Posted by Big AL on June 20, 1997 at 05:16:17:
I am quite grateful for the insightful responses that I
have received to my first posting. The persons that are
reponding to this message board clearly are very
knowledgeable and are veterans in thier fields. What I
am trying to understand is why there is such discontent
for Culinary education. I am refering mostly to many of
the responses that I have read to other postings. In my
present career, we laugh at most of these engineers that
are hired right out of college, they think they know
everything and have no sense of what the real world is
like. I believe this is due to the lack of practical
application of all the book knowledge they have received.
But when I was looking for a Culinary program, every
single institution I looked into REQUIRED several
thousand hours of on the job training under the direction
of an Executive Chef. I only wish every other degree
program had the same standards. I personally never
expected to come out of school and say "I'm a chef now
so hire me!". Most cooking jobs I have been looking at
ask for experience AND/OR Culinary Schooling. I have
learned a great deal from both school and working.
I think I would be frustrated if I were to hire someone
without the basic skills needed to do the job. Where is
a person going to get those skills? I mean no disrespect
to anyone that may have written one of those responses,
I am just trying to understand for my own self improvement.