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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Ingredients Can Make a Difference

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One of the hottest trends in the culinary world today is cooking gourmet gluten-free foods. Popular for its health benefits (shedding pounds and eliminating many types of allergies) as well as a way to live with illnesses like celiac disease, a gluten-free diet deals primarily with eliminating certain types of flours and sweeteners.

This includes cooking without wheat, barley, and rye, eliminating most types of flour, bread, pasta, and even beer. Although there are not yet any accredited gluten-free cooking schools, many reputable culinary institutions are incorporating gluten-free programs as part of a larger culinary package.

Ranging from baking courses (which can be particularly tricky) to straightforward American cuisine, these programs provide another layer of training for cooks seeking to build a strong portfolio of skills.

Benefits of a Gluten-Free Diet

Although most proponents of gluten-free foods cite celiac disease as the leading cause, there are a number of health benefits believed to be derived from this type of diet.

• Staying away from gluten means avoiding many types of fatty pre-packaged foods.
• Some researchers believe gluten contributes to higher risks of certain types of cancer.
• Other researches cite the benefits of a gluten-free diet for those who suffer from multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, autism, seizures, and other neurological disorders.
• Gluten-free foods tend to be higher in natural fiber and protein.
• A gluten-free diet may help reduce the side effects of anemia and diabetes.

Becoming a Gluten-Free Chef

When you learn gluten-free cooking, you’ll most likely discover new ways of cooking old favorites, as well as how to choose ingredients that avoid the gluten no-nos. (For example, soy sauce and most processed foods have some sort of gluten product, even if it’s only used as a preservative or filler.)

When it comes to cooking techniques, burgeoning chefs learn how to blend different types of flours, gums, and starches to replicate the use of regular flour. Although it is impossible to use a straightforward substitution, there are techniques and ingredients that can simulate the same chemical reaction.

If you are interested in learning more about this process and how you might be able to incorporate a gluten-free cooking class into your own culinary education, be sure and talk with the schools you’re considering. You might be surprised at how many of these types of courses are being included as a way to diversify your skills and meet the demands of health-conscious consumers everywhere.

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One of the most important aspects of kitchen safety is in avoiding foodborne illnesses, which are estimated to impact up to 76 million people in the United States every year. Caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses, or even chemicals in the food, most foodborne illnesses arise out of improper cooking techniques or cross contamination due to storing or preparing the food without a mind to safety.

The Top Food Safety Culprits

Even though you’d most likely rather be in the kitchen, preparing food and getting hands-on training, food safety courses are a vital part of the culinary school process. Some of the key points you’ll learn in the course include:

Washing Habits – This includes both food and your hands. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a favorite component of top chefs working today, but even produce from your own backyard has to be properly washed. Some of the biggest food poisoning scares occur from tainted produce like spinach or tomatoes.

Improper Cooking/Cooling – Almost all foods have to be either cooled or heated to certain temperatures in order to slow the growth of bacteria, especially in meat products. This can be tricky for culinary students, since some of the finest cuisine comes tartare or in carpaccio form, and is therefore inherently more dangerous than cooked meat.

Cross Contamination – One of the biggest culprits of food hazards is due to cross contamination, or spreading dangerous germs through bad storage, bad cleaning habits, or a generally unorganized kitchen. Cross contamination hazards are often one of the first things health code inspectors look for when checking restaurants.

Cooking Food Safely

Before you can work with food in a public setting, you’ll most likely have to take a food safety certification test required by your state or city health department. These tests tend to follow right along with what you learned in culinary school, so there won’t be any additional classes to take.

If you plan on opening your own restaurant someday, these food safety issues will come into play all over again, since you’ll be the one responsible for ensuring that your restaurant meets all health codes. One sick customer can ruin an entire career’s worth of culinary training and development, so food safety should always be at the top of the aspiring chef’s to-do list.

Like any education, though, you’ll only get as much out of your culinary training as you put into it. The academic requirements of most programs are fairly low, so if all you’re after is the diploma with your name on it, you can perform a minimum of tasks and still reach your goals.

However, if you really want to graduate with a sound knowledge of the kitchen and the culinary world, it’s best to take advantage of every opportunity that comes by.

Do an Internship/Externship – Even if It’s Not Required

Getting hands-on training in a learning environment and getting hands-on training in a working kitchen are two different things. Only by getting in a real restaurant environment will you get a handle for the speed, pressure, and exhilarating highs of being a cook or chef.

Don’t Rely on One Kind of Technology

There are chefs who swear by traditional French techniques that rely solely on knife skills, Dutch ovens, and fresh ingredients. There are also chefs more attuned to molecular gastronomy, tapping into sous vide options and liquid nitrogen in order to make their creations.

Both sides have valid points, and in order to get the best culinary education possible, you should learn both. Although you can certainly specialize in one type of cooking, make sure you know how to use all the kitchen technology available throughout history and today.

Find a Mentor, If You Can

One of the best ways to gain a competitive edge in the culinary field is to have connections to people in high places. Culinary students who learn from the best tend to go on to become the best. If you have the option to learn under a culinary great, take advantage of it.

If your educational goals are more modest, you can still align yourself with chef-instructors or restaurant owners whose food and skills you admire. Networking with fellow students can also help you when you start seeking employment later on.

It doesn’t matter if you take a culinary course that lasts a few months or for a few years – you can learn everything you need to get started at the right institution for you. Although it might seem like a lot of hard work today, the results you’ll see as a culinary professional will make all your studying and networking worth it.

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This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Although the culinary world can be competitive and offer fairly low starting wages, there are a few steps you can take to ensure that you get the most out of your investment.

•    Get a Degree: Diploma and certification courses are fine within the culinary world (especially when they come from schools like Le Cordon Bleu), but they aren’t very marketable when it comes to finding employment elsewhere.

Earning an Associate, Bachelor, or even Master’s Degree can help you get a job not related to cooking, should you decide to someday change careers. These courses also usually have transferable credits, so you can carry your courses over to another school if you decide to change majors or professional goals.

•    Add Business Courses: Many of the highest-paying culinary jobs are available in hospitality management. To make yourself more viable in this particular market, you can either get a hospitality management degree or supplement your culinary training with business classes.

•    View Culinary School as a Step in the Journey, not a Destination: If you harbor visions of donning an Executive Chef label or stepping into Food Network stardom right out of culinary school, you might be in for a bit of a surprise. Going to culinary school isn’t the only thing you need to do to succeed; it’s one small part of a lifetime worth of work.

•    Work in a Restaurant First: Working in a restaurant – even if it’s just as a prep cook, waiter, or dishwasher – will help you get a better idea of how the food industry works and what you can expect out of a career in the field. You’ll get to know the hours, the level of activity, and the types of pay you can make right out of school. All this knowledge will help you make a better decision about how much time and money you’re willing to expend to get your education.

Culinary school doesn’t have to be expensive, and it doesn’t have to be the end of the road. As long as you know what to expect and you make contingency plans to ensure you have additional job options should your culinary goals take longer than you thought, the cost of a culinary education can be worth every penny.

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•    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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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