A career in culinary arts can be challenging and rewarding. It involves a blend of creative and analytical skills that you don’t often find in other careers! Whether you pursue culinary arts or pastry and baking, there are some things you need to learn before you can start your career. You’ll need to know how to measure ingredients, how to safely prepare food, and how to visually prepare your creations to awe and inspire. Working as a cook or baker makes you part scientist and part artist. It requires attention to detail, artistic creativity, and using math and science to create beautiful food. The great news is there are quality programs out there designed to teach you these skills and more. Whether you want to work in a bustling restaurant or start your own meal prepping business, read on to learn more about how to get started on a culinary arts career path.
Learn about Dorsey College’s Culinary Programs!
Why Choose Culinary Arts?
There are a variety of paths you can take once you begin studying culinary arts. Some people may choose to obtain on-the-job experience and continue their education and go on to pursue a career as an executive chef or private chef. Others may prefer to manage a restaurant, provide strong leadership and bring creative menu ideas to the table. Some culinary arts graduates pursue this career path so they can launch their own businesses, baking or cooking foods their customers love.
There are even more opportunities out there, too. People who pursue culinary arts careers can also go on to become:
- Restaurant managers or supervisors
- Pastry chefs
- Head chefs
- Caterers
- Bartenders
- Sous chefs
- Food stylists
Because there’s such a wide variety in career titles, you can also expect a variety of work settings to choose from if you pursue a culinary arts career. After you earn some culinary training, you can apply to work in:
- Restaurants
- Food trucks
- Small businesses
- Bakeries
- Amusement, gambling, and recreation facilities
- Households/cooking for families
- Hospitals or other healthcare facilities
- And more
For people who want excitement and a change of pace in their daily routines, a career in culinary arts could be worth pursuing!
Why pursuing a culinary arts career may be for you!
This may seem obvious, but to succeed in a culinary arts career, you should have a good sense of taste and smell. Other things can be taught in a quality culinary arts program. In this career path, your job will be to come up with delicious and unique flavors that dazzle your customers. The culinary arts industry also requires:
- Strong communication with customers and coworkers
- Dexterity and hand-eye coordination
- Good time management
- Strong business sense and skills (especially if you want to run your own restaurant or business)
- Physical stamina (you will spend a lot of time on your feet!)
- Leadership skills
If you don’t have these skills yet, that’s okay. An accredited culinary arts program can teach these skills through coursework, hands-on training, mentorship, and more. In fact, many employers prefer you to have some culinary training before you start working in the industry.
Getting Started in Culinary Arts
If a culinary arts career sounds like a fun and exciting avenue you’re ready to pursue, it’s time to learn more about what training you need for your career goals! Here are the steps you should take next to get started in your culinary or baking and pastry career:
- Research the culinary arts industry and choose a specialization
- Train in the area you want to work
- Build a network and make connections
If you follow these three steps, you’ll be well on your way to a culinary arts career you love.
Step 1: Research the Industry and Choose a Specialization
As you can see, there are dozens of different careers to choose from in culinary arts. A lot of people choose to specialize in areas such as:
- Baking and pastry
- Holistic nutrition and wellness
- Hospitality
- Beverages
- Food safety and education
So how do you know where to begin with your own culinary arts career? A good first step to help you narrow things down is to consider what you want to do at work. You can do this by jotting down some quick notes or visualizing yourself at work in the future.
Step 2: Train in the area you want to work
Now that you have a sense of the type of work you’d like to do, it’s time to get some training. The next step is to enroll in a culinary arts program or a baking and pastry program.
A culinary arts program curriculum will look different from the coursework expected in a pastry and baking program. The two culinary programs teach different skills and concepts, though both focus on culinary fundamentals, food service operations, safe food preparation and sanitation practices.
If you choose a culinary arts path, you can expect to learn:
- Inventory control
- Regional and international cuisines
- Kitchen management
- And more
On the baking and pastry side of culinary training, you can expect to learn:
- Bread making
- Plated desserts
- Cakes and cake decorating
- Baking science
- And more!
A basic culinary arts or pastry and baking culinary career training program can take 1-2 years to complete. Part of this time can be spent in real kitchens to gain valuable experience. This is the part of the program where it’s important to start making connections.
The culinary industry places great emphasis on experience. Someone just starting in the industry, such as a recent culinary school graduate, is unlikely to start as a “chef.” After graduating from a culinary program and gaining a few years of experience in the culinary industry, you may be able to pursue advancement opportunities within the industry.
Step 3: Build a Network and Make Connections
There is more to culinary arts careers than learning how to cook or bake! A big part of working in this industry is communication and people management. No matter where you work, you’ll be on a team.
By pursuing a culinary arts career, you could learn from some of the best chefs in the business. You may shadow a chef as part of your externship and can learn tips you may not learn elsewhere. Or you may learn how to decorate cakes from an expert with a beautiful eye. These opportunities are key to helping you build your culinary arts or pastry and baking career.
Challenges Faced in a Culinary Arts Career
Every work environment has its challenges, and that includes culinary arts. A few things to keep in mind about this career path:
- You will spend a lot of time on your feet. Physical stamina is an important part of the job!
- You will work with people and customers, including people who may be unhappy with your food creations or service. Keeping a cool head and learning conflict management and de-escalation techniques is important.
- Unpredictable hours may be part of the gig. This can include working weekends or early mornings, or even overnight shifts.
- Hot conditions are part of the job as you work around hot stoves or ovens. Staying hydrated should be top of mind.
- Mental health can be a challenge as some culinary arts careers can be high stress. Learning how to balance your work life and your home life and “unplug” when you’re off the clock will be crucial skills.
If these challenges seem like a heavy load to you, it’s important to remember you’re not alone! Achieving success in a culinary arts career or baking and pastry career comes by overcoming challenges through connections, support, and mindfulness.
Dorsey College is here to help you with your culinary arts career!
Dorsey College is here to help you reach your career goals! We offer a culinary program and baking program at our campus in Roseville, Michigan. Graduates can finish a program in just one year and with real-life kitchen or bakery experience under their belts! Learn from experienced instructors and connect with other students through our robust learning experience. Click the button below to learn more and take the first step towards your culinary arts career today!
The Culinary Arts program at Dorsey College – Roseville campus is programmatically accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation.
The Baking and Pastry Arts program at Dorsey College – Roseville campus is programmatically accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation.
Contact information is as follows: American Culinary Federation Education Foundation’s Accrediting Commission, 180 Center Place Way, St. Augustine, FL 32095, telephone: (800) 624 – 9458.
