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• Find A Local Culinary School Today!
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• Diploma programs are short, demanding and intense. In a community college setting, certificate or diploma programs impart a more basic skill-set aimed at rapid entry-level job placement.
• International culinary schools provide an adventurous, but highly career-focused experience for mastering regional cuisine.  French schooling and experience is a highly regarded resume entry for chef students emulating classical French technique.

Like many other industries, careers in the Culinary Arts follow a hierarchy. Also like many other industries, there are many different paths that can be followed in an individual's career. Not every person who works in the Culinary Arts world has (or will) earn a Culinary Arts Degree. There are also positions that are specific to certain types of foodservice establishments

Academic credentials and specializations aside, the overall hierarchy of a career in the Culinary Arts industry is generally as follows:

• Table Busser (a.k.a. "Busboy") - Person who works mainly in the dining area of a foodservice establishment. People in this position are responsible for cleaning tables in between seatings of guests. Most fundamental in the position is wiping down the table to remove food scraps as well as applying a chemical sanitizer (typically a quaternary ammonium salt solution known as "Quat"). 
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• Additional responsibilities include removing dirty dishes from diners' tables, either before or after the diner has left, and taking them to the dishroom to be washed, as well as restocking items like sugar packets, refilling salt shakers, laying out clean placesettings. 
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• Bussers also occasionally are expected to refill drinks for diners and similar duties, although as cross-contamination has become the focus of concern for food safety issues, this type of duty is less commonly assigned to the same people who are removing dirty dishes from tables. 
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• Bussers are sometimes also assigned basic food preparation duties such as peeling potatoes; this is generally done at the beginning of their shifts before they have handled dirty dishes.

• Maitre d'hotel (Master of Hotel) (a.k.a. "Host" or "Hostess" - Person who greets guests of a restaurant, manages table seating, and takes guests to their tables. This person frequently also takes an initial drink order prior to the server first arriving at their table. This position is commonly associated with restaurants where diners typically sit down to eat and are served at their table.

• Table Server (a.k.a. "Waiter" or "Waitresse") - Someone who takes the food and/or beverage orders from the guests, relays the order to the kitchen staff, and takes the food to the table. Sometimes servers have assistants to bring out food to large numbers of guests. Servers sometimes also do some food preparation beyond pouring drinks, including making side salads, plating desserts, etc.

• Bartender - Person responsible for mixing beverages, typically ones containing alcohol. This person is frequently also expected to limit the amount of alcohol an individual may be served so as to avoid problems from "overserving" (which can include unpleasant behavior, alcohol poisoning, drunk driving, and many others), which can be a liability for the people serving such a person.

• Dishwasher - Person who washes dirty dishes and makes them clean, sanitary, and available for reuse to serve more diners. This person also sometimes takes the responsibilities of a Table Busser.

• Prep Cook - Person who processes food prior to service time. Responsibilities include making sauces, cutting and peeling vegetables, baking bread, and other things which are either time consuming or most economical to prepare in large batches.

• Line Cook - Person who prepares food at the time of service. Responsibilities including processing food to order in a timely manner.

• Sous Chef ("Under Chef") (a.k.a. Head Cook) - Person who works as an intermediary between the Chef (or Kitchen Manager) and the cooking staff. This person frequently also works as a Line Cook, overseeing the production of food to ensure it meets established standards.

• Kitchen Manager - Person who oversees the entire "Back-of-House" operation of an establishment. This person typically manages scheduling and personnel, maintaining inventory, cost of food, establishing or maintaining procedures and standards.

• Front-of-House Manager - Person who oversees the operation of the dining room. This person is responsible for scheduling servers in accordance to anticipated levels of business, ensuring guest satisfaction, and manages the Servers, Bussers, Bartenders, and other people who work with the guests.

• Chef ("Chief") - Person who has earned a Culinary Arts Degree and who makes the Culinary decisions of a restaurant, such as menu, recipe adjustment, plating, etc. This is one of the highest ranking position in a restaurant, and the highest rank in the Culinary Arts world.

• General Manager - Person who oversees the entire restaurant. This person is responsible for managing the staff of a restaurant, maintaining a budget, and ensuring established standards are maintained and procedures are adhered to.

• Owner - Person who owns the business.

Modern Culinary Arts 

students study many 

different aspects of 

food. Specific areas of 

study include 

butchery, chemistry 

and thermodynamics,

 visual presentation, 

food safety, human 

nutrition and 

physiology, 

international history, 

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.

Cooking utilizes many foods.

Training in culinary arts is possible in most countries around the world. Usually at tertiary level (university etc.). With institutions government funded, privately funded or commercial.

The Culinary Arts, in 

the Western world, as a

 craft and later as a field 

of study, began to 

evolve at the end of 

the Renaissance 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.

A great deal of the study

 of Culinary Arts in 

Europe was organized 

by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, 

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.

Today, there are thousands of Culinary Arts schools around the world. 

Additionally, most universities, as well as many smaller tertiary schools like community colleges,

 offer some type of 

Culinary Arts Degree, 

which is technically a 

Bachelor of Arts Degree.