# george brown college



## bmw3 (Apr 2, 2004)

anyone here goes to george brown college in toronto or knows about it? how is it? i will be attending it next year and i am very excited right now


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## timba (Jun 7, 2004)

Hello there I attended George Brown College three years ago and with effort and a lot of patience you will succeed. I was in the Culinary Management program and although I have worked in a lot of restaurants over the years this program offered me the basic knowledge I needed to survive in this industry. 
If you are not working in a restaurant now I highly recommend you take a position in one as soon as possible. Nothing can train you better than a hands on job. 
Just remember, the chefs on the food network may look clean and laidback but in reality it is a tiresome dirty job with long hours and not the greatest pay. I would not change it for anything, it is truly satisfying. 

Best of luck and may you be the next great chef of our time.


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## headless chicken (Apr 28, 2003)

I was there a couple years back for the pastry arts coarse and will be returning for chef taining this September so I may see you there, just look for the guy with the IBM laptop  Which program will you be attending?

Its a pretty good school, be wary of hidden fees though. CPR + Sanitation are compulsory yet not part of the tution fees. Equipment wise, quite up-to-date, havn't run into a situation where the school didn't have something we needed, enough of something, or something that didn't work. Teachers and faculty are pretty good and helpful less a few individuals (buisness comm and my nutrition profs weren't very good). The school itself is pretty straight forward so you shouldn't get lost. I do recommend you attend orientation and do a tour prior to attending classes, get to know some of the other students and teachers, familiarise yourself with the labs (basement floor) and such.

You'll enjoy yourself, believe me. I had the best year @ GBC. My real name btw is Matthew Wong (photo: http://photo.thetechzone.com/data//504/110me1.jpg?5632)...you now know 1 persson.

*EDIT*
http://www.gbrownc.on.ca/Marketing/F...hool/H104.html <-- link to Chef Training outline.


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## bmw3 (Apr 2, 2004)

i will be attending culinary management ... is pretty hard to find a now since i have no experience at all in the industry ... i can't wait until starts ... this is the first in my life i am actaully looking forward to going to


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## headless chicken (Apr 28, 2003)

http://www.gbrownc.on.ca/Marketing/F...hool/H100.html <--- Culinary management

I didn't take this course though I have considered it. I do however, have a friend who attended this coarse and it/was working at the Skydome as an event orginizer, dealing with the food being served during special events.

Your first semester looks uncanny like the 1st semester for chef training and some similarities in the second semester. The Patisserie Production Management is fun, you get to take over production of 1 of the baking classes for the day. You make up whats being produced that day, manage a schedule, a price break down, dividing the class into teams, etc. A tip for this, have 1 extra item for a team to produce if they finish quick and if other teams don't require extra help. I was the first to be chosen to do this (typical of me to be the guniepig) so I learned the hard way. Make sure to make all the nessesary preperations like doing the recipes first, alter them for mass production, and check off ingredients that the chef/prof needs to order ahead of time (they all need to go through them anyways). Your lucky if you get Chef Gallacher.


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## hadeija (Aug 25, 2004)

Hello Everyone,
I am glad i found this site because i begin school on sept 7 (george brown) for the culinary management program and i could really do with some advice from someone who has been there or is planning to go in for the same course. I also notice that most of the schools (atleast in ontario) offer diplomas for the courses not actual degrees. What do i have to do to become a fully certified chef or pastry chef. And does having a diploma in culinary management qualify you as a chef or atleast put you on the road to becoming one. Thanks for taking the time to reply!
Also i wanted to know if anyone knows how far up George Brown is rated. Is it considered to be one of the better/top schools for culinary arts/management? :chef:


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## headless chicken (Apr 28, 2003)

IMO, George Brown pretty good but over rated. A lot of people who I speak to speaks wonders of the school but have never attended, what they speak is through rumors and what they hear. I'd still go, in fact, I'm still going only because I can't afford to go anywere else as all the other schools are either too far or too expensive. The top school here in Ontario, I heard, is Stradford University, chef training is $20k there. A few other schools you may want to look up is Liason College and Humber College. 

To become a certified chef, you should apprentice for 3 years pluse 1 year of schooling or visa versa. You'll also need your health and safty ceftification as well as your CPR and basic first aid training since it is now an industry standard to obtain both. Those 2 will be required by you to be done and passed to obtain your degree or certificate @ GBC. The school will hook you up with that.

Good luck to you in Sept. Hope to see you there! I'm in Chef Training. 
And if you get Higgins and/or Gallacher, your a lucky bastard!


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## hadeija (Aug 25, 2004)

Thanks for replying. I am about to call George brown now because it turns out that the course i am going in for, culinary arts,nmay not be the best for what i want to eventually end up as, a pastry chef . I am going to call for some more information but i will kneep u posted. It would be cool to already know someonw when i get to school so look me up. My name is Adeola.


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## headless chicken (Apr 28, 2003)

Their baking ans pastry arts isn't bad though, in city, I don't know of any others. I took it a couple years ago, not a walk in the park and they really emphisize on team work as you must take up a new partner every 2 weeks, in fact, everything you do revolved around team work (I usually got along with everyone less the slackers).

I also would like to be a pastry chef but I want knowledge in cuisine as well hence why I'm returning for chef training. If you decide to still go to GBC, look me up, Matthew Wong







. Or you could stand at the top of the atrium and yell HeadlessChicken


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## mirepoix man (Jan 26, 2002)

FYI..after 3 years of apprenticing, you are eligble to write your "Cook's Papers" exam, through the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. If you get 75% you will obtain your RED SEAL, which recognizes you as a cook, not a Chef. Becoming a Certified Chef de Cuisine is "administered" by the CCFCC. You might want to ask Chef Langley at GBC about that. As for CPR and First Aid, you should really focus on getting Sanitation certification, which is far more valuable, because, if you don't know how to handle food safely, well, food poisoning is nasty, and some times fatal!


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