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Parlay your Culinary Education into a Career in Product Development
Want a truly inventive culinary arts career? How about becoming a "culinologist." The 2000+ member Research Chefs Association, a group of food research professionals, has pioneered the discipline of Culinology, "the blending of culinary arts and the science of food." Join them, and you'll help shape the future of food. Now that's exciting!
Getting a foot in the food creation door
If you love travel (for food, of course), eat around at the latest restaurants, and follow food trends in culinary magazines, chances are you have the kind of curiosity that's essential to becoming a research chef. Research chefs don't follow the trends; they create them--for restaurants, food chains, and food manufacturing companies.
Culinary arts training for product development
Since research chefs have two quite separate culinary educations--in culinary arts and in food science--they've had to combine these distinct interests into one career. If you want to follow in their footsteps, you're in luck. Today, a number of culinary schools now have programs in culinology, including:
- Cal Poly Pomona, College of Agriculture, Department of Human Nutrition & Food Science.
- Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina), Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition.
- Dominican University (Chicago, Illinois), Rosary College of Arts & Sciences, Food Science & Nutrition.
- Metropolitan Community College/University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Culinary Arts Institute.
- University of Cincinnati, College of Applied Science, Culinary Arts and Science.
Take a creative culinary career path
If you're fascinated by the idea of inventing food, you'll want to read Olivia Crosby's biographical study of research chef Anne Albertine. Albertine creates recipes for the more than 6,500 restaurants in the Taco Bell chain. She has to spice up her culinary arts education with a technical understanding of food preservation and mass production. And so will you, if you decide to become a research chef.
References:
Crosby, Olivia. "You're a what? Research Chef."
Occupational Outlook Handbook
Research Chefs Association
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