How Do I Start a Culinary Career?
There are as many ways to start a rewarding career as a Culinary Arts professional as there are opportunities to excel in the Hospitality Industry. Learn how you can prepare for, start, or inspire a lifelong career with the Culinary Arts in the Restaurant and Hospitality Industry.
Starting Your Career in the Culinary Arts
So, you’re considering a career as a chef, a baker, or other hospitality professional. Maybe you learned to cook as a kid and think you’re pretty skilled. Perhaps you’ve binged Top Chef or The Great British Bake-Off and are inspired to explore your interests and artistry in the Culinary Arts. Whatever your motivation, working in commercial kitchens and the hospitality industry can be extremely rewarding. Just like any skilled trade or profession, there are pathways to entry. If you’re considering a career as a chef, cook, baker, or other culinary professional, we cover some of the steps and options for starting, and excelling, in a career in the Culinary Arts.
Should I Go To Culinary School?
Figuring out how to launch your culinary career usually starts with the question of whether you should go to a culinary school or culinary academy. It’s a great question. There are a lot of opinions, both for and against studying in a culinary program. Let’s consider a few.
You can certainly become a professional chef without going to culinary school. Professional chefs around the world will tell you not to attend culinary school. Some say that “the worst line-cooks they’ve ever worked with were trained in culinary academies.” Others will tell you to take the hard knocks and start working in the dish-room, like they did. Or, they’ll tell you it’s all about hustling and learning on the go, a trial by fire.
Where Culinary Professionals Start
Starting at the bottom of the culinary ladder, washing dishes, cleaning, learning and supporting kitchen staff is one way to get started in the culinary industry. Many now famous chefs, from television celebrity Gordon Ramsay and restaurateur Thomas Keller, owner of the famous French Laundry, started their remarkable careers as dishwashers. It is a common restaurant career trajectory. And, realistically, even if you do attend a culinary school, there’s a chance you’ll find yourself working as a dishwasher as part of your on-boarding and training. The dish room is critical to the success of any scratch kitchen or restaurant. This is something you’ll learn in culinary school as well as in the field as a culinary professional.
However, what you learn in the dish room, or as a porter or prep cook, is how to do a specific job, at a particular restaurant, with a certain set-up. It’s not necessarily a portable skill set, worthwhile at a restaurant across town. If you’re skilled at one task in a kitchen, you might be considered a cook, and you might do okay. A restaurant manager, chef owner, or executive chef might, instead, value your culinary training over a year in a competitor’s dish room. Working from the bottom might prepare you for the hard knocks of the industry, but it might also instill some bad habits or cap your true culinary potential.
… you can be better prepared for a culinary career in nearly any restaurant, anywhere in the world.
Learn Standards of Culinary Excellence
There are standards followed in the restaurant industry and more than a few traditions. There’s a hierarchy and a language of culinary. You’ll learn these industry standards and the industry jargon you’ll need to thrive in culinary school. By taking culinary classes, getting a baking, culinary or restaurant management certificate, and learning the standards and expectations of the industry, you can be better prepared for a culinary career in nearly any restaurant, anywhere in the world.
Proper, safe, and sanitary handling of food, food waste, and preparation equipment is something you’ll definitely study in culinary school. This understanding of safe food handling and practices will translate to just about any dishwashing job, in any kitchen. It may also help you move from the dish room to prep cook, to line cook and more in a brigade kitchen more rapidly. A culinary education prepares you for more than just working in the kitchen. A certificate or degree from a culinary school can make you an important part of a kitchen team. You may also find opportunities you might not have just starting out as a dishwasher.
The Support You Need to Succeed in a Culinary Career
So, working as a dishwasher is one path to entry as a culinary professional. It may be the right one for you, if school really isn’t your thing. But, it will be a long, hard road which might be a little easier with a little culinary understanding and experience under your belt.
Famous culinary academies like the Culinary Institute of America, Le Cordon Bleu or the International Culinary Institute will provide you with a wealth of knowledge, practice, and applicable skills for working in fine restaurants around the globe. You’ll also wash dishes and clean while you’re learning. These culinary academies will also have certain expectations about what you already know, including basic mathematics, reading, and language skills. If school wasn’t ever for you, you can always consider a community college culinary degree.
