You can choose between two chef schools located in Birmingham.
Birmingham is a college town at the end of the Appalachians that is home to schools such as the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Miles College and Samford University. Only a few people may know that the "Magic City" is also home to chef, or culinary, schools. Earn a degree in one of the city's culinary schools and begin your career working in places such as hotels, restaurants or casinos.
Schools
Two culinary schools are located in Birmingham. One of them is Culinard (culinard.com), which is the Culinary Institute of Virginia College, and the other is The Culinary and Hospitality Institute of Jefferson State Community College (jeffstateonline.com). Both of the school's culinary programs are accredited by the American Culinary Federation, with Jefferson State Community Colleges' being the longest ACF-accredited culinary apprenticeship program in the state.
Programs Offered
Both of the schools offer prospective students different programs from which to choose. Culinard has a culinary arts program and a pastry arts program, both of which lead to a diploma.
The Culinary and Hospitality Institute's Hospitality Management department offers a degree with four options, including culinary apprentice, foodservice/culinary management, baking and pastry and hotel/motel management. A foodservice/culinary management certificate program is also offered.
What You'll Learn
If you take Culinard's culinary arts program, some of the things you'll learn are sanitation and safety, produce high-quality food products and proper techniques in cooking. The pastry arts program teaches things such as pastry chef techniques, wedding cake disciplines and math necessary for making pastries and baking.
Some of the things you'll learn in The Culinary and Hospitality Institute's culinary apprentice and foodservice/culinary management courses are foundations of baking, meat preparation and processing and advanced food preparation. In the baking and pastry course you'll learn about chocolate and truffles, plated dessert design, cake decorating/design and specialty breads. The hotel/motel management course covers topics such as housekeeping administration, beverage selection and appreciation and front office management.
Course Length
Culinard's culinary arts program and pastry arts program are intensive, 36-week programs. The school offers its students day and night schedules.
You must complete 147 semester hours of classes in the The Culinary and Hospitality Institute's Hospitality Management program, which also includes the general education courses such as English and Community Health or First Aid/CPR, and major courses such as Basic Food Preparation, Sanitation and Safety and Food Purchasing.
Tags: arts program, Culinary Hospitality, Culinary Hospitality Institute, Hospitality Institute, Culinard culinary