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Culinary Training Options: The Street Food Phenomenon

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on May 16, 2011
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Most people associate culinary school with haute cuisine—the food you find served in five star restaurants, with several courses laid out on the table, exquisite sauces, and wine pairings that come with a hefty price tag. The general consensus is: the higher your education, the more advanced your skills, and the closer you get to this dream come true.

While it’s true that many culinary students do aspire to these heights of restaurant ownership, not everyone is interested in the fine dining experience. In fact, more and more culinary professionals are taking a step away from the structure of fine dining to embrace their true culinary roots: street food.

What is Street Food?

By definition, street food is any meal you get from a vendor on the sidewalk or roadside, usually via a portable food stall or temporary set up. Known for being a fast, tasty meal option at a relatively low cost, street food is actually the original dining experience. Almost every culture in the world has some version of street food, and it has grown to symbolize the origin and complex flavors of each part of the world.

Of course, in our modern age, street food can sometimes carry a bad reputation. For example, the lack of electricity, running water, and refrigeration evident in a street-side food stall makes some people afraid of issues related to food safety. Because it is fast food, many people also assume there is a lack of nutrition in such quick and easy fare.

The Modern Street Food Approach

Fortunately, there are regulations in place in the United States that ensure food safety and sanitation methods are met. It’s also becoming increasingly common for street food vendors to straddle the line between fast food and a more culinary-oriented approach. The result is delicious, authentic food that often taps into local produce and farming initiatives.

In fact, there is an entire organization dedicated to the pursuit of quality and excellence in street food, further promoting its place in the culinary tradebooks. Many culinary professionals incorporate some kind of street food in their menus, and even the popular television competition Top Chef promotes the street food phenomenon in some of their weekly challenges.

If culturally authentic cuisine is something you’re interested in, street food might be a great place to turn your studies. You may be able to find street food courses as part of your culinary education, or even as a short-term cooking class to help build on your skills—either way, you’re looking at great food, fast food, and a hot new wave in the culinary field.

Related Topics:

Becoming a “Fast Food” Chef

Culinary Career Choices With a Culinary Arts Degree

Find a Culinary School in Your City

French Culinary Professional Terms

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on March 31, 2011
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French Culinary TermsWhen it comes to your culinary education, the French language is going to play a big role in what you learn. Even if you’re not interested in classical French cuisine, many of the cooking techniques we rely on every day have their roots in France. And when you consider the terms that get bandied about from your first day in class, you’ll find that the majority of them have French origins.

Why France?

The reason so much of France plays a role in the culinary world is because it is the country in which fine dining became a way of life—beginning all the way back in the Middle Ages. Instead of merely sustaining the people, food in France became an entire culinary experience (at least for the wealthy). Sights, sounds, smells—all of these factors contributed to a meal, and the more elaborate and specialized, the better.

While not all modern restaurants share in this idea of a twelve-course meal, culinary schools do teach you to pay attention to more than just the flavors and techniques needed to cook food. Plating and presentation are integral parts of the culinary experience, regardless of whether you’re preparing American food or working as an entry-level pastry chef. And because classical French culinary techniques became synonymous with a good education, French terms continue to be used and “Americanized” in the culinary world today.

Some of the French culinary terms most of us are familiar with already include:

  • Saute
  • Bouillon
  • Crouton
  • Entree
  • Hors d’oeuvres
  • Puree
  • Zest
  • Cream

Even if you don’t know the exact definition of the above terms, you are most likely able to make a connection between them and the foods you have eaten in the past. As you continue your culinary education, however, you’ll most likely encounter more specialized terms, as well. In fact, many of the following specialized terms are not only used to describe types of food or techniques with French ties, but they are actually French techniques that have been perfected and passed down through the ages.

Some of these terms include:

  • Bain-marie: A baking dish full of water used to help cook foods slowly and more evenly
  • Bisque: A thick soup made with shellfish
  • Consomme: A clear broth
  • Deglacer: To deglaze, typically done to a pan after the food has been fried within it
  • Flambe: Set alcohol on fire
  • Frappe: Making something iced or blended with ice
  • Julienne: A type of knife cut used for many vegetables
  • Mirepoix: A mixture of vegetables (usually celery, carrots, and onions)
  • Ragout: A type of stew

Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive, and there are many more French terms you’ll be likely to come across as you pursue your culinary education.

