Take business courses, hotel and motel management or business management courses. A BIG part of culinary school, if you want to be a chef that is, has to do with the economics of running a kitchen. Now if your high school offers home economics kind of classes, certainly take them because the basics of cooking, how to use ingredients, and different cooking methods wont hurt either. But if they do not have classes like that, stick with the business classes. Remember, just about everything you think you know about cooking will become irrelevant when you get to culinary. But the more you know, the better prepared you will be to learn. Culinary is a tough program, but the rewards can be well worth it.

Good luck.

I was considering going to the Italian culinary academy in N.Y. and taking their 7 month course, is this single course enough to put my foot in the door without having any prior experience in the restaurant business?

If you want to 'break into the culinary arts', just get a job in a kitchen. Most chefs, in my experience, will hire people with no experience as long as they have a good positive attitude, are willing to learn and are ready to do anything (basically a stereotypical hard worker). A garde manger type position is usually a good entry level job in a kitchen. Or even just simple prep work. Sometimes you will have to do some pretty menial things… But you have to start somewhere.

Also, the experience you get will help you decide if this is really for you. A lot of people who go to culinary school first then jump into the restaurant industry find out only after making such a big investment that this industry wasn't for them. It's a stressful environment and demands a lot from you, but if you're passionate about it, the rest won't matter.

names of the kitchen utensils used, names of different ingredients to use when cooking, and the different pots and pans.

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Atherton Appliance & Kitchens in Redwood City (the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area) teaches culinary education in addition to selling top brand appliances, kitchen design and Scavolini italian kitchens.

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I am currently going into my Junior year of High School. And I want to become a Culinary student in college, planning ahead of course. I want to major in the Culinary arts and possibly minor in some form of other art.
I also want to go to the Art Institute of Cincinnati.

Do you have any other suggestions of good Culinary schools?

And what can I do to become the best candidate for a Culinary school?

Often times, the best culinary education is just cooking itself. Culinary schools have exploded in popularity, and the loans a culinary student can rack up can be detrimental in comparison to the wages you are paid (at first at least). Most of the best chefs/cooks I know never went to culinary school at all–it's one of those fields where schooling is not necessary for success (unlike, say, medical school).

IMHO, I would go to art school–that is a very vibrant and exciting place to be–and get a part time job as a prep or line cook. Work under the most talented chef you can and be responsive to his/her way of doing things. That is a culinary education in itself, and you'll also glean terrific information, like where you'll want to go to culinary school and what to get out of it, not to mention, making yourself a better candidate for the school of your choice, should you decide to pursue a formalized culinary education later. Cooking is a trade, a terrific one, and perhaps the best place to start is in an apprenticeship, not school. Art, on the other hand, is a mental pursuit. Spend your tuition dollars there first–you'll be buying yourself the time you need to develop the person you want to become.

I hope you find that the two fields will dovetail beautifully. I wish you many successes.

The next time you go out for dinner to a fancy restaurant, take a look at the staff there. Well-groomed, polite and giving timely service, they may seem less in number, but every person has a distinctive job of his or her own. But there are more people involved in the restaurant than those that are visible. From the chef to manager, the restaurant industry would be nothing without these people.

With at least one-third of adults having worked in a restaurant during some part of their life, the restaurant business is said to be the industries largest private-sector employer. According to some studies, the food and restaurant services sector is said to grow nearly 12% each year, with 1.9 million estimated jobs, out of which approximately 47,000 are management positions.

Formal Education

With most people becoming masters in the restaurant industry through sheer experience, having a valid certificate from a good school is an added advantage. Skilled staff is sought after in the restaurant industry, and the compensation is considerably better for those with formal training.

One could opt for any job, in marketing, human resources, food technology, customer relations or even business and finance management. There are courses offered by various hospitality management institutions in each of the given fields, but a person from the business arena could also fit in with management skills. The duration of courses vary from 2-4 years including the area of specialization. Some colleges also offer hand-on experience, as well as an internship. Besides this, some restaurants have their own training services. In this way, employees learn around the clock and excel as time passes.

Major Job Options In The Restaurant Industry

The hotel industry offers greater job options in administration and culinary services, hotel maintenance and marketing. Employees learn the functioning of departments such as kitchen, banquet operations, restaurants and bars. Besides the administration and human-resource functions, a manager’s job also includes recruiting new employees and monitoring the performance of the current.
An individual could be promoted from a front office trainee to a manager and further to a general manager in a matter of months, depending on the quality of work.

Next is the housekeeping department, which sometimes demands working at odd hours, and is ideal for anyone open to working under these conditions.

Coming to the most important part of the restaurant, which is the kitchen, one could work as a chef, managing and overlooking the subordinate cooks or be a food manager, monitoring the food and beverage stocks of the restaurant.

Like any other job, working in the hotel industry also requires dedication and motivation. Irrespective of the experience involved, this would apply whether your giving or being given orders. In modern times, the thinking of a customer has also changed. It is important for a hotel employee to be well groomed and practice good etiquette. Employees should keep themselves updated with the market trends and always explore new ways to enhance the business by offering better service.

There is a famous saying in the industry: “you can train skills but you can’t train personalities”; so let your personality do the talking for you. The friendly banter you may have always enjoyed would come handy when you want to make a connection with your customers. To conclude, if you relish it and the restaurant industry does appeal to you, enroll in a decent course and get a good job in your own city or anywhere in the world.