Welcome!
For new and returning culinary arts students, this is where you should begin: a general overview of what the coming year is going to be like, what you’ll need to do to have a successful start, and some other general-type information. It’s short, sweet, and to the point.
Read all of it.
Competencies – Not Multiple Choice Tests
Last year, we started the process of moving away from graded classroom assignments and towards making Culinary a KNOW/ DO/ VALUE class. You are graded on what you learn, sure. But you are also graded on what you can DO and whether you are adopting and internalizing the VALUES that every professional in the restaurant or hospitality industry thinks important.
For example: you may KNOW how to shut down the dishwasher, but when you do it you miss a few steps. Worse, you only shut down the dishwasher at the end of a cooking day if chef expressly DEMANDS that you do it. What you KNOW has to impact what you DO and both of these things are driven by what you VALUE. Get it?
Towards this end, we’ve narrowed our focus to THREE BIG GOALS. Everything you do in class and every homework assignment you are asked to complete does one of THREE things:
- it prepares you for a career in the hospitality industry as a chef or FOH professional,
- it helps you pass industry certifications like the ServSafe Food Safety Manager Exam or ProStart Certificate of Achievement, or
- it helps you earn a scholarship or win a competition (which is basically the same thing)
Anything that doesn’t do one of these three things has been cut from the course. We are LASER-FOCUSED on helping you advance your career (whether you stay in the restaurant business or go on to do something else entirely!).
How are we doing that?
WE TRAIN FOR COMPETENCY: There are ten competencies that every student will be graded on, from Culinary 1 all the way through Advanced Gastronomy. We are more concerned that you build this knowledge, skills, and values than your ability to make a French Omelet or a Croquembouche. The competencies we are looking to build in you are:
- Knife skills and knife care – carrying, sharpening knives, using a honing steel, setting up a cut station, cleaning a knife after use, able to complete all classic knife cuts with efficiency and accuracy
- Appearance and personal hygiene – our students are ready to cook quickly after entering the kitchen: clean chef coat worn properly, kitchen shoes, hair covered, clean apron, proper nails, no jewelry, hands washed – every time.
- Attendance and timeliness – kitchen staff who don’t come to work don’t have a job very long. Our students must show a sense of urgency, they must follow up on their commitments, they must plan for their own absences; being late means you are getting a low score on this one – better be on time!
- Sanitation and cleanliness – Our students must learn and PRACTICE working clean; leaving kitchen ready for next staff; deep cleaning equipment when necessary, cleaning up after spills or messes; when your chef calls “Housekeeping!” you quickly and efficiently clean your work station and get back to cooking.
- Recipe mastery – our students carefully read, understand, and follow commercial recipes/ formulas ACCURATELY; can adjust a recipe up or down; can identifying doneness indicators and timelines
- Food costing – our students can determine how much it costs to make a recipe; determine AP and EP, portion, recipe, and menu cost; math can be challenging but we work with ALL our students and EVERYONE can learn to do this.
- Food handling – our students are careful with ingredients; always practice accurate measurement, safe storage of unused supplies or prepped food; our students minimize waste, avoid TT abuse and cross contamination
- Key cooking skills: each level of culinary has a number of key cooking skills which should be mastered that year. See your instructor for a list
- Key recipe skills: each level of culinary has 3-10 recipes which must be memorized so the student can reproduce that item on demand
- Communication and Professionalism: working in a team, accepting and giving positive criticism, leading and being led, attempting to improve personal performance without becoming negative or defensive
LESS READING, MORE DOING: For all students, we have streamlined “book work” to just a few assignments, with class time devoted to teaching the concepts or cooking and VERY LITTLE CLASS TIME TO DOING HOMEWORK OR COMPLETING ASSIGNMENTS. This means we will cook and do industry preparation more than ever before. This also means you will have homework that you will actually have to do at home. There won’t be MUCH of it, but there will be SOME.
UNIFORMS
Chef coats aren’t “loaned out.”
In Culinary 2, all our students receive a coat that is yours to keep for the duration of your time in Culinary. The only reason you would need to return it is if you choose to withdraw from the program prior to your senior year.
Supplies aren’t “loaned out.”
Stemmed thermometers, cooking shoes, and sharpies are the individual student’s responsibility to get and bring into the kitchen each day. You have a locker. Use it.
Don’t ask to borrow tools from Chef. We can no longer afford to keep “loaning out” additional tools – students are responsible for bringing what they need on cooking days.
EVENTS
We primarily teach industry skills by arranging for our students to do real-world catering. We provide food for LOTS of people and in order to pass the course, students are required to be ACTIVELY involved.
- Culinary 1 – 4 events/ 16 hours per year
- Culinary 2 – 6 events/ 24 hours per year
- Culinary 3 – 8 events/ 32 hours per year
- Culinary 4 – 10 events/ 40 hours per year
No student has to participate in all events and Chef Bates understands that sometimes, personal issues bar involvement and individual circumstances have to be taken into account. However, successful progression DEPENDS on active participation and all mandatory events come with a graded component.
COMPETITION
Spots on the competition team are in short supply – more students want to compete than we have competitions for them to compete in. Every serious culinary student should seriously consider trying out for one of our competition teams! Why? Competition Team members receive many perks including:
- use of the Mustang Cafe for lunches (when not being used by the event staff)
- first dibs on all field trips
- first dibs on job opportunities
- first dibs on paid internships
INTERNSHIPS
Each Summer, we offer 10 excellent students (16 years or older) the opportunity to get a paid summer job working at the Wekiva Youth Camp, an overnight kids camp in Wekiva Springs State Park. It is only available to rising sophomores and juniors and is a great way to fast track your experience and build a resume.
GET READY FOR CLASS
There is a small supply fee for the course ($50 for Culinary 1 students and $100 for everyone else). There are also some personal supplies you will need to get: safe kitchen shoes, a thermometer, and a couple other small things. You can do that by clicking the links below:
The last thing you have to do is review the rules by which we operate – in the classroom, in the kitchen, and while we are catering at events. We have a longer syllabus than most courses because we DO SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF THINGS! During the first week of school, we’ll go through this document carefully… but you and your parent or guardian are going to be signing a contract that says you understand it and agree to follow the procedures inside.
May as well give it a look over early, right?
