With
a boom in Tourism, the employment in the field of Hospitality is expanding at
an incredible rate. The field of Hospitality offers terrific career choice to
students looking for creativity, job satisfaction and wide variety of job
options. Nowadays various courses have entered in Hospitality Market which comprehends
the candidates to meet industrial requirement. Some of these courses are
Hospitality Management, Hotel Operations, Hotel Management, Housekeeping
Operations etc. But do you know apart from these courses “Culinary Art” is the new and exhilarating field evolved which
fulfills the need of the candidates aspiring to be a chef.
What is culinary art?
Culinary Art
is the art of cooking. The word ”culinary” is defined as something related to,
or connected with cooking or kitchen. A culinarian is a person working in
culinary arts. Culinarian working in restaurant and hotels are commonly known
as Cooks or Chefs
We
all know that food is a basic need of our existence. Through centuries we have
acquired a wealth of information about the use of food as a part of our
community, social, national and religious life. It has been used as an
expression of love, friendship and social acceptance. There is saying “If
the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to
eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony”. Culinary
artist are responsible for skillfully preparing meals that are pleasing to
palate (viz. appearance, flavor, texture, aroma) as to eye. Becoming a
culinarian is not very difficult and not at all easy. One is required to remain
on feet almost constantly for long hours which may include weekends, evenings
and holidays. Inspite of these negative aspects, there is a high level of
satisfaction in this field.
The
present employment trends show a drastic fall in skilled chefs both due to
increase in Food activity as well as lack of trained personnel. Culinary Art
can be identified itself as specialization course in Hotel Management Education
with proper direction and goal. The course is premeditated as per industrial
requirements which cover three main areas of Food Production namely Hot
Kitchen, Cold Kitchen, Bakery and Patisseries. The students are imparted with
theoretical and practical training sessions but emphasis is made more on
practical skill development. Students are stuffed with lot of inputs about various
topics like Nutrition & Food Hygiene in relation to HACCP (internationally
accepted safe food handling procedure), Menu Planning, Food costing, Pricing
Strategies, Cost Control, Communication skills and Personality Development. The
students are also given an exposure to Industrial Training in Hotel which enables
them to learn all the basic technique of food production and thus allowing them
to provide an entire range of classical, regional and international dishes.
They are also encouraged to explore their own style and creativity.
Being
a Chef, I have always felt that path to become a chef requires passion and
strong determination to sustain in this demanding and ever challenging Hotel
Industry. Unlike other management courses available, students passing out with
Professional Culinary Art Degree enter the industry with good quality and class
of professionalism.
Scope of Culinary Art
The
culinary-arts industry is growing, and it offers myriad career opportunities in a variety of sectors, including hotel,
restaurants, travel, hospitality and recreation. Even Cruiseline industry has acknowledged
Culinary Arts Graduates as Trained Personnel in food Preparation and
presentation with safe food handling procedures. Hotel Industry has also
started various training programme like Kitchen
Executive Trainee (KET), Kitchen Management Trainee (KMT), Hotel Operation
Management Trainee (HOMT), Culinary Associates, Trainee Demi Chef de Partie,
OCLD (Oberoi Centre of Learning & Development) for the candidates who
possess strong desire to walk on Culinary path. These training programmes can
be the period of 2-3 yrs. After successfully completion of these training
programmes the candidates are promoted to a supervisory level. A chef with extensive experience may be promoted to Sous chef and gradually Executive chef, a part of the managerial
team running a dining establishment. Occasionally, in smaller establishments,
the executive chef serves as the general manager.
There are other wide
varieties of opportunities in the culinary arts profession. Below is a
non-exhaustive list at some opportunities available to those interested in
working as culinary professionals.
- Food and Beverage Controllers - Purchase and source ingredients in large hotels
as well as manage the stores and stock control.
- Consultants and Design Specialists - Works with restaurant owners
in development of menus, layout and design of dining room and kitchen.
- Salespeople - Introduce new products and are
able to demonstrate the proper use at equipment to business owners. They
may sell any range at products needed in the industry from various food
products to equipment.
- Teachers
- teach others
how to pursue goals in culinary arts.
- Food Writers
and Food Critics - Establish a public contact with
the public on food trends, chefs and restaurants. Many write for newspapers, magazines and some publish books.
- Food Stylists
and Photographers - Work with magazines, books,
catalogs and promotional and advertising to make them visually appealing.
- Entrepreneurship. Many culinarian develop their own
business with examples including restaurants, bakeries, specialty food manufacture (chocolates, cheese etc).
