What is it Like Going to Culinary School?

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What is Culinary School Like?

There are so many culinary schools available; it can be difficult to decide which one is best for you. All culinary schools will tell you they have the best curriculum and the best instructors. You’ll have to decide on whether or not you wish to re-locate, as the chances are good that your community college will offer culinary courses, and how much money you’re willing to invest. Once you’ve narrowed the choices down to a few, it’s a good idea to visit the kitchens to see what the culinary school is like. Some kitchens may feel a little small for the number of students working in them, and some have a poor student to instructor ratio.

Before attending a culinary school, it’s best to get some of the restaurant experience down. Even though the first thing they’ll do is give you a set of knives to start working with, preparing meals for restaurants is much different from preparing meals at home. In a restaurant, you’ll be cooking in large volumes, producing the same plates day after day, usually at a very rapid pace. Your initial practice will be in cutting, dicing and chopping, as well as making sure you don’t chop off a finger. Knicks, cuts and burns are common in a fast-paced kitchen, so you might as well get used to it right away.

Study and More Study

If you think culinary school is all about standing in front of a frying pan or rolling out dough, you couldn’t be farther from the truth. Much of what you learn will be straight from the kitchen, but you’ll also be listening to lectures and writing down instructions. You’ll be hit with a number of quizzes and written tests, with true-false or multiple choice answers. What culinary school is like is practically an immersion course in International foods, cultures and languages. Some recipes are sprinkled with words in French, Spanish or Italian and you’ll have to know what they mean. You’ll be introduced to foods you’ve never even heard of before, but expected to prepare them. You’ll hear a lot of arguments over who runs the best kitchen; the French or the Greeks.

Some of your course work will be involved in kitchen management. You’ll learn how to use computer software programs to design menus and updating recipes. There will be tests such as Training for Intervention Procedures, designed to teach you how to handle an intoxicated person and to remove one from the establishment, tests on mixing and serving beverages, nutrition, budgeting, finance and business procedures.

What is Culinary School Like in Terms of Training?

Every day is a test in culinary school. You will be told to make crepes, sheer lamb, or create a new pastry item from the ingredients on hand. You may be assigned to scouring the kitchen clean of every last crumb and morsel, or placed in the chef position, supervising the entire production of a meal. What culinary school is like is wrapping everything you would ever learn in years of restaurant work into a two to four year program.

While attending culinary school, your externship might involve working in several different kitchens, sometimes on a voluntary basis, just to get the experience needed. They may send you to a kitchen so small; you’re rubbing shoulders with the sous chef, or put you to work preparing a banquet for 150 hungry businessmen. An externship is necessary before receiving your degree in the culinary arts, but if you have a restaurant lined out to practice in, be sure to clear it with the school first, as otherwise it might not be accepted as part of your degree program experience.

At culinary school, you’ll be exposed to every aspect of the food service industry, from pastries to grilling, waiting tables to tableside cooking, economics to hospitality. You’ll be judged on your tableside manners as well as the plates you serve, how well they compliment each other and their appetizing arrangement. Once you’ve finished culinary school, you may feel like you have to learn the ropes all over once you’re employed, but there will be a difference. You’ll know exactly what type of food industry you want to go into and have prior preparations for handling the challenges.