How to Choose the Right Culinary Arts School?

Choosing the right culinary arts school isn’t as easy as deciding on a culinary career. With more than 1,000 culinary arts schools and colleges, how do you choose  one and what factors to consider when choosing the right culinary arts school?

Factors to Consider

Firstly, you need to ask yourself some fundamental questions. What’s your purpose of going to culinary  arts schools? What do you aspire to be? Is it to become a chef, hotel manager, pastry artist? Where do you want to work? Hotels, resorts, restaurants, catering, bakeries?

What kind of degree do you want? A certificate or diploma can take from one month to two years. An associate degree takes from nine months to two years, and a bachelor’s degree takes four years.

Fourteen-week culinary programs and three-week tours to epicurean centers such as France and Italy are at the other end of the scale.

Do Your Research

It’s equally important to examine the reputation of the culinary school as well as the resumes of the chefs teaching there. Is the faculty respected in the culinary world? Has the school won any awards or citations?

Where are current graduates working? Many programs proudly list their placement rates and well-known employers of their students.

Another aspect to choosing culinary arts school is to see if the school offers externships or experiential learning opportunities for its students. Usually externships in leading restaurants and hotels are a big part of high-quality culinary arts programs.

If you want to learn seafood cooking, for instance, it makes sense to go where there are many seafood restaurants. Culinary arts schools often have student-run restaurants on campus. There’s nothing like working in a real restaurant kitchen to gain the hands-on experience and knowledge you need to start a culinary career at a higher level.

Accreditation

Accreditation is perhaps the most critical factor to consider. There are several accrediting organizations, reviewed and evaluated periodically by the U.S. Department of Education, such as the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as well as the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology and the American Culinary Federation Accrediting Commission.

This article is written to give you an idea of how to find the right culinary arts schools and colleges out of the many choices.

The above are just some of the factors to consider when choosing the right culinary arts schools. Of course, apart from the school’s facilities and curriculum, the cost of the entire culinary arts program has to be taken into serious consideration too.