The ABCs of Commercial Cooking
by Jackie Bondanza
If friends look forward to your extravagant Friday night dinner parties so they can check out your latest take on beef stromboli, and chuckle at your personal rendition of EMERIL LAGASSE's climactic "bam!" then you may be on to something: a career in commercial cooking.
The ABCs...
Commercial cooking involves planning, organizing, cooking, and preparing food for large quantities of people. Commercial cooks work in school and hospital cafeterias, food service departments in grocery stores and corporations, catering businesses and large restaurants to churn out delicious and nutritious meals to millions of people.
Commercial cooking doesn't just involve catering and cafeterias, though -- it also involves the manufacturing of convenience and pre-packaged foods, which, let's face it, have become increasingly more popular over the years in our "on the go" environment. Popular among working people of all ages nowadays is packaged everything -- from waffles and pancakes to gourmet dinner entrees and desert delicacies -- all of which you'll have the opportunity to create as a commerical cook for the too-busy-to-cook consumer.
As a commercial cook, you'll also most likely have to deal with food and equipment distributors on a regular basis, and should therefore have good communication and marketing skills. Commercial cooks also have to ensure ingredients and meats are fresh and of high quality, which requires attention to detail and knowledge of the restaurant business in general.
Where to begin?
As you can see, commercial cooking is challenging, but like any career, can be ultra rewarding once you get a feel for the field. Training from one of the many prestigious commercial cooking schools in your geographical area will certainly get the ball rolling in your commercial cooking career, and will give you the confidence you need to succeed in the field.
Many commercial cooking schools offer abridged programs requiring as little as 600 hours, while others offer longer, less intense, programs requiring closer to 900 hours. In any instance, most commercial cooking schools are very hands-on, and will require an externship. While it may sound intimidating, doing an externship in the commercial cooking industry is just as exciting as it is intense. You will no doubt hone a variety of skills while completing your externship, and become more skilled in you craft by working with professionals in the field.
In addition to an externship, a typical core commercial cooking curriculum includes some variation of the following classes: Quantity food production, catering, restaurant operations, food purchasing, food sanitation and an introduction to commercial cooking class, where you'll learn all the basics including menu planning and cooking techniques.
Move it!
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the food and hospitality industry is growing at a faster than average rate and will be through 2014, which means that all those talented food artists out there (you!) are in demand and will be for quite a while. So get going!
The ABCs...
Commercial cooking involves planning, organizing, cooking, and preparing food for large quantities of people. Commercial cooks work in school and hospital cafeterias, food service departments in grocery stores and corporations, catering businesses and large restaurants to churn out delicious and nutritious meals to millions of people.
Commercial cooking doesn't just involve catering and cafeterias, though -- it also involves the manufacturing of convenience and pre-packaged foods, which, let's face it, have become increasingly more popular over the years in our "on the go" environment. Popular among working people of all ages nowadays is packaged everything -- from waffles and pancakes to gourmet dinner entrees and desert delicacies -- all of which you'll have the opportunity to create as a commerical cook for the too-busy-to-cook consumer.
As a commercial cook, you'll also most likely have to deal with food and equipment distributors on a regular basis, and should therefore have good communication and marketing skills. Commercial cooks also have to ensure ingredients and meats are fresh and of high quality, which requires attention to detail and knowledge of the restaurant business in general.
Where to begin?
As you can see, commercial cooking is challenging, but like any career, can be ultra rewarding once you get a feel for the field. Training from one of the many prestigious commercial cooking schools in your geographical area will certainly get the ball rolling in your commercial cooking career, and will give you the confidence you need to succeed in the field.
Many commercial cooking schools offer abridged programs requiring as little as 600 hours, while others offer longer, less intense, programs requiring closer to 900 hours. In any instance, most commercial cooking schools are very hands-on, and will require an externship. While it may sound intimidating, doing an externship in the commercial cooking industry is just as exciting as it is intense. You will no doubt hone a variety of skills while completing your externship, and become more skilled in you craft by working with professionals in the field.
In addition to an externship, a typical core commercial cooking curriculum includes some variation of the following classes: Quantity food production, catering, restaurant operations, food purchasing, food sanitation and an introduction to commercial cooking class, where you'll learn all the basics including menu planning and cooking techniques.
Move it!
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the food and hospitality industry is growing at a faster than average rate and will be through 2014, which means that all those talented food artists out there (you!) are in demand and will be for quite a while. So get going!
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