# Associates degree or Bachelors degree? Culinary Managment or Culinary arts?



## rocktrns (Mar 14, 2010)

I'm in my senior year of high school and I am a cook at a hotel.  I was thinking about going to The Arts institute,but there too expensive and I don't want to be paying off loans.  So I will be going to a Community College.  I want to be an executive chef,but I don't know if I should get a associates or bachelors or if I should get a degree in culinary Management or just Culinary arts or should I get a degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management.  Can any of you chefs tell me what type of degrees you all have and what degree you suggest that I get?  Will I have less of an opportunity to get a job going to a community college vs CIA?


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## theunknowncook (Dec 17, 2009)

I am not a "chef," for the word "chef" in the french language simply means "boss." Nothing more nor less. It has nothing to do with one's cooking ability or lack thereof. I have an A.S. degree in Hotel Management, and Certificates in: Restaurant Management, Culinary Arts, and Baking and Pastry Arts. I am weary of repeatedly reiterating my point that neophytes or dilettantes should recognize the difference between cooking as an avocation and cooking as a vocation. Employers do not care about which school you attended. They only care about your: work experience, job-skills, work-ethic, punctuality, dependability, sobriety, civility, and the lowest wage that you are willing to work for. What is more important than any school degree these days, is *ACF Certification*. European cookery students do not attend any prestigious, private cookery schools, but they typically do apprenticeships, while attending a vocational school concurrently.

I advise you to consider the following options:

*ACF Apprenticeship*, you will get 3 years' work experience, wages, and a 2-year degree in Culinary Arts, Culinary Management, Food Service Management, depending on the school.

If you forgo the apprenticeship option, then consider:

*Schoolcraft College*:

*Culinary Arts,* *Course Descriptions*

*Culinary Management*, *Course Descriptions*

*Grand Rapids Community College*

*Cal Poly Pomona*

*UNLV*

Good luck.


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

rocktrns said:


> ...I want to be an executive chef,...


That is very similar to saying:

I want to be a CEO, or
I want to be a General or Admiral, or
Senator/Congress person/President
Becoming an Executive Chef has very little to do with one's culinary skills and very much to do with:

Personnel management (human relations, labor management & relations, labor law)
Inventory and cost control (accounting)
Profit & Loss (Financial management)
Business liability (law and insurance)
Marketing (business management)
Investor relations (for those with partners or investors) (Sales management)
and a host of other, non-culinary skills.
An advanced culinary degree/certificate/diploma, in some cases, may even be a roadblock to your goal of becoming an Executive Chef as some may consider you to be too narrowly focused.

IMHO, you will NEVER become n Executive Chef by cooking well, you will become one because you have the ability to MANAGE two or more culinary production units simultaneously.

BTA, WTHDIK!


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## rocktrns (Mar 14, 2010)

Thank you for the advice.


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## yogibear118 (Jul 17, 2012)

Everything the man says is true but you have to have the opportunity of being an executive chef and the way you do that is to get noticed. How do you get noticed? Every task you are given you do it correct and in a timely manner, including cooking. You need to understand that you will grow over time in any place you work, you have to be a sponge and absorb everything around you and ask why things are done. Not just "thats the way you do it" thinking. That is how you will learn to be a "chef". After many many years of blood sweat and tears maybe you will make 900 bucks a week, about what a manager makes at Mc Donald's. so don't do it for the money. If you like to cook be a line cook on the side because as an executive chef you will rarely do it. Special breed.


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## etherial (Sep 22, 2013)

Wow, well said.


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## parisjordan (Aug 19, 2013)

Yogibear118 said:


> Everything the man says is true but you have to have the opportunity of being an executive chef and the way you do that is to get noticed. How do you get noticed? Every task you are given you do it correct and in a timely manner, including cooking. You need to understand that you will grow over time in any place you work, you have to be a sponge and absorb everything around you and ask why things are done. Not just "thats the way you do it" thinking. That is how you will learn to be a "chef". After many many years of blood sweat and tears maybe you will make 900 bucks a week, about what a manager makes at Mc Donald's. so don't do it for the money. If you like to cook be a line cook on the side because as an executive chef you will rarely do it. Special breed.


Very nice info shared.


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