4 Tips For Finding A Great Culinary College?

Answer 1

Attending a good culinary college can make it easy to find a great job in a world-class kitchen. However, it’s sometimes hard to tell the good cooking schools from the bad ones, especially if you’ve never applied to a culinary college before.

Class size is particularly important in culinary college, because new cooks will have a variety of weaknesses and strengths that require special attention from class instructors. Generally, it’s best to look for culinary colleges with small, 10-15 person classes. Be sure to carefully research this before applying to any school or college. Class size will definitely affect your ability to learn and the speed of your education.

The best culinary colleges are very well-known, and part of what you pay for when getting an education from these schools is their name on your resume. Top kitchens will care more about the name of the school that you went to, so try to look for a culinary college that’s well regarded and well known in the industry. If you aren’t sure, do some research, and ask friends who cook or the chef at a local restaurant. These colleges can be more expensive, but you’ll find it much easier to get a high-paying job once your education is completed.

Realize that there’s a big difference between a culinary school and a culinary college. A school usually doesn’t provide a degree, and the degree is what the best kitchens look for. A diploma is not a degree--it doesn’t imply the same amount of education, and it won’t be taken as seriously (although a diploma can still be very useful when trying to get a cooking job, especially if the diploma is in a specialized type of cooking).

Last but not least, look for a culinary college that is accredited. Accreditation is not automatic, and it’s certainly important--from your potential future employers’ perspectives, of course, but also if you ever want to further your culinary education by attending additional schools. Without a history at an accredited culinary college, you might find it hard to further your cooking career, and after all, that’s the point of culinary college in the first place.