Cooking Up a Delicious Career

By Austin Brentley
Career Colleges Columnist

If you're the one in the family who loved making breakfast for everyone when you were twelve years old, you may have the ingenuity, creativity, and inquisitive nature to become a successful chef. A culinary arts education can place you on a path that really goes somewhere. Culinary training at a top-notch school can launch you on your way -- but it's a long way to the top. The hospitality industry is booming. To thrive in it, chefs need stamina, a strong work ethic, and a thirst for knowledge.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment for higher-skilled chefs and cooks will keep pace with U.S. job growth through 2014. Positions in casual dining establishments will grow faster than average, which means if you hope to compete for the higher-paying, more prestigious positions as a saucier, pastry chef, sous-chef, or executive chef, you'll need to complete a culinary arts education to level your playing field.

The good news is that people with culinary training through dedicated culinary schools are in demand across all sectors of the dining industry, including at fine restaurants, bistros, hotels, spas, resorts, cruise ships, and specialty stores. You may begin in a preparatory role, or as an assistant cook, but if you work with dedication, there is often swift upward mobility in the profession for those who have taken specialty courses as part of a well-rounded culinary arts education.

The Exceptional Diversity of the Culinary Arts Education

Depending upon your choice of culinary school, your training can include a wide range of specialties, including menu planning, baking, desserts, soups and sauces, entrees, fine wines, and confections. Today you can find culinary courses that cover a wide range of traditional European techniques combined with state-of-the-industry American fusion. In addition to baking schools, you can choose among culinary schools that focus on Italian, French, Mexican, Vegetarian, Thai, Chinese, and Japanese cooking.

It pays to have experience in cooking and to have completed some form of higher education prior to enrolling in a culinary school. According to the BLS, many chefs begin their careers by taking short-term culinary courses at vocational school. But the executive chefs and head cooks who toil in fine dining establishments almost certainly pursue a two or four-year education at schools offering certificate and degree programs in culinary arts. The great unsung benefit of many culinary training programs lies in the customary internships students take at working restaurants and hotels as part of their overall culinary coursework.

Stepping up to the Plate

For many would-be chefs, the grand slam in a culinary career is attaining a head-chef position with a select and private bistro, a well-regarded hotel, or a top-scale, prestigious restaurant. Be patient. Most chefs will tell you that it took them years to reach the top. They'll likely tell you as well that their culinary arts education never ends.

If you're fortunate enough to work in an intermediate role in one of these establishments, your culinary training typically continues through partnership with a working mentor in the kitchen. Patience, endurance, and your own spark of creativity can take you far.

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