Monthly Archive for July, 2010

Culinary School Attire


Published
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admin
on July 31, 2010
in Culinary Schools
. 3 Comments

culinary school uniformOne of the expenses of culinary school that many students don’t consider is buying professional uniforms for the kitchen. Not all cooking schools have a dress code, but most of the top ones do require adherence to a few set standards of dress in the kitchen. In most cases, you will be required to purchase these along with a knife set and books, so it’s a good idea to figure a little extra room in your culinary school budget.

  • Jacket/Coat: The chef jacket is the piece of clothing most commonly associated with working in a kitchen. These items have a double breasted panel along the front, which can be reversed to quickly hide stains, and are made of durable cotton to prevent burns.
  • Pants: Chef pants are usually loose, made of cotton, and come in patterns or colors that easily hide stains. Many culinary schools allows students to wear whatever pants they want in lieu of uniform pants.
  • Chef Hat: Perhaps nothing is more recognized as part of a chef’s attire than the chef hat, or toque blanche, as it is more formally known. Although these aren’t quite as common any more as they used to be, hats – either in the form of baseball caps, skull caps, berets, or more traditional choices – are fairly common.
  • Shoes: A cook’s shoes are his or her most valuable tool. It’s not uncommon for students and cooks to be on their feet for hours at a time, running and turning and performing almost athletic feats of endurance. Shoes have to reflect this; in fact, most cooks wear some sort of clogs (the Crocs brand is particularly popular) that are both comfortable and non-slipping.
  • Additional Accessories: Aprons and neckerchiefs are found in some kitchens as a way to keep the uniform underneath clean. These vary in size and style, but often fall in the black or white color range.

Depending on your culinary school’s requirements, the cost of all these items can range from about $100 to up to $1,000, and may have to be purchased annually or even quarterly. However, since similar uniforms will be required once you begin working in a restaurant kitchen, it’s good to get accustomed to the culinary dress code and its requirements early on.

Related Topics

Finding a Culinary School

Hotel Management as an Alternative to Becoming a Chef


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on July 24, 2010
in Hospitality Management
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Hotel ManagementOne of the biggest challenges new culinary school graduates encounter is the job market. Although the restaurant and food service industry is expected to grow at a larger than national average, many of the open jobs are offered at a low- to minimum-wage and with a heavy competition to move up the ladder.

Fortunately, culinary training provides more than just one employment avenue. In addition to careers like food writers, food photographers, and restaurant owners, graduates might be able to find jobs in the hotel management field.

More and more hotels, motels, and bed & breakfast locations are offering an upscale dining experience and catered services as a way to boost their image and income. And professionals with culinary training – particularly if that training is matched by an Associate degree, Bachelor’s degree, or some business classes – have a good chance of getting these jobs.

What is Hotel Management?

Hotel management (or hospitality management, as it is also known) combines the culinary field and the business field in varying mixtures. The professionals who work in this field are the masterminds behind the facade that a hotel or other service-related company puts forward; from elaborate brunch spreads to making sure each guest feels as though he or she was treated well, hotel management is all about pleasing the customer – both from a culinary and a general comfort standpoint.

Some employers place a heavy emphasis on the management side of things, while others provide a more creative outlet in culinary opportunities.

For example, you might find yourself spending an entire day behind a desk, managing employees and providing customer service, or you might find yourself working with chefs to create a menu and run a safe and sanitary kitchen. Many individuals who work in this field find that they develop the skills necessary to start their own bed & breakfast or catering company someday, as well.

Chefs with a culinary degree and a head for business tend to be well suited for hotel management, and these jobs can be very rewarding. Not only is the average annual salary offered at around $45,000, but there tends to be more opportunity for personal advancement at the mid- to high-range management level.

How to Get Started in Hospitality Management

If you already have a culinary degree or a degree in hotel management, you should have a strong resume for the field, especially if you have a history in running a restaurant or kitchen. If you’re considering culinary school for the first time, you might want to look for a program that specializes in the hospitality trade as well as general cooking skills, since it is the combination of these two that can really give you a competitive edge.

Related Topics

Finding a Culinary School

Finding a Hospitality Management School

Developing a Good Relationship with Your Culinary Instructor


Published
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on July 20, 2010
in Culinary Schools
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Relationship with Culinary InstructorOne of the best ways to succeed as a future chef is to develop relationships with people who will help you further your career. Like most professions, working in a restaurant is sometimes just as much about who you know as what you know.

And while going into culinary school with a list of contacts already in place is ideal, most students don’t have friends who own a restaurant or who work for local big-name chefs. It’s the people you meet during your culinary program – from fellow students to your instructors – who have the potential to become an ideal resource for the future.

Most culinary school instructors aren’t full-time teachers. In fact, an estimated 75 percent of the teaching staff at private institutions is composed of chef-instructors who work or run restaurants in their local area.

They typically do this for a number of reasons, primarily because teaching is offered only as a part-time opportunity, and because teaching is a great way to supplement income or find new rising talent. For students, this presents a great opportunity to develop a mentor relationship. However, like any career step, you should make sure you’re looking at long-term outcomes.

Look for an instructor whose cooking style and interests match your own. If you’d like to focus on Italian cooking, or you’re interested in the newest wave of molecular gastronomy techniques, it’s important to find a mentor who specializes in the same thing. You’ll learn much more from someone whose knowledge base in your area of focus is large.

