Culinary specialties include culinary arts, pastry and pastry arts, and professional cuisine. The Associate in Culinary Arts curriculum emphasizes practice. Students learn to prepare classic dishes in all categories, including seafood, meat, banquets, and pastries. The cuisine of several locations is analyzed to understand Asian, Latin, Mediterranean and American gastronomic traditions.
Studies on wines are included to provide a general understanding of gastronomic pairings. The culinary arts are a broad term that refers to the preparation, cooking, dish, presentation, and serving of food. It applies to foods and their components, such as snacks, side dishes and main courses, rather than to desserts or breads. An associate degree is a very common degree in the culinary arts.
This two-year degree not only provides students with culinary training, but it also provides them with general education in mathematics, writing, English, and communication. Many people use this degree to work as a chef or as a springboard to obtain their degree. Usually, students will learn how to prepare classic dishes, such as seafood and meats, and will also learn about different types of cuisines from around the world. International students can also learn about wine to gain a general understanding of gastronomic pairings.
You will also learn about food sanitation, kitchen organization and how to select and prepare meat, seafood and poultry products for service and their side dishes for each dish. You will also learn to manage people who work in the kitchen, to develop skills in handling knives, tools and equipment, and to prepare items for presentations at buffets, etc. Separating the term, culinary means “related to cooking and the arts”, which refers to any broad area of interest. Simply put, the culinary arts are the arts of preparing, cooking, presenting, and serving food.
Often, this can be in the form of meals in a restaurant, but the culinary arts can refer to all professions that involve preparing, cooking, and presenting food. A career in culinary arts is a career of hard work and creativity, whether you're working in the hospitality industry, the photography studio, the food lab, or somewhere else entirely. You'll need to master the culinary and non-culinary skills listed above to better prepare for any type of profession in the culinary industry.
