Studying the culinary arts is a dream for many people. After all, whipping up delicious dishes, desserts and drinks is surely a pleasant way to make a living. What’s more, the lessons taught to aspiring professional chefs cover more than just cooking. You’ll walk away with multiple skills that can be used not just in the kitchen, but also in real life.

While training to be a professional chef can be quite fun and rewarding, it can also be a trying experience. You’ll find that the journey will test you both physically and emotionally, so it’s best to learn ahead what you’re getting into to see if you have what it takes to pursue it.

Curious to know if you’re ready for culinary school? Here, we tackle three tell-tale signs of readiness and what you can do to prepare ahead of time.

3 Tell-tale Signs That You’re Ready

When thinking about the degree you'd like to pursue or the career path that's right for you, it helps to observe if you possess a healthy interest or the right qualities and talents for a particular field. Try to look for these three signs to determine if enrolling in culinary school is the best step for you to take:

1.) You love to experiment with food.

Most people know that a perfectly prepared meal is quite enjoyable, and some can even do a decent job of making it based on a recipe. However, a true-blue professional chef not only sees cooking as a step-by-step process, but is also passionate about putting a twist into every meal he prepares.

From coming up with unique flavours to putting extra effort into plating the dishes, you are ready to become a true chef if you find ways to experiment in the kitchen and figure out new ways to apply cooking and food preparation techniques that will enhance the entire dining experience.

2.) You handle pressure well.

As mentioned earlier, working in the kitchen as a pro can be exhausting for both mind and body. In short, it is not for people with frail bodies and weak determination and will.

To be ready for the big leagues, you must be able to handle pressure well.

Chefs need the endurance and physical stamina to spend extended hours working quickly on their feet in an environment that is often very hot.

It is also necessary to develop mental and emotional endurance in this competitive environment as expectations are high, and tensions run higher. If you fail in this aspect, you’re likely to make mistakes, run into conflicts with co-workers, and miss opportunities to display your true talents during your shift.

3.) You have a clear culinary goal.

Motivation is another key tool that chefs use to rise to the top. This means that to be ready for culinary school, you must have a strong desire to become a professional chef or own your signature restaurant. A clear culinary goal gives you inspiration and direction in your studies, not to mention help you decide on a specialisation or niche.

How to Prepare for Culinary School

After determining if you’re truly ready to spend weeks, months, or years learning how to bake desserts or training to cook restaurant-quality meals, you can spend time preparing for your journey in culinary school.

Assess Your Techniques and Skills

Testing your techniques and basic skills in the kitchen is a great way to measure your readiness for culinary school and pinpoint where you stand in terms of learning. Brush up on your knowledge of the metric system and practice visualising the steps of following a recipe.

Establishing a routine of cleanliness by always clearing your work area as you go is also important for an aspiring chef. Remember that in the kitchen, no task is too small, and keeping a clean workstation is most definitely not a tiny errand.

Review Kitchen Terms

In a culinary school kitchen, you’ll hear a lot of unfamiliar terms that your mother probably didn’t use while she cooked the comforting dishes that inspired you to become a professional chef (that is, of course, unless she is a seasoned chef herself).

Considering this, you should review your culinary vocabulary so you won’t be lost when your culinary instructor mentions specific terminologies. For example, common words like “behind,” “heard,” “fire,” and “stage” have different meanings when used in the culinary setting.

Learn to be a Good Student in the Kitchen

To succeed in culinary school, you have to become a good student in the kitchen. That means following rules and protocols and understanding why they were put in place.

You see, there are only a few dangers in the traditional classroom, whereas in the kitchen, you will be surrounded by countless hot surfaces and handling equipment such as sharp knives. The kitchen is also the place where food for other people’s consumption is prepared, so safe food handling practices must be observed. Being a good student in the kitchen is tantamount to keeping yourself and others safe at all times.

Practise listening attentively and paying close attention to what your instructor is teaching you. Know and follow all the kitchen safety protocols and continue working towards improvement, even if you get harsh feedback.

