The History Of Culinary Arts

Cooking was once seen as either a hobby or a chore. Up till now, it is regarded as a highly skilled line of work within a multi-billion industry. Students taking up culinary arts are equipped with different levels of skills and knowledge, but they all share the same thing and that is the passion for cooking. You will never go further and study culinary arts if, in the first place, you don’t have interest in cooking, now would you?

Food is the one thing that has always been and will continue to be a big part of our daily lives as a result of the family recipes that we carry with great care from many generations passed. For some, they learn new cuisines while others even go to culinary schools to perfect their skills and experience and obtain a degree in culinary arts. Knowing that everybody needs food is so much easy to understand, but aren’t you interested to know as to when and where do the different types of taste, presentations and features of the food started? If you are, then lets us discover the history of culinary arts.

The history of culinary arts can be traced back in the 1800s when the very first cooking school in Boston was teaching the art of American cooking along with preparing the students to pass on their knowledge to others. The first cookbook ever published was written by Fannie Merrit Farmer in 1896, who also attended the Boston cooking school and whose book is still widely used as a reference and it remains in print at present.

The next phase in the history of culinary arts was taken through the television where in 1946 James Beard, who is also recognized as father of the American cuisine, held regular cooking classes on the art of American cooking. On the other hand, the French cuisine was brought to life in the American society by Julia Child in 1960s when, through the power of the radios, she entered all the kitchens nationwide.

Later on the history of culinary arts, the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) was founded and was the first culinary school to hold career-based courses on the art of cooking. Its first location was in the campus of Yale University in Connecticut, which was later moved in 1972 to New York. But before the CIA was established, those who wanted a career in culinary arts normally had to go through apprenticeships under seasoned chefs to gain on-the-job training. This learning method was a traditional course in Europe, but rather a challenging arrangement as organized apprenticeships were a quite new concept in the history of culinary arts in the US. However today, apprenticeships continue to offer an excellent culinary experience to aspiring chefs.