Earning Certificates in Culinary Arts

Certification is a great way to give yourself the gift of expertise in a particular area of food preparation. Certification courses will not give you a well-rounded, overall culinary education, but they will add oomph to your resume by indicating a special, intensive skill in a particular arena of the culinary arts.

There are a variety of certificates that are available to the interested student, and it investing in one or two of these can go a long way in complementing your pre-established skills. A well-chosen and applicable certification can be the deciding factor in getting you that dream job.

Most certifications take a minimal amount of time to achieve. Some of the more intensive certification courses take up to 30 weeks to complete, but most are far less time-consuming. Some take less than a week!

A few examples of culinary arts certificates:

• Food & Beverage Management Certificate: This certificate will provide you with a crash-course in managerial skills, from bugeting and accounting to hiring and supervision skills. Learn how to delegate responsibility in a busy restaurant setting, organize employees, and ahost of other management skills. You will also gain a thorough knowledge of health codes and regulations, as well a state and national liquor laws.
• Wine Professional Certificate: Become a wine expert - not only for the benefit of your resume and career, but for the pure enjoyment! Students earning their Wine Professional Certificate will learn much more than just how to pick a nice red or create a proper wine pairing with the evening special. Wine making methods are divulged in these courses, as well as an intimate knowledge of wine regions and soils, growing and fermenting conditions, and much, much more.
• Culinary Educator Certificate: Perhaps you have already achieved your degree in culinary arts, and have realized that your goal is to fuel the imaginations of future chefs! In that case, a Culinary Educator Certificate will help get your foot in the door of culinary institutions, where you can pass your hard-earned skills on to the next generation.
• Master Chef Certificate: This certificate will provide you with advanced skills in the kitchen. Particular focus is given to gaining proficiency with a variety of kitchen appliances, as well as expert measuring, unique and stylized presentation, and a sharpened ability with international cuisine. A Master Chef Certificate will also provide you with the knowledge and skills to execute meals on a variety of scales, from intimate dinners to lavish buffets.
• Chef de Cuisine Certificate: This certificate will provide youwith a balance of important restaurant-business skills. Not only will this certificate indicate a proficiency with employee supervision and budget management, but this program will also provide you with menu-planning skills and a foundational knowledge for creating original recipes.

These are but a few of the certifications available to the enterprising culinary arts student. Be advised, however: A certificate is not a short-cut to a culinary arts education. They merely serve valuable accents to your foundational culinary education, which is best achieve through a degree program.