinary Arts takes financial skills.
Successful dining experiences start with willing customers. They must value your cooking and willingly pay the price your restaurant asks. Price will tax their loyalty, so you need to know the math of the culinary world.
Any restaurant is a food service operation, a business enterprise even if you are a private chef or a soup-kitchen cook. The operation requires purchasing, inventory, and storage. There is a special math for costing recipes and planning menus. Classic culinary arts allow little waste and use for everything in the inventory sooner or later.
In addition, culinary artists have quickly learned to value and utilize local providers and to purchase, use, and inventory with respect for sustainability. This also takes the form of developing sensitivity to customer nutritional demands in designing cost-effective menus that also provide well-balanced nutrition.
How to get hired in the Culinary Arts Industry
You might bring passion and personal discipline to the industry. But, formal education in Culinary Arts can structure and direct everything else you need to get a head start, or to step up to a new opportunity.
Of course, most people need an affordable and convenient way to pursue all these goals. The College of Culinary Arts at EPCI University can make this achievable. Working at your own pace, you can complete an associate degree in Culinary Arts in as little as 1.5 years through the University’s year-round program.
Once you’ve completed your education, there are many places you can pursue employment, including restaurants, hotels and resorts, hospitals and retirement centers, cruise liners and country clubs, and schools, universities, and corporate dining rooms. At EPCI University, you can pursue a bachelor's program in Food Service Management, an associate degree in Culinary Arts, or a special 15-month program in Baking and Pastry Arts with the Culinary Institute of Virginia (CIV).
Small classes, free tutoring, military friendly, EPCI University programs support students with student and career services. And, as a Culinary Arts student at the Culinary Institute of Virginia, you’ll be able to enter the kitchen with industry externship experience that broadens your interests and documents your experience. If you’re interested in a degree in Culinary Arts, contact ECPI University to learn more about our Culinary Arts degree and diploma programs! It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
DISCLAIMER – ECPI University makes no claim, warranty or guarantee as to actual employability or earning potential to current, past or future students or graduates of any educational program we offer. The ECPI University website is published for informational purposes only. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information contained on the ECPI.edu domain; however, no warranty of accuracy is made. No contractual rights, either expressed or implied, are created by its content.
For more information about ECPI University or any of our programs click here: http://www.ecpi.edu/ or http://ow.ly/Ca1ya.