Culinary school, this is aimed at Simplex..

I've been interested in culinary school before I got into high school. I am not planning on every going to culinary school unfortunately, but I was curious as to how it starts out and how it progresses. How do people go from knowing not much to being able to use Chemistry to create different things; and when does a chef pick up techniques like emulsification etc?

Thanks for the input, I've been really curious about all this for awhile, just never found anyone in culinary school.
:hungry:

I haven't gone to culinary school, but I generally understand how most of them work from talking to people who went and/or taught. This doesn't apply to every single culinary school, a few are much better than others (generally if it has a restaurant that you must work in to graduate, it's decent).

Most of the time you will do a recipe, like hollandaise, once. In optimal conditions. And if you screw it up, you probably won't get a chance to try it again unless you do it on your own time. You won't lose any points for screwing it up, because they want you to 'graduate' pretty badly.

The good schools will teach the science behind the techniques (I believe On Food & Cooking is a required textbook at CIA), but most of them will just show you how to do something, give you a chance to do it once, and move on.

As far as going from 'knowing not much to being able to use chemistry', if you mean advanced stuff like sous vide, foams, etc. I'm not even sure they teach that stuff in most culinary schools. I'd imagine you'd need to learn that stuff from books on your own or by talking to/working with chefs who utilize those techniques. Emulsions are pretty common (mayo, dressings, hollandaise, etc.), so you would probably get used to using those pretty early in any school.

Basically from what I understand, a chef's knowledge doesn't come because their parents told them they had to get a degree so they spent $40,000 on culinary school. It comes because they really want to learn something, so they learn it. Even at school, 90% of how well you do is going to be based on how much effort you put in above and beyond what's required.

I'm not saying you can't learn anything in culinary school, especially if you go to the right one, but long before anyone thinks about dropping the $$ on it, they should be ready to put the work in, because if you really want to be in this business, that's all there is.

Didn't Terra go to culinary school?

Niga pretty much hit it right on a tee. What you get out of culinary school is half based on what you personally put into it. I will disagree alittle on the fact that its extremely easy to pass. My school (French Culinary Institute) had six levels and you needs to pass a final technique evaluation and test for each level. At the end of level 2 you a required to attend HACCP training classes and have to pass the test to become ServSafe certifed. Also you are given a midterm and final, which are based on dishes that you have worked on in the schools resturant LE'cole. They are judge by ex celeberty allumn and are pretty tough i must say but in a good way. So for an example i had 17 students in my class and 3 failed their final.
As for techniques they are a part of the course and thats what school is based around and u start to learn them on day 1. After stocks i think mayo is like the first thing you have ot learn so it goes from basic and then more advanced.
As for the chemistry part, inbetween each level there is a 2 week course in soemthing. 1 for saftey 1 for wine and 1 for chem. etc. The "chemisty" part is tought to you by Dave Arnold who is Wylie Dufresne(Chef Owner of WD-50) brother in law. So its a 2 week basic course. People who are intrested in this kinda stuff will join 1 of the schools 100 clubs and learn more there. Also the schools library is pretty fucking nice and theres plenty of info there. Or everyday they have demos in our theater done by celeberty chefs. It is announced what they will be teaching/making and a decent # of chefs did something gastro. Like i said school is half of what you put into it.
I personally took Classic culinary arts, 2 week bread course, and an extra win course. It wound up costing $47,000 and that didnt include travel which was probaly another 3k. I live on long island.
If you intrested in learning more check out this video from my school. It gives you alot of detail on how the school runs what the classes are like, and what you get out of it. Pretty accurate imo.
Cooking School Video | French Culinary Institute, NY (http://www.frenchculinary.com/french-culinary-institute-video-tour.htm)

I will disagree alittle on the fact that its extremely easy to pass. My school (French Culinary Institute) had six levels and you needs to pass a final technique evaluation and test for each level.

I didn't mean to suggest there aren't any decent culinary schools like the one you went to, just that they are few and far between. A big thing now is the "Le Cordon Bleu accredited" diploma factory, where it's very clear that they just want your $40,000. And shitty or decent, they all cost about the same.

And that's the other thing they don't tell you when you sign up: when you get into the business after school, there is a 99.9% chance you will be making nothing more than the guy next to you who didn't go to school, but you're $40,000 in debt and he's not. Whether or not you make decent money in this line of work is a function of what you do with your skills, and making food will only be some of the ones required.

Very true and depends on what kind of resturant you want to work in / own. My first job in a professional kitchen before i went to school was at chessecake factory. I was very knowledgeable and good with technique even then but the spanish guys got paid more then me cause they were machines and great "cooks", but far far from a chef. Those guys could follow a cooperate recipie, but have them create something on their own besides eggs and hot sauce they know shit.

Having a degree in culinary is exactly like a college degree. In the past 5-10 years a degree for the most part means dick. Its never a bad thing to have, but its all about knowing the right person or being a great promoter of ones self to excell. Most of your expeirence will come outside of school in the kitchens you work in, however I still enjoyed culinary school and do recomend it.

I'm guessing written English isn't a huge focus at culinary school.

Not at all =). Im not good with grammer, but i do consider myself smart. I just dont read much which is my downfall

Thanks for the info niga and simplex; pretty much satisfied all my curiousity.

an ex girlfriend of mine went to culinary school.

one of the cooler parts about it was that it seemed like they really provided a ton of different opportunities for externships and job opportunities.

While I'm all for extra learning and really think that an official school can be great if you are 100% motivated.

I think $40,000 (I assume that's just for tuition) is a bit ridiculous though...

But as mentioned I am sure that you get better connections during/after graduation--if you want to break into being a sous chef then a head chef at an award winning well known restaurant, this is probably the most promising way to break in. This as opposed to working your way up from dishwasher over many years or just working at a smaller restaurant and hoping an opening/break comes upon you.

I very highly doubt any huge fancy restaurant will hire a fresh grad JUST because they went to a culinary school, but you might get an internship, do well there, then get a permanent job, or get a good recommendation, etc. Basically the school would just be an "in" even though you could probably learn everything you need for a lot cheaper.

$40k still seems like a lot...I'm guessing these aren't 4-year full time programs even?

I actually am finishing up my application for the CIA and already applied to JWU. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

and the CIA is 32k a year. i think Cordon Bleu is around 40k, i know it's more expensive then the CIA.

32k a year at CIA? holy crap

Did you get some sort of scholorship? After room and board it was gonna cost me over 60. And they wanted me there for 4 years to take regular college classes, which I already took. I had my associate degree in Resturant and Hotel management, so thats why i went with FCI plus its got ranked better than CIA.

no i haven't gotten any scholarships. 60k a year at CIA?? no way. i visited FCI it was pretty nice. i ate at L'ecole it was awesome.