GatewayGourmet Blog

The New USDA Food “Pyramid”: What it Means for Culinary Students

Published

on August 8, 2011

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MyPlate.gov In June of 2011, the USDA got rid of the familiar “food pyramid” used to instruct families and kids on the best types of foods to eat and replaced it with a “food plate.” At its core, the information contained in both food charts is the same. They both offer a visual representation of the best proportion of grains, proteins, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products the average person needs to consume on a daily basis. However, the new food plate is meant to be more accessible, more user-friendly, and better for the average American sitting down to a meal.

Food and Nutrition in the Culinary Setting

Culinary schools and students have long been aware of the impact the USDA dietary recommendations has had on the general population. In recent years, more and more diners have been calling out for low-fat, low-calorie meal options, and with the same balance of meat and veggies they get at home. Culinary professionals have answered this with increased opportunities to enjoy fresh foods and family-style dining, but with the flair they put on every dish.

With the new USDA food plate, this might become a little bit more of a challenge. For some types of restaurants, there is simply no way to emulate the food plate stetting, which compartmentalizes foods and food types into separate sections of the plate. Few dishes follow this same format, and diners might not be able to recognize the variability of food groups in their dish.

For some diners, this isn’t a problem. After all, part of the reason people eat out is to experience a little bit of indulgence and to step away from their humdrum, everyday diets. For some people, though—especially those who are watching their weight or have specific dietary needs—finding restaurants that not only taste good, but that also meet their special food needs can be quite difficult.

What to Expect from the New System

In terms of changing the way culinary school is run, or in changing the types of courses offered, the new USDA food plate isn’t going to have a major impact. However, as health and nutrition becomes more common (both at the training and dining levels), almost all cooking professionals and venues will need to incorporate healthy options.

Good food and healthy eating aren’t always synonymous, but they aren’t mutually exclusive, either. The right training and focus can allow you to incorporate both into your culinary future.

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Which is Better: Big Name, Chain Culinary Schools or Smaller, Locally-Owned Culinary Schools?

Published

on July 26, 2011

Finding the Right Culinary School: What to do First

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small vs big culinary schools Choosing the right culinary school can be a difficult undertaking. In addition to considerations of cost, location, and the length of the program, there are literally hundreds of culinary schools to choose from. Some of them are well-known (such as Le Cordon Bleu or the Art Institutes), while others are small and locally-owned, rarely making even the local headlines.

For most students, the appeal of attending a big name school is pretty evident. With a recognizable brand, a large national following, and often years of experience in the field, it may seem like a safe bet to stick with the schools you know. However, many chefs graduate from smaller, less-known schools and still have great success in their careers. It’s all about determining what it is you want out of your culinary school experience and finding the location—big or small—that can offer it to you.

Pros of a Big Name Culinary School

In addition to the benefits listed above, the larger culinary brand names can offer:

Instructors who may be well-known in the field
Larger and more diverse pools of students
A curriculum that has been tested over time
The ability to transfer to a campus in another location
An education recognized by accrediting councils

In some schools, you might also find more flexible payment options (offered through their own financing company) and internship opportunities in restaurants you know and recognize.

Pros of a Smaller Culinary School

If you’re considering smaller, local culinary schools owned and operated by an individual chef or group of chefs, you can look forward to:

A more personalized, one-on-one culinary experience
Lower tuition rates
Greater flexibility in completing your course
Placement and relationships with local vendors and restaurants
Good local networking

As you can tell, the focus here is a lot more on making a personal connection—with your instructor, your school, and your community.

Making the Right Culinary School Choice

There are pros and cons to any education decision, and culinary school is no different. Determine what you want out of your career and talk with the companies you hope to work with in the future to see what they look for in candidates. Culinary school can be a great or not-so-great experience; the difference is usually in the amount of research you do ahead of time.

Culinary Association Spotlight: The International Association of Culinary Professionals

Published

on July 15, 2011

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The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting food professionals who work in culinary education, communication, or food and beverage preparation. It was founded in 1978 as the Association of Cooking Schools, designed primarily to support culinary students just embarking on their careers. It wasn’t until 1987 that the IACP we know today was born, offering a more industry-focused network of resources.

The organization is open to both seasoned professionals and those who have recently graduated from culinary school and are just entering the field. There are opportunities for education, support, networking, and even scholarships offered through the IACP, and all within a strong community of like-minded professionals.

