Once you make the decision to earn a culinary arts degree, the next decision is to look at where to get the degree. This entails a hard look at the culinary arts curriculum. After all, you want to ensure that the curriculum will provide you with everything you will need to succeed in your chosen profession in the culinary arts industry.
The perfect Culinary Arts Curriculum
Here are some tips to know what the ideal culinary arts curriculum would look like.
It Should Include All the Skills You Will Need
The first thing to consider when evaluating a culinary arts curriculum is to see if it includes all the skills you would need to qualify for the job of your choice in the culinary arts industry. For instance, if your chosen profession is to become a restaurant manager, then you’d want to make sure the curriculum includes overseeing both food and beverage management. The curriculum would need to cover managing people, supplies and customer traffic. These are all things that a good restaurant manager needs to be accomplished in. So, look for a curriculum that covers the specific tasks that your chosen job title would need to be skilled in.
It Should Include a Wide Range of Learning Opportunities
The perfect culinary arts curriculum would include learning opportunities that cover a wide range of skills. For example, even if you are not specifically studying how to run a kitchen, you should have the opportunity to learn how a kitchen operates. This is so that you will have a full understanding of what’s going on whether you are a member of the waitstaff, or an integral member of the food preparation staff. Included in the curriculum should be information about how to pair foods and how to plate dishes. The curriculum should also teach you about how to train your own palate, so that you can identify flavors and know what tastes great.
It Should Include Hands-on Practical Training
Of course, there’s no better way to learn how to do anything than to get in there and try it with your own hands. That’s why the ideal culinary arts curriculum will include extensive hands-on training opportunities. You would be able to get real world kitchen experience, watching the professionals as they go about their job. This helps you to see what your day to day experience will actually be like, as well as to try out your own newly-learned skills in a real world environment.
It Should Include Specific Cooking Skills
Of course, any excellent culinary arts curriculum will include specific instruction in certain cooking skills that are used every day! This will include things like learning how to extract the most flavor out of ingredients like nuts and spices, how to fix dishes that have suffered from too much blandness, the importance of letting meat rest and the science of why it works. These are all important skills that any good culinary arts professional knows and understands. The perfect culinary arts curriculum will include these and other food “secrets” for their students to learn.
It Should Include How to choose the Best Equipment
No matter what you’re doing in life, you should always use the best tool for the job. Part of being a culinary arts professional is knowing which piece of equipment to use for the task and how to choose the best utensil or piece of equipment to begin with. This is one reason why chefs always bring their own knives to the task. Chefs carefully choose the knives that they like to work with and they take care of their own knives as if they were children. Part of any good culinary arts curriculum will include lessons on what makes a good skillet, when to use what equipment and how to take care of cooking utensils.
Read more: Fun Facts about Culinary Arts
It Should Be Well Organized Into Segments
The ideal culinary arts curriculum should be thoughtfully organized into segments. Each semester of training should focus on certain aspects of the culinary arts industry. When you experience a curriculum like this, you will be able to immerse yourself in the learning experience in a way that will ensure that the lessons are instilled forever. This ultimately makes you a better job candidate and provides you with the best job security going forward.
