passionwithfood wrote:
> Hey everyone! Im a 15 year old from NJ. For a while now Ive been
> considering a career in the foodservice industry. I've been mainly
> looking at two schools: The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson
> and Wales University. Im asking around for opinions on culinary
> schools. Anyone suggest one of these two schools or even another one?
> I'd appreciate it. Thanks
I went to the Culinary Institute 1982-1984. It has probably changed a
lot since then, but here goes. I had a number of complaints about the
school. The biggest one at the time was the amount of group work and
group responsibility. You were almost always working in a group of at
least 3-4, and you always had a teacher who didn't have time to know the
students individually. If something or someone screwed up, you got
yelled at mercilessly. In no time, we all ended up letting the person
who knew how to do it already (whatever "it" was) do it so we all didn't
get in trouble for screwing up. That's not a great way to learn.
The school was trying to do a lot of things at once. We got
introductions to gourmet cooking, wine, cost controls, catering,
service, line cooking, management, prep, bar tending, food writing and
food research, nutrition, restaurant design, meat cutting, food safety,
baking, equipment buying, etc. That could be good or bad depending on
how you look at it. On the one hand, a student didn't get out of the
culinary institute with enough expertise in any single area to be really
good at it unless s/he had a lot of experience in that area going in.
The high paying job on graduation wasn't going to happen. On the other
hand, you did get a taste of enough different jobs within food service
to know what you might like to pursue. It didn't work for me. At first
I looked at that long list of yummy things to learn about and thought
I'd love it, but as time wore on, I got sick of never getting enough
practice in any one area to feel like I was really good at it.
I didn't think the teachers at the Culinary Institute were very good.
The system was set up in a way that each student had each teacher for
7-14 days at a time before moving on. If you got a good one, you didn't
stay there for long. No teacher was ever with a student long enough to
discover strengths, weaknesses, the best teaching method for the
individual, etc. A lot of time was wasted in adjusting to new teaching
styles, new ways of organizing jobs or getting used to where things were
kept in the new kitchen.
Aside from Johnson & Wales and the Culinary Institute of America, there
are lots of places to learn about food service that can jumpstart your
career. I'm working with a young woman now who attended the vo-tech
high school the area which has a program. From everything she's told
me, and from observing her work habits, I'd say she got an excellent
program. She's organized, efficient, clean, observant, able to follow
directions and a recipe. She keeps telling me stuff her teachers taught
her, and it all sounds good. This is a wine and cheese shop, not a
restaurant, but she's far and away the best of the parttimers when it
comes to setting up the little bit of food prep that we do. (We all
have our areas of expertise. Some really know the wine inside out; some
are great with the customers or the bookkeeping. Some are better with
decorating platters or displays. She and I are best at food prep and
cheese.) I'd say the public high school's program is pretty good. It
might not equal the Culinary Institute on some of the fancier items, but
it is still an excellent program.
Still, there's a lot to be said for moving away from home, living in a
dorm, getting out on your own in small steps, and a school like Johnson
and Wales or Culinary Institute do provide that.
I'd suggest doing some web research, maybe google on "New Jersey
culinary programs" or something like that to find web pages on schools
in your area. Talk to graduates. Whatever you do, finish high school
with good enough grades to get into a big state school. That way you'll
have options whatever you decide.
--Lia
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