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Culinary arts are the
cuisine
A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...
arts of
food preparation
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...
,
cooking
Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science and craft of using heat to Outline of food preparation, prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric ...
and
presentation of food, usually in the form of
meal
A meal is an eating occasion that takes place at a certain time and includes consumption of food. The names used for specific meals in English vary, depending on the speaker's culture, the time of day, or the size of the meal.
Although they ca ...
s. People working in this field – especially in establishments such as
restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
s – are commonly called
chef
A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...
s or
cooks, although, at its most general, the terms culinary artist and culinarian are also used.
Table manners
Table manners are the rules of etiquette used while eating, which may also include the use of utensils. Different cultures observe different rules for table manners. Each family or group sets its own standards for how strictly these rules are ...
(the table arts) are sometimes referred to as a culinary art.
Expert chefs are in charge of making meals that are both aesthetically beautiful and delicious, which requires understanding of food science, nutrition, and diet. Delicatessens and relatively large institutions like hotels and hospitals rank as their principal workplaces after restaurants.
History
The origins of culinary arts began with primitive humans roughly 2 million years ago.
Various theories exist as to how early humans used fire to cook meat. According to
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
Richard Wrangham
Richard Walter Wrangham (born 1948) is an English anthropologist and primatologist; he is Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. His research and writing have involved ape behavior, human evolution, violence, and cooking.
...
, author of ''Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human'', primitive humans simply tossed a raw hunk of meat into the flames and watched it sizzle. Another theory claims humans may first have savoured roasted meat by chance when the flesh of a beast killed in a forest fire was found to be more appetizing and easier to chew and digest than conventional raw meat.
Culinary techniques improved with the introduction of earthenware and stoneware, the domestication of livestock, and advancements in
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
. In early civilizations, the primary employers of professional chefs were kings, aristocrats, or priests. The divide between professional chefs cooking for the wealthy and peasants cooking for their families engendered the development of many cuisines.
Much of the study of culinary arts in Europe was organized by
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (; 1 April 1755, Belley, Ain – 2 February 1826, Paris) was a French lawyer and politician, who, as the author of ''The Physiology of Taste'' (''Physiologie du Goût''), gained fame as an epicure and gastronome: ...
, a man famous for his quote "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are", which has since been mistranslated and oversimplified into "You are what you eat". Other people helped to parse out the different parts of food science and gastronomy. Over time, increasingly deeper and more detailed studies into foods and the culinary arts has led to a greater wealth of knowledge.
In Asia, a similar path led to a separate study of the culinary arts, which later essentially merged with the Western counterpart. In the modern international marketplace, there is no longer a distinct divide between Western and Eastern foods. Culinary arts students today, generally speaking, are introduced to the different cuisines of many different cultures from around the world.
The culinary arts, in the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and state (polity), states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. , as a craft and later as a field of study, began to evolve at the end of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
period. Prior to this, chefs worked in castles, cooking for kings and queens, as well as their families, guests, and other workers of the castle. As
Monarchical rule became phased out as a modality, the chefs took their craft to
inns and hotels. From here, the craft evolved into a field of study.
Before cooking institutions, professional cooks were mentors for individual students who apprenticed under them. In 1879, the first cooking school was founded in the United States: the Boston Cooking School. This school standardized cooking practices and recipes, and laid the groundwork for the culinary arts schools that would follow.
Tools and techniques
![Cooking with Allagash](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Cooking_with_Allagash.jpg)
An integral part of the culinary arts are the tools, known as cooking or
kitchen utensil
A kitchen utensil is a small hand held tool used for food preparation. Common kitchen tasks include cutting food items to size, heating food on an open fire or on a stove, baking, grinding, mixing, blending, and measuring; different utensils a ...
s, that are used by both professional chefs and home cooks alike. Professionals in the culinary arts often call these utensils by the French term "batterie de cuisine".
These tools vary in materials and use. Cooking implements are made with anything from wood, glass, and various types of metals, to the newer silicone and plastic that can be seen in many kitchens today.
Within the realm of the culinary arts, there is a wide array of different cooking techniques that originate from various cultures and continue to develop over time as these techniques are shared between cultures and progress with new technology. Different cooking techniques require the use of certain tools, foods and heat sources in order to produce a specific desired result. The professional kitchen may utilize certain techniques that a home cook might not, such as the use of an expensive professional grill.
Professional study
Modern culinary arts students study many different aspects of food. Specific areas of study include
butchery
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...
,
chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
and
thermodynamics
Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of the ...
,
visual presentation,
food safety
Food safety (or food hygiene) is used as a scientific method/discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from t ...
, human
nutrition
Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...
, and
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
, international history, menu planning, the manufacture of food items (such as the milling of wheat into flour or the refining of cane plants into
crystalline sucrose), and many others.
Training in culinary arts is possible in most countries around the world usually at the tertiary level (university) with institutions government funded, privately funded or commercial.
Professional Culinary Arts Programmes are curated educational and skills studies over a 3-year period with select Universities and Hotel and
Culinary schools
A cooking school is an institution devoted to education in the art and science of cooking and food preparation. There are many different types of cooking schools around the world, some devoted to training professional chefs, others aimed at amate ...
.
See also
References
Bibliography
* "Cooking Schools 101". Cooking Schools. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 September 2013
* "History". Of Culinary Archives & Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 September 2013
* "History of Culinary". Culinary Arts information RSS. N.p., nd. web.17 September 2013
* "History of Culinary Arts". Culinary Arts Information RSS. N.p,. web. 17 September 2013
* "The Culinary Timeline". The Culinary Timeline. N.p,.web. 17 September 2013
*
Further reading
* Beal, Eileen. ''Choosing a career in the restaurant industry''. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 1997.
* Institute for Research. ''Careers and jobs in the restaurant business: jobs, management, ownership''. Chicago: The Institute, 1977.
External links
Culinary Arts Degree
{{DEFAULTSORT:Culinary Art
Cooking