Certified Culinary Professional Designation

Perhaps one of the most well-known aspects of the IACP is their CCP certification (Certified Culinary Professional certification). Because the culinary field is not heavily regulated at the national or state level, there are few universally recognized certifications for chefs and other culinary professionals. The CCP certification is one of the few programs that is largely recognized by the culinary community and carries a mark of prestige all its own.

Awards Offered though the IACP

As is the case with most culinary associations, the IACP one comes with its own award and awards ceremony. The International Association of Culinary Professionals version is the Cookbook Awards, presented to those who have written and published outstanding cookbooks. Additional awards are presented for the Bert Greene Awards for Food Journalism (Magazine, Internet, and Newspaper categories).

Conferences and Additional Opportunities

Annual conferences through the IACP allow members the chance to network with other professionals as well as to stay abreast of the current technologies and trends in the field. These awards are usually held in large, “foodie” cities that make for great local cuisine.

If you’re interested in learning more about the International Association of Culinary Professionals, please visit their website. Many of the opportunities offered through the organization are smaller and more focused, including grassroots movement support and regional conferences and educational opportunities. As a culinary professional, especially one who is just starting out, getting to know your peers is one of the most important things you can do for your career. The IACP is an organization to consider when building your resume and credentials.

James Beard Foundation

What is the James Beard Foundation, and How Can it Help Me Pay for Culinary School?

Published

on July 6, 2011

Annual James Beard Foundation Awards

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One of the most recognizable names in the culinary world is the James Beard Foundation. Known world-wide as the organization that hands out annual awards for culinary prowess (the Academy Awards of the culinary world), this Foundation offers prestige and fame to a number of chefs, sommeliers, and food writers every year.

Perhaps even more importantly, however, the James Beard Foundation is known as a supporter of culinary students and professionals who are just starting out in the field. Offering scholarships, workshops, and networking opportunities, this is a great organization for any student who wants to attend culinary school with a few marks of honor already in place.

The History of the James Beard Foundation

The Foundation was first established in 1986 in honor of James Beard, a world-famous chef and founder of the Institute of Culinary Education. Originally a place where chefs could gather and share trade secrets and techniques, it has since grown to become the center of the culinary community in the United States.

At its core, the James Beard Foundation is all about education. Although many of the events are focused on established chefs or those who have hit the national spotlight, the true focus of the organization is to offer:

Education and Culinary Classes
Culinary Readings
Culinary Conferences
Cooking Programs for Children
Scholarship Opportunities
Work, Study, and Travel Grants for New Culinary Professionals
Volunteer Opportunities

James Beard Scholarships

The James Beard Foundation Scholarship program was founded to help culinary students pay for their education and get started realizing their dreams of working in the hospitality industry. These scholarships have been offered since 2006, and vary every year on exactly how much is available to prospective applicants (it depends on how many donations the non-profit gets).

The application process can be pretty intensive and competitive, with an average of 650 applicants each year. Of these, around 125 students are selected based on such criteria as grade point average, letters of recommendation, financial need, work experience, volunteer experience, and extracurricular activities. These 125 applicants are then entered into the final review pool. From there, a handful of students are selected for cash scholarships and tuition wavers.

Although the tuition money is great, many culinary students are just as happy to be recognized by the James Beard Foundation and invited to participate in future events. Because of its prestigious name and far-reaching grasp in the culinary world, this is one organization that can boost your career through all its various levels.

To learn more, visit the Foundation on the web at http://www.jamesbeard.org/.

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Culinary Career Options: Working in a Banquet Service

Published

on June 22, 2011

Start Your Own Catering Company

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Working in Banquet Service Most culinary students dream of the day when they’ll possess the ultimate culinary title: Executive Chef. It’s not uncommon for students to be driven by visions of restaurant ownership, five stars attached to their name, and the ability to plan and implement their own menu someday.

And while these are noble goals, the truth is that it will take years of work to get to that level. In the meantime, you’ll need to get plenty of hands-on experience with all different types of cuisine—and all types of food service organizations. One way in which to get some of the skills you’ll need is to work as part of a banquet service.

On the Banquet Line

Banquet workers, like catering professionals, specialize in creating large portions that offer consistent quality and taste—often for hours at a time. As a prep cook for a banquet, you can expect to spend considerable time working with one or two ingredients, perhaps chopping onions or preparing potatoes. While this might not seem like the most exciting eight hours you’ll ever spend on the job, there is something to be said for this kind of repetition. Over time, you’ll become faster, develop better muscles, and even come up with a few tricks that are unique to your style of cooking. These are all skills that will serve you in the culinary field.

