Cuisine Artists!“Food, Glorious Food ...”

Ever wonder about food? Especially when you are dining out? Who is preparing the food and what standards do they strive to achieve? Where did they learn the art and science of cuisine?


You may be surprised to learn that many chefs, sous chefs, cooks, maître d’s, restaurant managers, sommeliers, and other food service workers may have completed rigorous Culinary Arts degree programs in a community college, university, or special cooking school.

In these programs, the first priority is health and safety. Introductory courses focus on practices that keep kitchens safe for workers, prepare students for emergencies in the kitchen and dining room, ensure that all consumable foods and beverages are fresh and free of contamination, and guarantee a clean sanitary environment for customers. Students must be certified before they can work in the kitchen.

There was a time when dishwashers could work their way up in the kitchen hierarchy by being mentored and trained by more experienced workers. But that route to culinary success is less common in today’s world. “Modern culinary arts students study many different aspects of food. Specific areas of study include butchery, chemistry and thermodynamics, visual presentation, food safety, human nutrition and physiology, international history, the manufacture of food items (such as the milling of wheat into flour or the refining of cane plants into crystalline sucrose), and many others.”1

In 1879, the first cooking school was founded in the United States: the Boston Cooking School. This school standardized cooking practices and recipes, and laid the groundwork for the culinary arts schools that would follow.1


Since 2002, July is National Culinary Arts Month. It is a time when restaurants, kitchens and culinary schools honor their innovative chefs and cooks and spotlight advances and achievements in the culinary world.2

Even home cooks can join in the festivities by

• Tackle some culinary skills.
• Bring home a new recipe or kitchen tool.
• Watch your favorite cooking show.
• While you’re experimenting in your kitchen, send a shout out to your favorite chef or cook. Let them know you appreciate their talents. Tell them why you keep coming back for more.
• Share the dishes you enjoy most on social media using #NationalCulinaryArtsMonth. If you’re a chef, show off your talent. Foodies want to see your food selfies.

I’ll share one of my favorite foodie Facebook programs: Glen and Friends Cooking. Many of the recipes Glen uses come from cookbooks as old as 1700s. My favorites are the recipes from 1900-1930. Glen focuses on food preparation and banter is at a minimum. He posts the full recipe at the end of the show so the viewer doesn’t have to try to write instructions down during the prep. Glen is a good speaker and his video set-up is excellent so the viewer can clearly see what he is doing. If you have a son, husband or brother who likes to cook, Glen and Friends might be of great interest to them. He has presented recipes for root beer, ginger beer, and maple syrup (from real maple trees), in addition to breads, poultry, casseroles, and much more.
 
Enjoy National Culinary Arts Month by dining out and complimenting the chef, the serving staff, and the managing staff. You might ask them where they learned their culinary arts!


Submitted By
Cheryl Stewart
MOTAL Board Member


Sources
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culinary_arts
2 https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-culinary-arts-month-july/