Ask questions and work hard. Finding a chef-instructor who is willing to spend extra time on you isn’t as easy as simply walking up and declaring your willingness to learn. Most chef-instructors already have a very busy schedule, and putting extra effort into your education isn’t expected of them. However, by demonstrating your willingness to learn and your devotion to the craft, you may find that they’ll provide a little extra attention.

Volunteer your time. Even if an internship isn’t required by your school, you should try to do one anyway. Getting hands-on practice in the real-world setting is a great way to develop skills and build your resume. If you have a chef-instructor who runs or owns a kitchen, try to get in and do an internship there. You can also ask you instructor for recommendations or for suggestions about where to work.

The first few years after you graduate from culinary school provide you with a chance to learn and develop as a budding chef. By finding people you trust and work well with, you can make great connections and further your chances of a long and successful culinary career.

Related Topics

Finding a Culinary School

Culinary Schools by City

Can I Learn to Cook from TV Shows?

Published
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admin
on July 12, 2010
in Cooking Techniques
. 2 Comments

In a rough economic climate like this one, almost everyone is looking for ways to cut back on their spending while creating a platform for a better tomorrow. While for some people, this means going to culinary school to learn a new trade, others may be looking for a bigger shortcut – even going so far as relying on cookbooks and popular cooking shows in place of formal training.

Unfortunately, self-taught skills can rarely rival what you learn in a real kitchen or culinary training facility – particularly when it comes to landing a job. But that doesn’t mean there is no value in getting into the kitchen and learning what you can.

Adages like “trial and error” and “practice makes perfect” often turn out to be true, and you can develop quite a few skills (and learn about yourself) by learning what you can, however you can.

Basic Techniques: Cooking shows have an advantage over cookbooks in that you can actually watch someone performing the techniques you want to learn. Basic tasks like dicing, mincing, and sauteeing can be learned at home, but it may take you a bit longer to get things down right, and even then, you might learn a shorthanded way rather than the “real” process. As long as you perform your tasks safely and with enough speed and accuracy to meet your goals, this process can work just fine.

Measuring Progress: Culinary courses are designed to build on skills in a progressive manner. Many of them start with knife skills and then move up through courses like salads, soups, main dishes, and pastries. When you learn from television shows or cookbooks, you might be missing a few integral skills before you move on, which can make for complications further on down the road.

Relying on Taste: When you cook at home by yourself, there are few measuring sticks for quality other than your tastebuds and the tastebuds of your culinary volunteers. While this can be a setback if you have a narrow palate, it does require you to step back and critique your own work – which is an important step for any budding chef.

If you do plan on going to “culinary school” via your favorite recipe shows, make sure you have a VCR or DVR on hand. These shows tend to condense a few hours worth of work into 30 minutes, so you’ll need to pause, stop, and rewind as necessary.

It’s also a good idea to remember that you can always complement this kind of self-taught approach with one or two basic culinary courses as a way to get a good mix of skills development and more in-depth recipe work.

Related Topics

Finding a Culinary School

Finding a Baking & Pastry School

Finding a Hospitality Management School

Physical Requirements of Becoming a Chef

Published
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on July 8, 2010
in Culinary Career
. 0 Comments

Physical Requirements of a ChefMany people dream of going to culinary school and becoming a chef. Tapping into the creative side as well as the more practical side of hands-on skill building, working in a kitchen is all about moving fast, thinking on your feet, and relying on your senses to create the perfect dish.

The rewards at the top of the chain are high (famed Chef status or celebrity roles), and the job outlook at the mid- to low-range is expected to remain stable over the next ten years, offering professional advancement opportunities in almost every city in the country.

But before you become a cook, it’s important to realize that the job isn’t all about glamor, glitz, and gorgeous meals. In fact, for those who have been working in the field for several years, there can be quite a bit of physical discomfort associated with the job.

  • Most kitchens have cement or tiled floors, which can put a strain on the feet and back after a hard day’s work.
  • Long days are a common requirement for chefs and cooks, often between 8 and 12 hours in length, and without many breaks.
  • Hot burners, fryers, grills, and open flames increase your chances of burns or other fire-related injuries. (In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 12,000 burns each year in the culinary field.)
  • Back problems are a common complaint for those who have been working in the culinary field for a long time, and may impact the longevity of your career.
  • Slips and falls happen in a kitchen, due to the fast pace and likelihood of spills that don’t get cleaned up right away.
  • Even with great knife skills, most cooks slice their fingers from time to time. Although most injuries are minor, it is possible to need stitches or medical attention.
  • Tensions can run high in the culinary field. Many chefs and restaurant managers tend to take a very authoritarian approach to their management style. High speeds and high stress can lead to yelling, screaming, and name-calling in the kitchen.

However, despite the potential for injury and stress, the culinary field remains stable and growing, and enrollment at culinary schools is reaching an all-time high.

The reasons, most experts assume, is because no matter how difficult the job gets, cooks and chefs have a love affair with food. Like working on a fishing boat in Alaska, there is a sense of camaraderie and joy in the profession that keep people going even when faced with the physical demands of the job.

Related Topics

Finding a Culinary School

Finding a Hospitality Management School

Finding a Baking & Pastry School