Depending on where you attend school and the type of program it is, you may learn each of these terms with hands-on training, or you may simply rely on a more book-learning format in which vocab tests make up part of the curriculum. Regardless of your program type, one things is certain—you cannot become a good chef unless you learn a number of French techniques and terms, even if you never set food in classic French kitchen.

Related Topics:

Benefits of Classical French Training

Classic Sauce Recipes

Find a Culinary School in Your City

Using Cookbooks and Recipes in Culinary School

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on March 10, 2011
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Cookbooks and Culinary SchoolOne of the hallmarks of any good culinary school is that it teaches students to create dishes without the use of a recipe. Instead of relying on someone else’s tried-and-true techniques, the goal of any aspiring chef should be to determine what flavor combinations will create something new, fresh, and interesting to the palate.

What Purpose do Cookbooks Have?

Cookbooks offer a great way to learn cooking techniques and new flavor profiles. For home cooks, this represents the chance to get access to culinary-level training for the price of the cookbook. With pictures, step-by-step instructions, and often a glossary of terms, it can be a great way to direct self-study for a fraction of the cost of culinary school.

However, it can be easy to fall into a rut when it comes to cooking with recipes. After all, when you measure out each spice and fry the chicken for exactly as long as the recipe says, you are following a prescribed mathematical process. You aren’t tapping into any of the creative aspects of the culinary arts.  And for chefs, that creative aspect is what the culinary field is all about.

Different culinary schools rely on recipes to varying degrees. Some schools don’t use them at all, instead teaching cooking techniques and flavor experimentation. Others might use recipes to teach a particular skill (a souffle, perhaps), and then encourage students to try their own versions. Still others might use recipes as a way to build student confidence in the cooking process. Depending on the culinary school you go to and the program you choose, you might fall into any of these categories.

Recipes and Baking

When it comes to baking, recipes aren’t quite as optional. It’s a common saying that while cooking is an art, baking is a science. That’s because getting a dough or cake to cook properly requires the perfect balance of leavening agents, binding ingredients, and cooking times. Many of the top bakers in the world rely on recipes (though they are probably memorized by that time) to form the base of all they create.

Of course, that doesn’t mean bakers never come up with anything new. On the contrary, experimentation in the kitchen is just as common for baking and pastry students as it is for standard culinary students—and there are both successes and failures as you develop your craft.

If you walk into any chef’s home kitchen, you’re most likely going to find a few cookbooks on the shelves. Like any profession, it’s important for chefs to continue exploring the work of their peers and discovering new ground in order to grow and succeed. When used properly, a cookbook can be a great tool, but remember that relying too heavily on them will put you more in the category of cook, and less in that of chef.

Related Topics:

Cooking Without a Recipe

Can I Learn to Cook From TV Shows?

Cookbooks for Home Cooks

Culinary Schools in Your City

Cooking Without a Recipe

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on November 16, 2010
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Cooking Without a RecipeMost amateur cooks at home rely on cookbooks and recipes to strike that perfect balance of ingredients, as well as to plan out all the components of a meal. Over time, those recipes we’ve turned to time and time again eventually become part of our regular repertoire, and we might feel more comfortable pulling the ingredients together on our own (and even to make substitutions or changes that seem to fit).

One of the hallmarks of a chef or professional cook is the ability to make delicious meals and dishes without a recipe – or to come up with recipes of their own. Instead of focusing on the steps someone else has laid out, chefs look at flavor profiles, food textures, and cooking techniques to determine what goes on the plate. In fact, this is exactly what is taught at culinary school: the intrinsic nature of food and ingredients, and what the different cooking processes do to change that.

Whether you take a few night courses to beef up your skills or attend a four-year culinary program at one of the top name schools, you should walk away more confident in your ability to understand food and how it works well together.

How to Get Started

While going to a few culinary classes is a great way to start on the path to cooking without a recipe, it’s not always a requirement. In fact, this is how on-the-job culinary training works; it is simply jumping in and getting to know the food in a fast-paced setting.

If you’re planning on getting started at home, here are a few key steps:

  • Practice with and without recipes. Alternate between the two to get a good grasp of what you might do differently when on your own. If you make an awful dish, chalk it up to experience and figure out what might work better next time.
  • Get to know the ingredients. Have you ever tasted a sprig of fresh rosemary on its own? What about dried rosemary? Getting to know how ingredients taste on their own is important in knowing what they will taste good with. Although we are all taught that rosemary and chicken go well together, can you figure out why? Can you think of other foods that might work in the place of chicken.
  • Study the craft. This is what chefs and culinary students do. They learn what foods are cooked best what ways, as well as how to cook with food safety in mind. Reading books and watching instructional videos is a great – and cost-effective – way to learn.

