Are these worthwhile culinary programs?

[cromagnum_joe]

I am currently in the military and trying to break into the culinary world. I do not have any training or background in cooking. I found these two distance/correspondence programs (below) and was wondering if they would be worthwhile. Right now I am working towards a degree in hospitality/restaurant management but I truly want to cook more than anything. I am currently stationed at Hurlburt Field (Ft Walton Beach, Fl) where I have not been able to find any sort of culinary programs to get into. I would greatly appreciate your thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc on the two programs below. Thanks.

1. AshworthUniversity
Gourmet Cooking & Catering
Overview - Learn cooking and catering from soup to nuts. You’ll be inspired by the breadth of this course – plus the hundreds of delicious recipes that are included for practice. Find out how to select and store ingredients, choose recipes, develop menus for all occasions, prepare, store and serve every kind of food, provide table service, plan banquets and special events and more. You’ll also learn how to manage a successful catering business – from staffing to scheduling to client surveys.

2. CulinaryBusinessAcademy
Personal Chef Home Study Program
The Personal Chef Home Study Program is the most complete and comprehensive correspondence course ever developed for the Personal Chef industry. It represents the culmination of 17 years of real-world experience from thousands of successful Personal Chefs.

The foundation of the Home Study Program is the Professional Personal Chef Reference Manual. The authors of this manual, David MacKay and Susan Titcomb-MacKay, are the acknowledged creators of the personal chef service concept and the founders of the personal chef service industry. With over 450 pages of information, this manual is organized in an easy-to-understand format covering all aspects of a personal chef service in detail. The Professional Personal Chef Reference Manual has become the "bible" of the Personal Chef industry. That’s why successful Personal Chefs use the Professional Personal Chef Reference Manual to establish successful personal chef services in the shortest time possible.

With the Professional Personal Chef Reference Manual, the Marketing and Selling Audio CDs and the included Essential Recipes, the Home Study Program is a comprehensive instructional package created to help you start a successful personal chef service. The course can be completed in as little as two weeks or you can study at your own pace. Upon completion, you will have the knowledge necessary to begin serving clients as a Professional Personal Chef. Successfully completing the three on-line tests results in a Personal Chef diploma, which is one requirement to become a Certified Personal Chef. USPCA Certification is not a direct result of this program

I apologize for the long post. Thanks once again for your time and assistance.

[stir it up]

hi Joe, thanks for your service.

I don't know about those courses, but I just wanted to say to not underestimate some books at helping teach you if attending culinary school is not an option.

One book I would strongly suggest is The Professional Chef (Culinary Institute of America) 8th edition. It's currently $44 on amazon (we have a link in the book review forum to amazon which helps support this site if you want to use it).

For pastry/desserts and some breadbaking, there is The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg. (also about $44) There is also an "Advanced" of that book.

These are both big books, The Professional Chef has over 1200 pages, The Professional Pastry Chef somewhere over 1000 pages, with lots of information, and presented in a way that will teach you a great deal and keep you busy learning for some time.

[Chef at Heart]

I don't know anything about their culinary training in particular, but I can tell you that Ashworth University has made their name out of being a correspondence course source for just about any degree out there - which isn't necessarily a good thing.

It's kind of like the University of Phoenix. Might be a good education but will still raise an eyebrow about it being easy to get and online.

[tsade]

I like the way the first one sound it seems enthusiastic about its course and thats a good sign i think. With the at home/online courses iv herd there cheaper but are harder to keep motivated in and could be hard to find time to study if your busy alot. wich ever rhode you choose i wish you luck.

[AtlTournant]

Another issue to consider with a correspondence course is that when it comes to cooking [and if you have no previous experience],getting it out of a book will not teach you the finer points that having a skilled instructor in person will teach /show/guide you through.

Some things are learned best by seeing and doing them [like the art of cooking].For example,if you are making your first hollandaise and have never held a whisk a day in your life,you'll have a better comprehension seeing a demonstration and what the end result should be in person versus step-by-step instructions out of a book.

And you don't make something once and have it down pat;practice,practice,practice...and ask yourself how much money you'll spend buying raw materials so you can make recipes.It can be very costly in the long run and a correspondence course can be looked down upon especially in the culinary industry.

Work in the industry for at least a year before you decide on anything concrete.What you think it will be like and how it really IS are going to be two very different things.Schools are crammed with students who have a romantic,unrealistic notion of what professional cooking is like and less than 10% are still in a pro kitchen 5 years after graduation.