Do you genuinely love food – so much so that you’d call yourself a “foodie”? Are you interested in cooking? Or are you familiar with cooking ingredients, food presentation, and taste profiles? If so, culinary arts may just be the right degree for you to pursue after you have completed your Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). However, many still do not truly understand what a course in culinary arts is all about.
Culinary arts spans topics such as cooking, food preparation, baking, and activities centred on the kitchen. Careers in the culinary field today are seldom underestimated. In reality, they are valued as professional careers because of the high levels of creativity and commitment involved. Some leading figures in the culinary industry have gone on to become world-famous celebrity chefs who earn millions every year. Think of people like Gordon Ramsay, Bobby Flay, or Jamie Oliver. Once upon a time, they too were in your position – a newcomer eager to start a career in the world of food. Someday, you might find yourself where they are now.
Careers in the Culinary Field
A career as a chef opens up various opportunities in the restaurant, hospitality, cruise and even resort industries. In addition, chefs also have the opportunity to improve their cooking skills, own a food-based business, market cooking products, and publish cookbooks and instruction manuals.
Highly skilled chefs are admired by many, especially chefs who earn the opportunity to work in a five-star hotel. Any individual who works well under pressure, is an adept multi-tasker, has impressive powers of creativity and imagination for producing aesthetically-appealing food, is fastidious about completing simple tasks such as cutting vegetables, and understands details about nutrition will certainly fit well as a chef.
The culinary industry is full of job opportunities all over the world. For example, in the United Kingdom, almost 1.1 million people worked in the restaurant industry in 2018. These people do not only include chefs; they also include assistant cooks as well as restaurant staff members. In the one-year period spanning 2017 to 2018, around 81,000 new jobs were created. This therefore proves that there are many job opportunities for those who are interested in culinary arts.
In addition, the culinary industry, along with the hospitality and tourism industries, is among the largest contributors to foreign trade by way of foreign exchange earnings as well as gross domestic product (GDP). A labour-intensive industry, the culinary arts market is a thriving, diverse one. Today, the field truly needs skilled workers to fill the job opportunities on offer. Graduates of a culinary arts course should thus easily find employment within the industry.
After graduation, a student of a culinary arts course will have mastered the preparation and production of meals according to the required standards. Graduates can then either further their education in more advanced courses, enter a training program, or seek a job.
A successful graduate from a culinary arts course is a culinary professional who is ethical, capable, competitive, and self-disciplined. This highly skilled professional would also be well-versed with the use of different types of modern culinary equipment to fulfill the demands of today’s industry.
Graduates from this field need not restrict themselves to working in a restaurant. They can seek a job in the services, tourism, or hospitality sectors. These sectors work in tandem with the culinary sector, contributing to its continued growth and improvement through well-formulated tactical and strategic plans.
Challenges in the Culinary Field
Among the challenges faced by those in the culinary field is the lack of expertise and skilled teachers and mentors. This is because the industry has not developed as evenly as had been expected; thus, some parts of the industry lag behind in this aspect.
Many in society consider this field of study as one which only emphasizes skills and thus might neglect academic elements. Therefore, to combat this stereotype, many in the field have put forth much effort to disseminate positive impressions about the culinary field. By doing so, they have given the community a deeper understanding about the benefits of the culinary field.
Among the other challenges are the relatively low and slow return on investment. In addition, salary packages provided often cannot accommodate experienced and skilled staff. For this reason, employee turnover is often high. Industrial conditions as well as economic changes also greatly influence the instability found in culinary jobs.
Other challenges of the culinary field relate to the work itself. Those in the field must carefully plan menus, be responsible for kitchen management, maintaining the quality of food, and display creativity and innovation in serving the tastes and desires of customers. Not everyone necessarily possesses all of these important traits.
Join Us to Enter the World of Culinary Arts!
Ranaco Education & Training Institute offers students a comprehensive education in culinary arts. Our Diploma in Culinary Arts provides two years and six months of studies including industrial training. If you are interested in learning more and registering as a student, you will first have to pass your Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) / Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia Vocational (SPMV) with at least a grade of C in any three subjects.
Contact us at any time. We look forward to your entry into our course.
