What You May Learn In Your First Year?
Going to culinary school is an exciting first step in building yourself a career in the food service and hospitality industry.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re traveling to New York to attend the Institute of Culinary Education, seeking out your nearest Le Cordon Bleu facility, or looking at the baking programs offered from your local community college: formal training and education can be one of the best ways to build skills and make contacts in the field.
You can also expect the same basic training during the first few weeks at your culinary school. Although there certainly are variations in what you will be learning as far as specifics go (for example, there will be differences in your curriculum if you will be learning classical French techniques vs. baking), most schools understand that new students are approaching a culinary career from a blank canvas.
Knife Skills
Having good knife skills is important no matter what type of cooking you’ll be doing, since it will give you speed and accuracy in your culinary endeavors. Most schools will begin with knife skills and training in the different types of knives and what they are used for.
Ingredient Familiarity
One of the differences between a cook who goes to culinary school and one who does not is being exposed to new and unique ingredients. You will learn the differences between flavor profiles and how you can use them to make unique culinary creations of your own.
Kitchen Technology
Of course, you’ll need to be familiar with a commercial or restaurant kitchen set-up before you can actually do anything with all those ingredients. Almost all schools will give students time to familiarize themselves with the different types of ovens and appliances they will be expected to use and master.
Kitchen and Food Safety
This is one subject matter that every good culinary educational facility will provide intensive training in. Until you know how to store foods, care for kitchen equipment, and work with sanitation protocols, you are a hazard in the kitchen. That’s why this is often one of the first things you’ll learn.
In most cases, it takes about a month of preparatory training in these subjects before culinary students really begin to delve in the subject matter of their choosing. It’s important to remember, though, that until these basic foundations are built, you can’t really begin to become the best possible chef you can be.
Troy Ronnell Cherry
Thank you for the awesome insight into the Culinary World I love and am interested in joining for School and my Career.
G. Stephen Jones
You are welcome and thanks for reaching out.