At higher levels, you might be asked to make food to-order (think omelets or crepes), carve and serve cuts of meat, or even supervise an entire team of banquet servers. In these instances, you can also develop additional techniques and learn who you are as a cook. Maybe it turns out that you are great bantering with customers, or perhaps you have a knack for coming up with on-your-feet solutions to problems. All of these are great skills to discover.

Becoming a Banquet Manager

Banquet management is a great career path all its own. Banquets can be large, ornate, and demanding, and being able to keep the client happy isn’t always an easy task. However, don’t expect to walk out of culinary school and into a banquet management job; working your way up through the ranks can take a few years, and require additional education at the Master’s degree level.

As a banquet manager, you can expect to:

Coordinate with various departments (housekeeping, beverage management, marketing)
Talk with and meet clients
Manage budgets
Sell and promote events
Organize (and in some cases, hire) banquet staff
Prepare and help serve food
Create unique menus
Comply with food safety and sanitation regulations

Banquet managers make an average of $45,000 per year, and the position often allows you to work for big-name restaurants and businesses. Although there isn’t a direct path to banquet management, a degree in hospitality management can go a long way, since so much of this field takes place in hotels.

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Find a Hospitality Management School Near You

Culinary School: Is it Better to Live on Campus?

Published

on June 13, 2011

Culinary School Scholarships and Grants

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Living On Campus

The question of whether or not to live on a college campus isn’t one that many culinary students face. Because culinary school has become so interwoven into most medium-sized and large cities, you can usually find a good program in your area—no moving or adjusting your home life required. Additionally, most community college culinary programs and smaller vocational schools don’t have a campus equipped for on-site housing. In these instances, the schools expect you to figure out your own lodgings.

However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t culinary schools with on campus housing. Many of the larger institutions like the Culinary Institute of America do offer traditional dormitories, and an estimated 1,700 students live at CIA each year. Other four-year universities and colleges that are known as destination schools (including international culinary schools) offer similar housing options.

Benefits of Living on Campus

Some culinary students love living on campus, while for others, it can be a struggle or an impossibility due to family obligations. Ideal for students fresh out of high school or who don’t otherwise have ties to their hometown, on-campus housing means that you can truly immerse yourself in your education. You will find:

Easy access to campus amenities (libraries and study resources)
A strong, education-focused atmosphere
Lifetime friends and colleagues
Short commute times
More time to spend on schoolwork

Like traditional universities, however, don’t expect your culinary school to provide palatial living quarters. You can expect roommates, small rooms, communal bathrooms and living spaces, and all the features that come with dormitory life. You can also expect to pay for these services—off campus and on campus housing comparisons almost always show that living off campus is a smarter financial move over the long term.

Scholarships and Grants for Housing

Of course, if you do choose to live on campus, you may be able to find financial aid designated solely for that purpose. The complete “college experience” is one that many organizations believe is conducive to better educational outcomes and a more focused approach to learning, and scholarships and grants may be available to cover on-campus housing.

If living on campus for culinary school is something you want, be sure and look at schools that make this a priority. For schools that don’t offer housing, you may also be able to find resources for connecting with other students in the area hoping to find a roommate or get an apartment close to school. The admissions and student life offices should have more information.

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Culinary Careers in the Military

Published

on June 3, 2011

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If you have been considering culinary school but aren’t sure if you’re ready to take on the tuition costs or student loan debt, you may have heard about culinary careers in the military. More than one million meals are made in military kitchens every day, feeding thousands of men and women three times a day. This type of food service requires a large number of trained cooks—almost all of whom are part of the military themselves.

What Can I Learn in a Military-Based Culinary Program?

Food service specialists in the military learn many of the same skills that are taught in standard culinary schools around the world. This includes:

Ordering and receiving produce and meat
Butchery/Knife skills
Cooking meat products
Preparing gravies and sauces
Baking and entry-level pastry skills
Food service
Cleaning and maintenance
Nutrition
Health, food safety, and sanitation

In most cases, you will receive nine weeks of basic training and nine weeks of more specialized training before you begin your official on-the-job culinary work.

While more refined skills aren’t likely to be learned in a military kitchen, the focus here is on maximizing nutrition and serving a large number of people in the most efficient manner possible. This can translate to great training for work in a commercial kitchen or industrial food plant—but probably not a career as an Executive Chef at a five-star New York restaurant. In fact, many culinary professionals find that four years (or longer) spent so close to military-style food that gives them little creativity does more to diminish a love of the culinary field than anything else.

