An Associates Degree In Culinary Arts Can Lead To A Tasty Career
For those of you that love to cook and prepare delicious meals for family and friends, an associate’s degree in culinary arts will probably be a good fit for you. In your mind, preparing a meal is not about the meal, but rather, is more about the presentation. This degree will give you the opportunity to turn something that you are passionate about into a career. You may even get a chance to run your own kitchen.
In its most basic form, a Culinary Arts Associate’s Degree will give you the skills that are necessary to work in the kitchen of a restaurant or hotel as a professional chef. When you complete this degree, you will have a good basic knowledge of working in a kitchen preparing food for your customers. Additionally, students who complete this degree will have the necessary training to be able to manage and operate their own restaurants.
In order to earn this degree, there are a number of courses that you will be expected to complete. Some of the classes that you will have to complete include the following: Introduction to the Hospitality Industry, Food Preparation, Purchasing, Sanitation, Business Administration, Employee Management, Menu Planning, Wine and Beverages, Baking and Pastry Arts, and Artistic Presentation.
Once you complete this degree you will gain many new skills to add to those that you already have. Some of the areas in which you will gain additional skills include the following: cooking, food preparation, sanitation for kitchens, business, customer service, employee relations, baking and pastry, food presentation, wine and beverage selection, and meal planning.
This field can be very demanding, but it is also rewarding. This will give you a good place to start as a professional chef. Many of the people who complete this degree will go on to earn a more advanced degree in this field.
Those who complete this degree will have the opportunity to work in a wide variety of positions in the food service industry. If you work at a restaurant, you can usually earn a starting salary of between $9.39 and $11.13 per hour. Working at a cafeteria or other institution will earn you a salary of between $7.20 and $11.22 per hour. Chiefs that manage a restaurant or own their own place can earn $50,000 per year or more.
This is an exciting and evolving field. There are virtually no limits to your career once you earn this degree. This field constantly grows and changes, and there is high turnover in this field. Especially at the most exclusive restaurants, competition is very heavy.