If the baking and pastry arts are more your style, it’s probably a good idea to turn to formal culinary training. Because so much of baking is an exact science, a good education will go a long way in letting your creativity shine.

Related Topics:

Why Baking School Can Lead to Serious Dough

Give the Gift of Cooking Classes

Find a Culinary School in Your Area


Can I Learn to Cook from TV Shows?

Published
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on July 12, 2010
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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

Learning to Cook Breakfast and Brunch

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on June 7, 2010
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Learn to Cook Breakfast and BrunchFor many people, going to culinary school to learn how to cook usually conjures up images of elaborate, five-course meals with accompanying wine selections. For others, a culinary education is a way to get the training necessary to become a baker, making wedding cakes and desserts in a quaint, boutique-like atmosphere.

However, one of the most popular sayings among cooks is that the one true test of culinary skill is how well you cook eggs. This seemingly simple ingredient requires experience and skill in order to be used correctly, and the art of making eggs is something that many modern chefs hold up as the standard in culinary excellence.

Where to Get Breakfast Culinary Training

Most of the top culinary schools in the United States offer breakfast cooking as part of a larger education course, where it is mixed in with other specialized skills like working with cold foods or learning to prepare soup. Moderate cooking schools, like those you encounter at the community college level, may provide only cursory education on breakfast cooking, since it represents such a small portion of the current job market. In fact, if breakfast is something you’re really interested in learning, you may actually need to find an employer in the hospitality trade industry who will help you build the skills you need, since brunch is becoming an increasingly important focus of high-end hotel offerings.

Another option is to attend a certification course through a school like The Culinary Institute of America in New York. Because the CIA is such a well-known name in the culinary field, they offer a professional skills development course that draws in students from all over the world. This particular course, Breakfast & Brunch Cookery, will give you hands-on experience with egg dishes, quick breads, and breakfast salads.

For many chefs and cooks, breakfast represents just part of a huge repertoire of skills and abilities. If you’re interested in learning to cook breakfast for personal reasons, you may want to turn to online videos and cookbook training. If you’re interested in learning to cook breakfast as a way to boost your culinary resume and advance your skills, it’s worth looking into local and non-local culinary schools that might offer a brunch and egg course, or simply to find a mentor chef who might let you do some job shadowing.

Related Topics

Finding a Culinary School

Molecular Gastronomy and Culinary Schools

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on April 28, 2010
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One of the hottest new trends in the culinary education and professional market is molecular gastronomy. Although the name calls to mind evil scientists and laboratories with petri dishes full of bacteria, there is actually much about molecular gastronomy that appeals to chefs and diners of all ages.

In reality, molecular gastronomy is just another cooking technique that can be taught at culinary school, much like classical French training. It focuses on different types of cooking processes, especially as they can be improved upon using chemistry. Everything from liquid nitrogen to vacuum pressure cookers are used, allowing food to evolve into a new type of experience. In fact, chefs may use any combination of the following to get their dishes just right:

  • Thermal immersion circulators
  • Vacuum chambers
  • Miniature smokers
  • Liquid nitrogen
  • Thickening chemicals

Not all of molecular gastronomy is about new technologies, though. Some chefs are proponents of simply using kitchen materials in a new and interesting way. For example, making soup out of a juicer or cooking salmon by curing it on one side and applying heat on the other might also be considered part of the molecular gastronomy craze.

What’s important to note about molecular gastronomy is that it usually needs to be taught at the culinary school level or under the direction of a chef experienced in the field. After all, because chefs are potentially working with chemical reactions, it can be dangerous (to the chef and to the diners), if there isn’t enough training in place. And because it is such a relatively new field, molecular gastronomy is typically only taught at the bigger name schools like the Culinary Institute of America.

While there is much to recommend any type of culinary training that pushes the limits of human creativity, it’s important to remember that a good culinary base needs to be in place before adding molecular gastronomy to the list. If it’s a field you might be interested in learning more about, be sure and ask the culinary schools you’re considering if there is a class or chef-instructor on staff who can help you learn more about this exciting new field.