What Subjects are Needed to Become a Chef?
Going to culinary school seems like a big leap, and many prospective students might wonder why they should go through school when they could also get a job in a restaurant kitchen and work their way up from there. In a perfect world, that might be a good way, but in reality, jumping right into a restaurant job does not give you enough of a background to truly work your way around different kitchens.
It might let you ascend in that particular restaurant that you started in, but if you really want to be a versatile chef, culinary school is the way to go. One look at the types of courses offered can show you what you'd be missing if you passed up formal education.
What You Study in Culinary School
Culinary classes are about more than learning how to make a dish from a memorized recipe. They're also ground zero for learning very basic professional skills that you wouldn't learn cooking at home. Specific knife skills, for example, or how to adjust a recipe if someone has an allergy and needs a substitution for an ingredient.
You may also learn about plating, the method of putting together the ingredients in such a way that the final dish looks fantastic. Food science also plays a role. Sure, you can go online and learn about the Maillard reaction, but culinary classes will give you more information on how foods work together to form the dishes we like to eat.
But it's not all just about the recipe. In culinary school, you have to learn about health regulations, sanitation, and food storage so that your ingredients are always safe to use. You have to know why someone needs to wash their hands after handling money and before handling food, for example. If you skip this education, you risk having ingredients spoil, inviting pest problems, and having your restaurant shut down, possibly ruining your reputation.
Another group of classes you would have to take would involve menu planning and nutrition, but that's not all. You'd also need to study topics like management and accounting.
Why All the Extra Classes?
Accounting or nutrition might not seem like something celebrity chefs have to worry about, but the culinary world is far-reaching. You need those management and accounting classes so that you can successfully manage the financial side of any food venture you own. You need nutrition and menu planning in case you want to work in school cafeterias, hospitals, or nursing homes. Menu planning also helps if you want to start a catering business where you have to come up with menus for special events.
Food storage, health regulations, and kitchen safety knowledge are all essential if you want to know what to do should the power go out at your restaurant. You'd need to know what could be saved, what you would have to throw out, and how to clean up appliances once the power came back on.
Why Not Find a Good Restaurant and Learn All That There?
If you walk in off the street and get a job as a dishwasher, for example, and then work your way up, you'll get a good education in how to work in various roles at that one restaurant. You won't get the management and financial education that you need, though; while you might learn a lot about ordering and budgeting, no one is going to take you aside and teach you how all the restaurant's finances work.
You're also not going to get a thorough education -- you'll be trained to perform tasks, but you won't have the basics down when you start working. Plus, there's no guarantee that the people in that restaurant will teach you everything you need to know, or that they'll teach you correct methods. You could wind up learning partial information from people who cut corners.
Going to culinary school gives you a more well rounded knowledge base and prepares you for the fast-paced world of food. If you’re ready to take the first step into the culinary world and earn your Associate of Applied Science in Culinary Arts, consider ECPI University’s Culinary Institute of Virginia. For more information on how to get started today, connect with a friendly admissions counselor.
It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!
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Gainful Employment Information – Culinary Arts - Associate’s
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