Community college career technical education programs, like Laney College Culinary Arts, provide you with the culinary training and the support to succeed in your classes and your career. You’ll find English tutors, Spanish classes and basic mathematics courses which will all prove valuable as you explore careers in commercial kitchens, bakeries, hotels, cruise ships, and catering businesses around the world. Understanding, at least conversationally, both English and Spanish will make you infinitely and almost automatically more valuable in a restaurant kitchen than someone with, say, just English and a culinary degree.
If you’re looking to earn a certificate or a culinary degree, you can expect to be in classes anywhere from three months to two years.
How Long is Cooking School?
Now that you’re considering a career in the Culinary Arts or Hospitality Management, you’re probably wondering how long it will take to become a chef. How long does it take before you’re skilled and ready to start working in the restaurant industry? The time commitment for any culinary education varies. It will depend upon the school, the specific program, your personal goals, and your ambition. If you’re looking to expand your knowledge of basic cooking techniques or learn a specific type of cuisine like Indian or Thai, you can take classes over weekends or during the evenings for a few weeks.
If you’re looking to earn a certificate or a culinary degree, you can expect to be in classes anywhere from three months to two years. The Culinary Arts & Restaurant Management Degree and Baking and Pastry Degree from Laney College Culinary Arts takes four semesters to complete over the course of two years. The Culinary Foundations Certificate offered by Laney College takes two semesters, just about a calendar year.
Certificates, Degrees and Transfer Programs
In addition to certificates, many programs offer Associate of Science (AS) and Bachelor of Science degrees in the Culinary Arts. These programs can take two to four years of full-time study. Many have the same basic requirements as other AS or BS degrees from accredited universities. Laney College is now offering a transfer program for Culinary Arts students. Transferring credits to a four-year university program provides even more opportunities to explore the exciting world of the Culinary Arts in other settings.
Figuring out how long cooking school will take you depends. It depends on your choice of school. What you can pay for tuition and living expenses also matters. Your goals for a culinary education, what you’re looking to accomplish are another consideration. If you’re just exploring careers or aren’t fully committed, you can take a couple of affordable Culinary courses to make a more informed decision. With reasonable tuition, programs like those at Laney College give you opportunities to explore careers without expensive commitments.
“Much, if not all of your culinary education at Laney can be covered by Federal student aid, scholarships, and grants.”
How Much Does Culinary School Cost?
Just like the time it takes to complete an education, the cost of a culinary education depends. Of course, this sounds vague and unconvincing, but it’s true. And, it varies widely. A Cuisine Diploma from Le Cordon Bleu can cost more than $35,000. An Associate of Applied Science Degree in Culinary Arts from the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts costs $37,000, or more, for tuition. Tuition for the Laney College Culinary Arts program, by comparison is $46 per unit. The total estimated tuition cost at Laney Culinary, including the general education units for the Associates of Science degree, is $2,760. Federal student aid, scholarships and grants can cover much, if not all of your culinary education at Laney.
What Will a Culinary Certificate Earn Me?
The restaurant industry is competitive. While there are plenty of jobs, some offer comparatively better working conditions and better pay. The more skills and experience you can offer a restaurant manager or head chef, the more likely you are to get into a rewarding job. As a result, you’ll have rewarding kitchen experiences that will have you striving for more.
Formal training, with trained professionals, and practical experience are both key to finding rewarding and well-paid opportunities. A culinary degree or certificate will give you more options. You can decide for yourself where and how you want to work. With a certificate under your belt and some practical experience in a restaurant setting you can pretty much go anywhere. From restaurants and hotels, to corporate dining or food trucks, the culinary career opportunities are endless with a Culinary certificate or degree.
In the restaurant and hospitality industry, where you work will often dictate the working conditions and the overall quality of the experience. You might earn better pay and work with happier coworkers if you’re working in a Michelin-starred restaurant. The performance expectations will also be comparatively higher. Career-oriented culinary professionals strive and are ambitious. They show drive and a desire to learn. The pay will align with the expectations of the restaurant. Thus, the more skills, expertise and training you have, the more professionalism you bring, the further you can go. A Culinary Certificate will get you a great start. From there, it’s yours to decide. Discover how far you want to go, from a chef-owner or manager to a line cook or sous chef. The opportunities are up to you.
Learn more about the affordable, world-class education with trained culinary professionals at Laney College Culinary Arts by visiting https://laney.edu/culinary_arts/.