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Culinary School Lessons: Using Seasonal Produce

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on September 2, 2010
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seasonal ingredientsOne of the hallmarks of any up-and-coming new restaurant is the use of fresh, seasonal produce. That’s because no amount of culinary skill can compete with great ingredients – and those you can get locally at farmer’s markets and small retailers are the best there is.

If you plan on focusing on a particular cooking style or even type of ingredient in culinary school, it’s a good idea to take seasonal produce into account. After all, if you want to specialize in seafood, Seattle or San Francisco is going to offer a lot more variety than the South. And if root vegetables and pork products are more your style, the South is a much better choice.

Seasonal Fruits

Although fruit makes a much more common appearance in desserts and sauces than as a main course, the right ingredients can really make the dish.

  • Spring fruits include apricots, mangoes, and strawberries.
  • Summer fruits include blueberries, cherries, peaches, plums, raspberries, and watermelon.
  • Fall fruits include apples, grapes, pears, and pomegranates.
  • Winter fruits are a bit of an oxymoron, but in the warmer climates, they include grapefruit, lemons, oranges, and other members of the citrus family.

Seasonal Vegetables

Using seasonal vegetables is a great way to rotate a menu and support local farmers. Many well-known restaurants own their own farms (or are affiliated with one) as a way to get the best produce at a low cost.

  • Spring vegetables include artichokes, asparagus, carrots, collard greens, and rhubarb.
  • Summer vegetables include broccoli, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, and zucchini.
  • Fall vegetables include squash, cauliflower, and potatoes.
  • Winter vegetables include kale, turnips, and parsnips.

Although you won’t have much control over your ingredients while you’re still in culinary school, it’s a good idea to become familiar with what types of foods work well throughout the year. Not only will this allow you to become a more informed cook, but many people equate these flavors with comfort food. A hearty turnip stew in winter might be just as welcome as roasted corn salad in the summer. But exchange the two, and you’re not only in danger of using produce shipped from overseas, but you might confuse a few customer palates, as well.

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Culinary Schools

Ingredients Can Make a Difference

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Physical Requirements of Becoming a Chef

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on July 8, 2010
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Many 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. Physical Requirments of Becoming a Chef

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

Becoming a “Fast Food” Chef

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on June 28, 2010
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For most culinary students, the idea of working in fast food isn’t one that inspires a lot of hope for the future. After all, you don’t have to have a degree in order to assemble hamburgers, and working in a fast food kitchen is one of the lowest-paying jobs you’ll find in the culinary world.

Lincoln Culinary Institute

However, being a fast food chef isn’t all about going to work at the fryer for eight hours every day. It is possible to work in the fast food industry and put your culinary education to good use.

•    Food Scientists: Every fast food company, from McDonald’s to Auntie Anne’s, has a team of chefs who work at the home office, developing new items for the menu and improving food quality. These new items can take years to perfect, and the process includes everything from doing market research and determining what sort of food is going to be the next big thing to coming up with ways to keep the food fresh and tasty on a mass-production scale.

•    Teaching: The fast food industry has a fairly high turnover rate for employees, and it’s necessary to train new recruits almost continuously. While the actual task of cook training generally falls on another lower-level employee at the store, the techniques used are developed by a team of experts. It requires quite a bit of culinary knowledge to come up with a basic skills training process that is both safe and effective.

•    Safety and Sanitation: All fast food restaurants are held to high standards of sanitation and food safety. As is the case with cook training, the techniques for food safety are developed at the national level and passed down to individual chain restaurants. Developing and monitoring safety and sanitation techniques often falls to higher-level specialists with culinary training.

Working in the executive or development offices of a fast food restaurant can be a very rewarding career. Not only do the hours tend to fall in the 9-to-5 range and offer a more relaxed workplace, but the pay can reach upwards of $80,000 per year. If you’re looking for great job stability that still taps into your culinary training, fast food can actually be a wise career move.

The Difference Between Chefs and Sommeliers

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on June 14, 2010
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One of the many specialty courses offered at top culinary schools is sommelier training, or wine stewardship. From a professional standpoint, becoming a Sommelier (with a capital letter) is akin to becoming a Chef (with a capital letter). It’s a designation that doesn’t come easily, and it requires years of training and experience, as well as a certification, to acquire the illustrious tastevin to wear around the neck.

What a Sommelier Does

A Sommelier is basically the individual in a restaurant in charge of ordering, storing, rotating, recommending, pairing, and serving wine. Due to the high-end nature of a Sommelier’s job, positions tend to be very rare and hard to come by, even when the professional has the education and experience to back up his or her skills.