Remember that your future as an excellent chef depends on how diligent you are as a student.

Ready to Learn the Culinary Arts?

Learning the culinary arts may not be for everyone. But if you believe you have what it takes, then it makes sense to aspire to become a professional chef. We at ICCA are here to guide you through your journey in achieving your culinary goals. Send us a message to learn how you can enroll today.

 

For a lot of bakers, the dream to pursue the career starts at an early age. Many of them share that their first encounter with baking is by watching the women in their family baking cookies, pies, or cakes, and getting to lick the batter off the spoons and whisks.

After that, they just come to enjoy the intricate process, the delicious scents, and the sweet treats for the family to share. Eventually, they start baking on their own with the help of their family’s collected recipes and cookbooks and find tremendous satisfaction in their baked creations. This satisfaction then breeds the desire to make baking their source of livelihood.

That is just one example of the early beginnings for bakers, and it's an integral element in preparing them for a path in culinary arts. But, naturally, if you want to become a successful professional baker, you can’t just be fuelled by nostalgia. You need to possess other qualities, five of which are discussed below.

1. True love for food

A genuine love for and interest in food are always a prerequisite for anyone to build a successful career in the food industry. You have to love to eat food and make it.

It's hard to be a successful baker if food doesn't interest you as much. Therefore, a deep interest in and love for baked goods, at the very least, are the perfect foundation for pursuing baking as a career.

2. Willingness to learn

The best bakers are molded by expert instruction. So, enroll in a baking course offered by a top culinary institution. In these courses, you will learn all the baking technicalities, which you will need to make great-tasting bread, cakes, cookies, and other pastries. More importantly, you’ll find this formal foundation very useful once you start developing your own recipes as a professional one day.

Aside from formal education, an apprenticeship program is also important. The opportunity to work alongside experts will help you develop better and more techniques. Another excellent benefit from an apprenticeship program is that industry veterans are very generous in imparting valuable lessons, many of which you cannot find in textbooks.

Learning should be a never-ending process.

To become a successful baker, you need to be humble and recognize that despite your love for baking, your experiences, and all the things you know, there's always room for improvement. 

3. Patience

In the kitchen, situations will not always turn out the way you want them to. The best baked treats usually take countless trials and errors to master. 

All the failed outcomes can be quite discouraging, but patience is the best defense. If you are patient, you'll find yourself in the right head zone to keep on working toward your goals. It will be so much easier for you to outwork setbacks, as well as maintain harmonious relationships with the people working with you.

It's important to mention, as well, that patience is one of the keys to happiness in the kitchen. When you're a baker, happiness with what you do is highly beneficial for your professional wellbeing and helps ensure the people who will consume your baked creations find delight in them.

4. High standards of cleanliness

Cleanliness is a vital commitment for bakers. It's not merely a sanitation requirement imposed by the food service industry, but an absolute must. 

It's the cornerstone of order in the kitchen and in delivering the highest quality of baked products. As always taught in culinary schools, cooking is all about pre-preparation, and it involves making sure that everything is clean before preparing the ingredients and launching into baking.

5. Creativity

Following instructions in baking is definitely essential in achieving the best product quality and consistency. However, creativity is always encouraged — after all, baking is an art. Once you have a solid foundation in baking, exploring where this can take you is the next step.

As mentioned earlier, you should remember there's always room for improvement and trying something new. The dedication to creating something better and different will keep your passion for baking burning. It is integral to maintaining joy and bringing excitement to every new day in the kitchen.

With baking as your source of livelihood, you need to be innovative. This way, you'll be able to prevent your menu from becoming stale and keep your offerings relevant, especially if you think about how food trends change so rapidly.

Where to Study to Become a Baker

If you have set your heart on becoming a baker, sign up for baking courses in Dubai at the International Centre for Culinary Arts (ICCA). We are one of the top culinary institutions in the world, and we offer an extensive range of courses for aspiring bakers and chefs. 

You can choose from both our certificate and diploma programs. Visit our campus to see our special approach to grooming professionals for the food service industry.