What Type of Jobs Can I Pursue with a Culinary Arts Degree?
Career News July 24, 2014It’s difficult to land a chef’s position at a major restaurant without years of training. While the food business remains an area with job positions available at the high school graduate level, entry level is usually confined to dish washers, servers, and prep cooks.
Those who have advanced through the stages of preparations, line cook, and sous chef still must take mandatory classes before acquiring a head chef’s position. Very often, the company will pay for these classes. A growing number of applicants to the food business have taken a shorter route to complete their chef requirements by attending a culinary arts school first.
A chef’s position is not the only job you can get with a culinary arts degree; however, culinary arts jobs are open at every level of the hospitality sector. While some jobs in hospitality are available at an Associate Degree level, the higher paid and most dynamic occupations require a Bachelor’s Degree in the Culinary Arts. Short, specialized classes in culinary arts include bartending, pastry making, and baking.
The Food Conscious Public
Good food and good health go hand in hand. The public today has become conscious of the value in healthy foods and safe food preparations. As the tendency to eat out continues, so does the tendency to choose healthy prepared food items. Culinary arts jobs are expected to grow throughout the year 2018.
A significant portion of the culinary arts degree courses is devoted to food safety, food handling, and nutrition. Culinary arts jobs are available for those who have studied healthy nutrition and menus for hospitals, senior citizen’s centers, and school cafeterias. They may specialize in specific diets, such as diabetes, obesity, gluten or dairy sensitivities, and vegetarians.
Culinary arts jobs for degree applicants are available in the packaged foods industry. Their job consists of preparing and testing new prepared food offers, packaging foods using high-quality safety standards, and delivering healthy, packaged foods to restaurants and grocery stores.
Culinary Arts Jobs in Research and Development
A culinary arts degree can be combined with a degree in culinary science. This prepares you to work with research food production facilities. Your culinary arts job would be in the side by side testing of traditional food production techniques with new models.
You would learn how to prepare culinary quality products for small and large scale production systems, using the latest known science-based knowledge of food safety and quality. You may participate in the formulation of new recipes and test them. You would learn scientific terms to label their nutritional values.
Exploring Your Skills
A degree program prepares you for culinary arts jobs at the management level. You will learn how to work with a team, give instructions to employees, organize a kitchen, and prepare menus. Part of your course work will be dedicated to mathematics and business procedures, teaching you how to work within a budget, keep expense records and invoices, and keep track of daily sales. You will learn the hospitality skills required for bed and breakfast ventures, lodging, conventions, and banquet dining and catering.
With a culinary degree, numerous opportunities exist within food services. Depending on your interests, you could create specialized dietary plans, work in a sports facility or a health food bar, prepare international cuisine on a cruise ship, or service business luncheons. You may decide the competition for becoming a Master’s Chef is formidable, but there’s an exciting future in hospitality management, food production research, or opening your own business.
