Should I Consider a Culinary Arts Degree Program?

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When Just Another Job Becomes a Career

Restaurant work has always been a mainstay for those seeking work, but who have very little job experience for breaking into their field of choice. Restaurants have provided ample positions to high school students, students working their way through college, or as quick job security for people moving into communities. Beginning at the dishwasher level, those who hire into restaurant work, through promotion and an ability to consistently produce quality skills, can with patience and perseverance, work their way up to a management or chef’s position. This takes a lot of dedication. As a norm, those who start at the bottom take about twelve years to establish themselves well enough for a restaurant to consider training them for a chef’s position.

The Exciting Considerations of the Culinary Arts

There are obvious advantages for those who wish to go into the business of food preparation. With an eye on a chef’s position, you won’t have to deal with twelve years of struggling through various restaurant experiences. You can rely on your reputation as a knowledgeable cook to work your way into the four and five star restaurants. Your company will save on the expense of sending you back to school to take courses on business management, budgeting and finance, before promoting you to chef.

You will be exposed to a variety of cooking techniques, gourmet recipes and International cuisine. You may decide a culinary arts degree program is the ideal way to specialize in a particular skill, such as savory gluten-free dishes, cake decorating, or a seafood menu. You will learn how to serve plates that are not only delicious, but artistic and appetizing in appearance.

Hospitality Skills

An aspect often overlooked when weighing the advantages of a culinary arts degree program is that a degree program also teaches you the basic fundamentals in hospitality skills. Hospitality is when the chef no longer spends all his or her time in the back, but comes out and mingles with the public. It’s when one person in particular is making sure all the guests are happy and feel included in this gathering of good food and pleasant atmosphere.

It’s not only the chef who works in hospitality, however. The hospitable face that restaurants, hotels, tour cruises and guide services present is a very special kind. This is someone who you immediately know likes you, and takes an interest in your wellbeing. This person is ready to listen to questions and give informed answers.

A cook with a gregarious disposition may be given a position in hospitality before ever earning his or her chef’s cloak. Cooks in hospitality have many exciting experiences, as they are sent along to help cater parties, weddings, barbeques and conventions. They rub shoulders with attorneys, politicians, business people, artists and International travelers.

Defining Who You Are

Completing a culinary arts degree program is usually a statement that you have dedicated yourself to the arts of food preparation. It also gives you an understanding of distribution and sales and the necessary tools needed to become your own business. With a culinary arts degree, you have qualifications to find an outstanding job in the restaurant business nearly anywhere you wish to go in the world. If you work for a large corporate chain, your expertise in culinary dishes, your management skills and your hospitable nature, can be all the tools needed for your company to send you to exciting places around the world.