Culinary Degrees & Schools Guide

Bachelor’s Degree

Though in no way required, a bachelor's degree can continue to open doors. If you buckle down and do the hard work it takes to complete a four-year degree in culinary arts, you will attract hiring managers from top hotels and restaurants. During a four-year degree, you will have a bit more leeway to branch out. You might take more courses in your favorite cuisine, or pursue related subjects such as cultural anthropology, where you can study the cultural importance of food worldwide. You can also take courses in accounting, nutrition, marketing, and management. Some of the courses you might take include, but are not limited to:

Fields of Study

Baking: Skilled bakers are always in demand. If you focus on breads, you'll find that artisanal bakeries will love you, as will larger bakeries that feed grocery stores and local restaurants. You could also branch into baking cakes, cookies, and pies. With the rising tide of gluten-free baking, you could break new and exciting ground in this ancient art.

Culinary Arts: This is probably what most people aim for when they think of culinary school. You will study the basics of culinary practice, including how to properly prepare vegetables and more advanced techniques. You could study specific traditions, such as Indian food, and discover new ways to mesh cuisines together.

Culinary Management: Inventory control, marketing, and personnel issues are the primary focus in this field of study. You will also study finance, accounting, and even leadership along the way. If you have been working hard on the line, or even in the front-of-house as a server, you might want to study culinary management to level-up your career. With this degree you could aim towards being a general manager, an executive chef, or opening the restaurant of your dreams.

Dining Room: The front-of-house staff is often segregated from the kitchen staff, but their jobs require study and preparation, as well. Not only do servers need to pay special attention to customer's needs, but they need to properly prepare the dining room, understand all the dishes, and sometimes do light preparation of things like beverages and desserts. Ultimately, dining room staff needs communication skills to translate diner needs to the kitchen.

Food Science & Human Nutrition with Culinary Option: This field is rather broad and delves deep into the science of food flavors, composition, and how it impacts our health. With the culinary option, you can put your scientific knowledge to practical use, creating tasty dishes for clients with special needs.

Institutional Foodservice Management: Running a restaurant staff, even a smaller one, is difficult but operating an institutional facility that feeds over a thousand people a day is something else. You could apply this knowledge towards a career working in a hospital cafeteria, a college campus, or even a major corporate campus.

Pastry Arts: Cakes, pies, and delicate phyllo dough creations are the domain of the pastry chef. This specialized skill set is always in demand and you can bring home loads of bacon with this focus. You might work for high-end caterers, creating custom wedding cakes or award-winning desserts that become famous in your town.

Preparation Cook: People who work as prep-cooks are often called Sous Chefs, and they are usually the #2 person in the kitchen. Food preparation is vital to the food assembly. You might spend your afternoons creating sauces, prepping julienne carrots, or de-boning the evening's market fish. However, your work will come to fruition once the evening's orders start rolling in.

Note that sometimes culinary schools carry additional costs for supplies. For instance, you may need to purchase a set of knives, chef's coat, and headgear. Sometimes these costs are included, but please consult the school prior to enrolling.