The Sommelier is often considered a “wine manager” of sorts. He or she is responsible for training the wait staff on proper pouring and serving techniques, oftentimes going so far as to host wine sampling meetings that introduce the cooks and waiters to the varying wines so as to better serve the customers as a whole.

How Sommeliers and Chefs Work Together

It has long been understood that a good wine can be paired with a dish, making the flavors bolder and better, according to the undertones and quality of the wine. Chefs who work in fine dining restaurants often have some sort of formal culinary training regarding the pairing of wine and food, since they are catering to a clientele that will almost always order the two together.Along those same lines, many Sommeliers have attended culinary classes, if only to understand how the cooking process affects food flavors and the eating experience.

At present, there are two primary types of formal Sommeliers: Master Sommeliers (MS) and Masters of Wine (MW). The MS designation is a lot like a top Chef who doesn’t go to culinary school, instead learning on the job and through intense self-directed study and mentorships, while the MW is someone who takes a more formally academic route at one of the few locations offering the course. In both cases, it requires quite a bit of dedication; there are fewer than 400 MWs and MSs in the entire world.

Culinary School and Wine Training

If you plan on getting a culinary education, it’s not required that you take a wine course, but you may find that it’s a great boost to your resume. Knowledge of all food items – including beverages – can go a long way in making you more marketable as a culinary professional.

Should You Go to Culinary School to Become a Food Critic?

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on February 19, 2010
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food criticIf there’s one career that seems more glamorous and food-centered than becoming an Executive Chef, it’s becoming a food critic. Food critics seem to have the ultimate job: they go around tasting incredible dishes from incredible restaurants and provide their opinions on each one. And the more famous the food critic, the more prestige that comes with it. In fact, the top food critics are often the recipients of flattery and free stuff – all part of the package as chefs vie for attention and a few gold stars.

Unfortunately, becoming a food critic isn’t as easy as loving food and having decided opinions about it. In fact, culinary school is one of the most common places to find the food critics of tomorrow. That’s because the most important part of being a food critic is simply being able to cook. Of course, there are additional considerations, as well:

Writing and Journalism Skills: Most food critics write up their opinions in regular articles, blogs, or columns. This means being able to report and write interesting reviews, since you can’t be a successful food critic unless others are interested in reading what you have to say.

Knowledge about Food: You also have to have a familiarity with different ingredients and types of cuisines. Food critics have to be able to discern the different flavor profiles in a dish and compare it to others, using their own knowledge base to determine how innovative a new chef is. This is one place where having a culinary education comes in, since food critics with a background in cooking have more familiarity with cuisine.

A Discerning Palate: Food critics also have to be able to make realistic opinions on different dishes. If you’re the type of diner who likes just about anything, you probably won’t make a good food critic. After all, you have to be able to tell the good from the bad and the near-perfect from the perfect. A background in culinary school can go a long way in developing your palate.

Professionalism: The best food critics are also known entities in their field. They network with food editors, restaurant owners, celebrity chefs, reporters, and other culinary professionals. They know how to give a bad review without severing personal ties, and they are charismatic enough to become popular with others in the culinary profession. This takes a high level of professionalism and connections that are often made at top culinary schools around the world.

Becoming a food critic is a dream for many culinary students and gourmands all over the world. While it is a difficult profession to break into, culinary school might be a great place to start. After all, not only are you learning how to eat good food, but you’re learning how to cook it, too. That makes for a well-rounded education with plenty of opportunities in terms of a future culinary career.

Does TV Glorify the Culinary Career?

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on December 11, 2009
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celebrity chef

There’s no question that culinary schools are seeing a surge in interest in recent years. More students are applying for and getting into the culinary programs of their choice than ever before, and new schools and facilities are opening every month. However, this increase in students also means an increase in graduates.

While the food service industry continues to grow at a faster-than-national-average rate, the percentage of positions at the top – the Executive Chefs, the restaurant owners, and the celebrity chefs – remain fairly static. This means that although you might have dreams of your culinary education leading directly to fame and fortune, success in this field may not be as easy as it first appears.

Part of the recent surge in interest in a culinary education is the number of smaller fine-dining venues being celebrated around the country. Large chain restaurants will always be popular, but diners in every city are discovering more diverse palates and looking for ways to eat well on their current budgets. The culprit for this interest? Television.

Celebrity chefs like Rachel Ray, Emeril Lagasse, Anthony Bourdain, and Tom Colicchio have turned fine dining into something that even Middle America can enjoy. Their television shows introduce new ingredients and new cooking techniques to a wide audience of viewers. The result is that more and more people are clamoring for some of that good cooking.

