Culinary arts offers ever expanding opportunities for exciting careers ranging from chef to sommelier. Not only are there a variety of careers to choose among, you can work in a number of venues including restaurants, cruise ships, and hotels. With an Associate’s Degree or special training in culinary arts, you can even move between the culinary industry and the hospitality industry domestically or globally.
Creative Cooking Careers!
People who choose to enter culinary arts studies often do so because they enjoy working with food and beverages while using their creativity. Careers in this field give you a chance to express your passion for dishing up great recipes while serving others which is what the hospitality industry is all about. You can pursue a career as a:
Restaurant chef
Bakery or Patisserie chef
Convention center food coordinator
Sport arenas food and beverage director
Café chef
Catering director
Instructor in culinary arts
Sommelier
Fine dining chef
Cruise line chef
Corporate event coordinator
Food arts director
Country club chef
This is just a sample of the types of jobs you can qualify for once you complete your studies in culinary arts. You will notice that many of the careers involve much more than just cooking in the kitchen! You can assume positions as a chef, department manager, events coordinator and entertainment director also as your career progresses. Chefs usually oversea the preparation of food, supervise kitchen staff, manage food and kitchen budgets, and coordinate with other facility managers.
A Great Career Starts with Education!
There are several educational paths to choose from when you wish to begin your studies. Some students choose to attend a vocational certificate program at a culinary school that takes approximately a year to finish. There are programs at prestigious culinary institutes, or you can also pursue a 2-year Associate’s Degree in
Culinary Arts or Food Services Management at an accredited university or college. Students can also earn Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Culinary Management or Hospitality Management with culinary arts being a core component of the program.
Today you can attend a traditional school or you can take some classes online. All programs are a blend of learning and hands-on instruction.
The online programs are often accessed by people who need classes for degree completion and have completed required cooking lab work elsewhere or are seeking continuing education. But there are online culinary arts programs that use technology such as live webcams and web based instructional videos for program delivery. In those cases the degree can be earned online.
Pick a Career Path that Suits You
A typical career path would be to begin working as a restaurant cook or kitchen worker, progress to a lead cook position, become a chef, earn a promotion to a lead chef position or specialize as a pastry chef, Sous chef and others. Executive chefs manage kitchens with large staff and high meal volumes.
The salaries for beginning chefs or cooks are good, and you can quickly increase your income with experience and continuing education and specialization. According to PayScale, a head chef or cook earns between $26,000 and $39,000 annually. An Executive Chef at a hotel earns somewhere between $44,000 and $76,000.
What is interesting to note is that the salaries in the various hospitality businesses are similar. That is good news for you because it makes it easier to seek a position across industries and find the ideal job.
If food and beverage preparation and management is the career you want then a culinary arts degree is a great choice!