Is Military Culinary Training Right for Me?

Only you can answer that question. On the one hand, working for the military offers great job stability, free culinary training, and the opportunity to help serve our country. You may also find yourself aboard an aircraft carrier in Japan, cruising in a submarine patrolling the Atlantic Ocean, or in a boot camp in Georgia—you can see the world and experience more than you might have ever imagined. However, because you sign a contract of service, there is no changing your mind once you’ve begun your military career. If you find that the learning atmosphere isn’t right for you, there are few opportunities to move over to a new field.

Culinary school—whether done at a private technical institution, a public university, or the military—can be a great way to begin a career in one of the most stable job industries in the world. As is the case with any program you’re considering, be sure to weigh all the pros and cons before you make a final decision.

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Are The Culinary Arts More Science or Art?

Published

on May 9, 2011

Careers in Food Packaging

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As the name suggests, there is a very strong artistic component to the culinary arts. Requiring the intense training of an artist as well as the flair of someone who knows how to present and style food for maximum effect, the culinary arts are part of a field you can spend anywhere from weeks to years training for.

However, anyone who has ever worked in a bakery or written a recipe will tell you that there is a very strong scientific component to food preparation, as well. Whether it’s understanding the chemistry behind leavening agents, using caramelization to add robust flavors and depth to a dish, or tapping into the properties of liquid nitrogen for a touch of molecular gastronomy, many top chefs today use science as a foundation for all that they do in the kitchen.

When you attend a top culinary school, you’re most likely going to get a little bit of both worlds: the arts and the sciences. And as you develop your skills and find the niche that will carry you through your profession, you will be able to incorporate as much of either quality as you want.

The Arts and Culinary Training

For a strong artistic focus within the culinary field, you may be able to find work in:

Cake Decorating
Plating/Food Expedition
Menu Creation
Food Styling
Food Photography
Food Writing
Food Blogging

You can also become an Executive Chef or other decision-maker in the kitchen, where the food you put out is as much an a visual experience as it is an taste-based one.

The Sciences and Culinary Training

If you’re interested in a strong scientific component, you may want to consider fields in:

Baking and Pastry Arts
Molecular Gastronomy
Local Resource Production
Gardening/Agricultural Development
Food Science
Food Safety and Sanitation
Commercial Food Production
Kitchen Technology
Cookbook Writing

Depending on your personal background, you can also incorporate the sciences into your own kitchen or restaurant in small steps (such as growing your own produce or using a few molecular gastronomy techniques).

One of the best things about the culinary field is that you can develop your own path and focus. Whether you love the creative aspect of cooking or the science behind it, there are possibilities in a culinary career for everyone.

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Culinary Opportunities in High School

Published

on May 4, 2011

Culinary School Prerequisites

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culinary opportunities in high school Starting a culinary career doesn’t always occur after you graduate from high school. In fact, the culinary arts and high school education are rapidly coming together as a way to prepare students for a strong future. Learning real, usable skills at this level allows students to take on post-graduate employment that much faster, or to be prepared for culinary college with a few advance skills already in place.

This fusion of high school learning and culinary training takes many different forms.

Traditionally, the only way students could learn how to cook was in home economics or even basic cooking classes. While these are great stepping stones, don’t expect to learn usable professional skills. The focus here is on cooking for personal use and as an introduction to measurements and home kitchen technology.

Many schools are taking this idea one step further by incorporating culinary arts programs at a vocational level. Magnet schools and charter schools are the best examples of this, since these educational facilities are designed around building specific skills within the student populace. In addition to core math and English classes, you will find restaurant management courses, student-run bakeries and restaurants, and even internship opportunities outside of the school. Overall, these programs tend to be faster paced than traditional classes.

Other public schools incorporate culinary arts programs for those students who demonstrate an aptitude and interest in the field. These programs are often partnered by outside nonprofit providers (such as the Careers through Culinary Arts Program). These programs focus on lower income and underserved high school populations, allowing the students to develop college and career opportunities in the restaurant industry. These programs are found primarily in urban school centers.

Some students might also be able to take advantage of Running Start programs, which allow junior- and senior-level high school students to take courses at a local college. Other opportunities include working in a restaurant after school or even working in the cafeteria at lunchtime.

Getting an early start on a culinary education is a great way to build skills and learn if this field is right for you. If you live in an area where culinary training in high school is available, it is best to learn what you can do to take advantage of it. However, if you don’t start culinary school until you’re ready for college, you can still look forward to a good future and great job opportunities the more traditional way.

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