You can take the heat? Then get into the kitchen and get a Culinary Arts degree. If you’re looking for steady employment plus career advancement opportunities plus good food served attractively, earning a culinary arts degree could be the start of a sweet life. Culinary arts education provides you with the opportunity to develop versatile culinary expertise through professional training combined with direct experience.
Culinary arts degree programs are offered at the associate’s degree and bachelor’s degree level by culinary institutes, local community colleges, career training colleges, technical/vocational schools, and trade schools. There are also culinary arts diplomas programs and professional certification programs. Culinary arts courses cover nutrition, food preparation, food design, ServSafe practices, beverage services, pastry and baking arts, cake decor, catering, and foodservice management. Culinary arts bachelor’s degree programs also offer courses in catering management, restaurant and casino management, and other culinary arts business.
Important characteristics of chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers include having a keen sense of taste and smell, working efficiently to turn out meals quickly, and working well as part of a team. Knowledge of a foreign language can be a significant asset with a culinary arts degree because it may improve communication with other restaurant staff, vendors, and the restaurant’s clientele. Students in formal culinary arts degree programs generally spend most of their time in kitchens learning to use the appropriate equipment and prepare meals through actual practice.
Culinary Arts Degree Related CareersEven during a recession, people still go out to eat. With your culinary arts degree, you’re likely to find work in restaurants, resorts, hotels, spas, casinos, cruises, or in any facility that provides food services, such as hospitals, corporate cafeterias, nursing homes, colleges and universities, assisted living facilities, and catering companies. Depending on the training program leading to your culinary arts degree, you may qualify for a range of entry-level to senior-level positions as pastry chef, sous chef, chef de cuisine, head chef, executive chef and head cooks manager, maitre’d, or catering manager. Other careers related to a culinary arts degree include food and beverage manager, food critic, food stylist and photographers, research and development cook, wine cellar buyer, or culinary institute teacher.
What’s the Job Outlook?The National Restaurant Association anticipates that restaurant industry will add 1.8 million jobs over the next decade, with employment reaching 14.8 million by 2019. Purdue University’s 2006 National Survey of Postsecondary American Culinary Career Programs found that the restaurant industry hires 90 percent of all culinary school graduates, likely due to their combination of culinary arts degree certification and apprenticeship experience.
How much does it pay?The Purdue Survey also reported a culinary career starting salary range of $15,000 to $35,000, averaging almost $24,000 a year. Head chefs and other culinary arts management degree holders can earn substantially more, $45,000 and up.
