Entertainment Magazine: Dining: Education: Culinary: Schools

Selecting Culinary Schools

By Austin Brently

Although cooking is usually referred to as the culinary arts, it's also somewhat of a science. 

For not only are you creating stunning new works every day, but you're also experimenting with different ideas, tweaking various recipes, and searching for that optimal combination of ingredients, cooking time, preparation, and execution.

Some people develop these skills naturally.  But for the rest of us, cooking schools are necessary.

Looking for the Right Culinary Schools

Different culinary schools offer different types of training, so before you commit to any cooking schools, it is important to decide which aspect of the culinary arts you want to explore.

Vegan cuisine is very different from the pastry arts which is very different from Asian fusion which is very different from soul food.

Pastry Arts: Pastry Science

If you do decide to look at culinary schools that specialize in the pastry arts, you must mentally prepare yourself for rigorous, detailed work. 

That's because of all the different branches of the culinary arts, pastries demand the greatest precision.  In every way, baking is a science. 

Too few eggs, too much sugar, too little flour... and your stunning bunt cake is destroyed.  Even carefully following the recipe isn't 100% foolproof.  Sometimes formal training and instruction are necessary.

Regardless of what aspect of the culinary arts you decide to pursue, just know that career opportunities in food preparation are expected to be pretty favorable through 2014, according to the US Department of Labor. 

However, it's also important to note that competition for the higher paying jobs will be quite stiff, so mastering the essentials through culinary school is a wise idea.