I Love Cooking: Should I Earn a Culinary Arts Degree?
Cooking is one of the oldest of careers and one that continues to be highly valued in our society. Providing nourishment and delicious entrees that your family and friends relish is exciting and fulfilling, but if you want to cook for more than just your immediate circle then you're not alone.
If you want to take that to the next level, then there is a whole world out there waiting for you with forks raised and one of the best ways to get started is by applying to a culinary arts program.
Transforming a Love of Cooking into a Culinary Career
Drive and passion for cooking are two excellent traits to have as one starts out in a new career. If you have a passion for baking and cooking and yearn to share that with people, then you are already on the fast track to culinary success.
However, drive and passion are two traits that will help you along the way but being a chef is no different from other careers in that success also depends upon education, training, and networking. All three of these are things that can be obtained by enrolling into a culinary degree program.
The Benefits of Enrolling in a Culinary School
- Discover new avenues of cooking and the culinary arts. There are so many different avenues of cooking to explore and gain training in. You might have some solid baking recipes, but baking is only one small area of cooking and it itself can be broken into over a dozen different specialties. For example, at many large restaurants, the back of house might include a grill cook who specializes in cooking different meats. A saucier cook who specializes in creating sauces and pairing them with entrees. An entremetier who specializes in vegetable preparation and cooking. A poissonier who specializes in fish cooking, and a garde manger who specializes in cold appetizers and soups. On top of that, if they serve desserts, they may also have a pastry chef! During the course of a culinary degree program, you'll learn these different cooking specialties, as well as the different styles of cooking each specialty prepares in.
- Network and learn how to work with other culinary professionals. Working in a kitchen can be a stressful experience, particularly for those first entering the industry. That's because this is a fast-paced job in which food needs to be prepared and cooked to precise standards and it needs to be done so quickly to meet customer demands. A part of culinary school is about training new chefs to build up to this to improve their confidence and ability to meet the fast-paced demand of the career. As part of a culinary degree program, you'll frequently work in real kitchens and perform in real-world conditions. This not only helps train cooks the basics of cooking, but it also enables students to meet other people in the field in order to build the networking connections so needed in today's world.
- Provide a solid basis to increase your earning potential. Culinary school is not the only way to become a successful chef, but it certainly could fast track a person on the career path and increases their immediate earning potential. An alternative to culinary school is to begin as the lowest line cook and work your way up in a kitchen. However, this can be a hard path as you'll learn only in one kitchen one style of cooking, thereby limiting your training and requiring you to depend on the restaurant itself to advance you. In contrast, when you enter the job market with a degree in the culinary arts, you show potential employers that you've done the grunt work and have a solid foundation in the field. In addition to having a degree that shows your basic know-how, the process or journey off going through the culinary school program also means that you have a list of professors and chefs under whom you worked who can provide references for you. This gives graduates greater flexibility in the job market to choose the right job for their specific culinary interests and increases their earning potential.
Are You Ready to Get Started in a Culinary Career?
While a Culinary Arts Degree may not be the right avenue for everyone, it is the perfect venue for many who have a strong passion for food and the dedication to complete a degree program. If you want to earn an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Culinary Arts, consider ECPI University’s Culinary Institute of Virginia. For more information on this accelerated program, connect with a friendly admissions advisor.
It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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Gainful Employment Information – Culinary Arts - Associate’s
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