Why Italy

Is culinary school vital to someone looking to break into the culinary arts?

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?

Public Comments

1. If you want to be a chef, and have no formal experience or training, then culinary school can be a great way to give you some credibility.
2. 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.
3. bachelors degree can easily equal an associates degree w/ experience which can also easily equal no degree w/ even more experience just because you have a degree doesnt mean you will land a position quicker... you need experience too. to tell you the truth, when i am hiring, i do not usually look at your education. experience is the first thing i look at on resumes. i can teach an employee certain knife skills and such, so if they have experience, and do not know something, i am willing to take the chance and teach them. some of my best chefs do not have any formal education and have gone on to work for world famous restaurants once receiving the experience EXPERIENCE EXPERIENCE EXPERIENCE!!!