Culinary Arts Research Guide

The Culinary Arts Research Guide is a pathway to research tools and resources. In this guide, you will find articles, books, eBooks, media, and open-access sources to assist you with your projects and assignments in your Culinary Arts courses. This guide will help you navigate library resources whether you are an online student, dual credit, hybrid student, or attending in-person.

Culinary Art

The field of culinary art refers to preparing, cooking, and presenting food. As culinary artists, culinarians, cooks, or chefs, culinary art professionals do more than cook food; they live and breathe everything food-related. They create dishes that are sensory experiences, appealing to one's taste, smell, sight, sound, and touch.

This means that culinarians prepare food that not only tastes delicious but also is visually appealing, gives off delightful aromas, and more. They even prepare some dishes in such a way, so the foods are heard before they are seen, such as fajitas sizzling, or have an appealing texture, such as crunchy fried chicken or silky cream pie, to delight the senses of sound and feel, respectively.

Most work in kitchens is demanding and stressful. Culinary arts careers sometimes require long hours spent on the feet in hot, crowded, and often busy spaces. Those who perform well under pressure are best suited for culinary careers such as cooks or chefs. Those considering a traditional career in the culinary field should be prepared to work long shifts, weekends, and holidays. Those who prefer to work standard nine-to-five schedules in quiet, less-restrictive atmospheres should look at other food-related jobs such as photographers, writers, or marketing professionals.

Culinarians receive an education by working in the field and/or attending special culinary arts schools. These types of schools prepare aspiring culinary artists for employment in various food-related positions in restaurants, bakeries, and catering businesses, among others. In addition, some culinarians may find themselves working in food-related jobs outside the kitchen, such as food stylists, sommeliers (wine stewards), and more. Instead, these jobs may require education beyond culinary school or a traditional college degree.

From EBSCO: Culinary Art by Harmon, Angela, Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2020