Forum: Author Hangout

Culinary Arts Degree

PotomacBob 🚫

In a WIP, I have a character whose family owns a restaurant. This character wishes to get an education in culinary arts. I need information about how many years it would take to get a culinary arts degree and how much it would cost. I've checked more than a dozen websites. Every one of the websites make you provide your name, address, phone number, etc., before they will let go of that information - presumably so they can try to recruit you.
Does anybody know of a place to get such information without signing away my firstborn?

Replies: samuelmichaels Lumpy helmut_meukel Dicrostonyx richardshagrin Paladin_HGWT

samuelmichaels 🚫

@PotomacBob

This site shows an associate degree in "less than two years":
https://www.ciachef.edu/cia-culinary-arts-associate-degree-program/

Lumpy 🚫
Updated:

@PotomacBob

This info is about 10 years old, but I got a Culinary Arts Degree. They are generally associates degrees and take 2 years, although some people get bachelors (more of a focus on hospitality management for the extra 2 years). Cost is usually between 20k and 50k for the 2 year program.

Keep in mind, that wouldn't get you either a chef or sous chef job right out of culinary school. Even after that, you have to put years at near minimum wage in various prep jobs, and then more on the line, before finally moving up to sous (who make about 30k, or did 10 years ago). 5ish years of that, you can start looking at head chef jobs at smaller places (none of the big places), or I guess trying to find someone to bankroll you, although that usually requires more than just 5 years and kind of a name.

helmut_meukel 🚫
Updated:

@PotomacBob

The situation is very different between countries throughout the world.
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland it's first a 3 year apprenticeship parallel to a vocational school (4 days/week as apprentice + 1 day/week school).
After a few years as journeyman, additional courses (full-time or part-time) at cookery schools for a degree as "Küchenmeister" (Maître de Cuisine).
"Küchenmeister" or "Küchenchef" are equivalent to the French "Maître de Cuisine" or "Chef de Cuisine" and the English/American "Chef".

The Wikipedia articles are regrettable country specific, to get information about the situation in other countries, you often have to search in the local Wikipedias, most articles even have no or very few links to other languages.

HM.

Dicrostonyx 🚫

@PotomacBob

The following is very vague, but I was chatting with a Hilton chef just a few weeks ago.

He didn't say which school he went to, but he was on a full scholarship for a three-year, year-round program that covered all applicable costs. The school even paid for him to fly home twice a year to visit family.

When I saw him he looked mid-20s and was running most of the breakfast buffet cooking -- omelettes, pancakes, French toast -- for an Airport hotel, so whatever else he learned, he clearly had great time management skills.

richardshagrin 🚫

@PotomacBob

Graduates need to be careful about how their degrees get abbreviated. I doubt I would want to be a CAD having a culinary arts degree. BBA and MBA are not a problem, but everyone knows what BS is and MS is more of the same and PHD is piled higher and deeper.

Paladin_HGWT 🚫
Updated:

@PotomacBob

Culinary Arts Degrees vary quite a bit. From a two year "Associates" degree, often at a local "community college" or "Voc Tech" then there is "McDonald's U" primarily for management trainees and franchise-ees (my friend's niece started at the bottom at McDonald's in the 90's, she went through the McDonald's U program; she was an assistant manager before she graduated high school, and bought a new car as her own graduation present. I think she went to McDonald's U after high school. She later became a Chef, and is in restaurant management. I lost track of her about a decade ago, but she really took advantage of opportunities and worked hard! She bought her first home some 5 to six years after high school.)

Cordon Blue and other prestigious Culinary Arts programs have multiple programs from months to years.

Family owned restaurants can be an education of themselves. Mentoring by a well educated family member (or other person) may be better than most schools. Experience of doing all of the various jobs in a restaurant may mean your character may transition from student to Sous Chef, or a similar job (having already worked their way through the jobs that a person who has only had schooling is likely to have to do).

Droolaid corrected me, it is "Hamburger U" not "McDonald's U" whatever the name, I believe that graduates of there probably have a better outcome than a majority of people who went to most colleges and universities in the USA.

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Forum: Author Hangout

Culinary Arts Degree

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