While this is good news for culinary students interested in entering the field, it’s important not to fall into the trap of thinking that a culinary career is as glamorous or as easy as these celebrity chefs make it seem. Almost all television chefs have entire teams behind them, preparing food, adjusting recipes, and doing the cleanup work; their actual time spent in the kitchen is not always that high.

They may spend hours each day marketing, promoting, getting makeup put on, and meeting with producers. And while these types of activities can make for a good career, it may not be what put you on track to a culinary education in the first place.

There are also considerations of entry-level work to consider, as well. All the TV chefs are at the middle or ends of their careers. They may have spent years working the line, working 10 hour days, or even watching their own first restaurants fail. Most culinary students can expect to lay plenty of groundwork before the real benefits of a culinary career start to hit.

While you should never let these types of obstacles stop you from pursuing the culinary career of your dreams, it’s important to embark on your studies with open eyes. You can achieve success after culinary school. You just have to work hard to get there.

Salaries in the Culinary Industry

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on September 22, 2009
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Money seems to be one of those topics that all culinary students want to know more about. How much does culinary school really cost? How much can I expect to make after culinary school graduation? Exactly how much money does Rachel Ray bring in every year?culinary school costs

These kids of questions are valid ones; after all, becoming a chef is a life-long dream for many people, and it’s important to know exactly what to expect in pursuing that dream. Although salaries in the culinary industry vary depending on where you live (for example, a job in New York is going to pay more than a job in Iowa, simply by virtue of cost-of-living) and what type of restaurant you’re in, there are a few averages that can help you in making a decision.

  • At one end of the spectrum are the line cooks and sous chefs, who make among the lowest incomes in the culinary industry. Entry-level positions begin at $18,000 a year and work up to $28,000, depending on whether or not you have a degree and/or experience in the kitchen.
  • Baking schools tend to be less popular than culinary schools, and the starting wages in this field reflect that. That’s because those who do the hiring (commercial baking kitchens and bakeries) don’t always have as many opportunities for career growth. Graduates can expect to make between $16,000 and $26,000 to start.
  • The field of hospitality management typically offers a higher starting wage, though it often requires an Associate or Bachelor’s degree prior to hire. Most professionals can expect to make between $25,000 and $45,000 for working either directly with the food or in a more general manager’s role. Career advancement in hospitality management tends to be higher than what you can find in a more traditional culinary role, with top hotel managers exceeding the $80,000 mark.
  • At the higher end of the spectrum are the Chefs and Pastry Chefs, who can pull anywhere from $30,000 to upwards of $60,000 per year, depending on how successful they are and where they work. For those interested in opening their own restaurants, the pay can range anywhere from a modest $40,000 to over $100,000 per year, though the amount of hours worked a day (at least in the beginning) can be grueling.

Of course, there are exceptions to any and all of these rules – and there are other benefits to take into consideration, as well. Many culinary professionals find that the creative license given at a smaller restaurant makes the lower pay acceptable, while others find the weekend and evening hours at a hotel are a great trade-off for a higher income.

A Day in the Life of a Chef

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on July 7, 2009
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A Day In The Life of a ChefOne of the biggest perks of getting a good culinary education and becoming a chef is that no two days on the job are exactly the same. When you’re a chef – especially an Executive Chef or restaurant owner – you get quite a bit of creative license and freedom so that you never know what exactly you’ll be called upon to do that day. However, most of the time, you can expect to handle a few key tasks as part of your chef duties.

•    Menu Creation: You might either make a new menu, contribute to a menu, or adjust a menu based on the freshest ingredients available. The ability to think on your feet can go a long way in making the most out of seasonal goods.

•    Good, Old-Fashioned Cooking: Even Executive Chefs get their hands dirty in the kitchen! While you may not be required to prep your food or work on the line, chefs often get right into the thick of things to help get the food looking – and tasting – perfect.

•    Mingling with the Guests: The chef is the superstar of the restaurant. He or she is the force behind the flavors, and many diners like to bring the chef out for compliments or complaints. Having people skills and being able to deal with customers graciously can go a long way in increasing your status.

•    Overseeing Large Teams: This is especially true for Executive Chefs. In the kitchen, there are line cooks, sous chefs, dishwashers, waiters, bartenders, hostesses, and even deliverymen and women to contend with. In addition to being able to direct this team of professionals, a chef has to be prepared to take on any of these roles at a moment’s notice.

•    Running a Business: If you own your own restaurant, you can expect quite a bit of paperwork to fall on your desk. Issues like human resources, accounting, licensing, and correspondence can take away up to half of your time, leaving you with less contact with the food than you may have imagined.

Going to culinary school is a dream come true for many budding chefs. However, remember that being a chef is about more than cooking. It is a multi-faceted career that requires skills, patience, training, and most of all, a love of the craft.