Certificate Or Diploma

[MYCHEF]

Hi to everyone. I'm a bit lost i have a degree in hotel and restaurant management and now i want to shift career of being a chef. i have experience in management but not in line with food. my problem is to take a certificate or diploma in culinary. what should i take? what do i need?

[Chef Trance]

hey MYCHEF how are you, Im not very experienced to answer your question, but I was just like you I didn't know what route to go. I say go the route you can go that you can afford, and not be in major debth. I am 17 years old, and I just got a job as a line cook to get as much food experience I can get. I suggest taking the apprenticeship program which is just 10k. Other schools are costing 20-60k these days which is seriously unreasonable.

[RAS1187]

A certificate is not a whole lot of leverage resume wise, but you will get yourself some on hands food experience.

A recognized degree (AA, BA) is alot more solid on a resume, but does not match the value of experience. You will get alot more hands on food experience in a degree program.

Whichever of these fits your future career path would be the one to go with. If it were my choice I would go for the degree though, since you're paying money, might as well get a recognizeable degree for a little more.

[m brown]

a degree is the way to go. community college or junior college with an internship/externship is going to be the most reasonable route.
the degree is the difference between a job and a career.
plus, if you have mad skills, you can take a two year AAS and go for scholarships for BS, BA, even go for the Masters.
a certificate is just a bit of paper.

[jbd]

Originally Posted by RAS1187

A certificate is not a whole lot of leverage resume wise, but you will get yourself some on hands food experience.

A recognized degree (AA, BA) is alot more solid on a resume, but does not match the value of experience. You will get alot more hands on food experience in a degree program.

I definitely have to agree with RAS1187. When you start looking for employment, there will be a lot of screening done by people in HR (human resources) What these people know is what they see on paper. While the chef may make the final decision as to who gets hired, he or she will most likely not have met or seen all who have applied for the position available.

While the proof may be in the pudding; you have to get a chance to make the pudding.

[MYCHEF]

Hi. Thank you to everyone who reply, i really appreciate all your comments. I already finish my degree for 4yrs. What I want again is to boost my credentials since I have no experience in foods, except during my on the job training which is only for 2 months. Can any one suggest a good culinary school here in asia. thank you again.

[JT]

Hi

interesting situation. Are you sure that another qualification is the answer as the first next step? If you intend to move into a practical career, experience might be the answer; although at what level? Here's the/a problem maybe as you may not feel it appropriate to need a degree to peel potatoes!

Of course, practical experience might help you confirm that you would really find moving into the practical side what you really want and reconsider the place of further study.

There are one or two people (UK) who were in other professions and decided to be chefs. their first step was to gain shop floor experience in restaurants they aspired to.

Not sure if all this is relevant but hope something here to think about.

[chef27615]

well, there is a certificate program being offered by CIA in napa valley side for an individual in your kind situation. The pre-req is that you have to have a four year degree in related field. And you will enter what they call Accelerated culinary program for 6 month, it sound pretty good. Since they are offered by CIA, it should really give you a booth on your resume, not much but a little, and don't forgot they have a huge alumni network as well, at the end "who you know" sometimes helps.
In RI JWU, they offer "garnish your degree program" sound similar to the CIA program, not sure though, but check them out.
By the way, the CIA program is coast around 35k(include room and aboard)
which part of Asia are you? there is four Le Cordon Bleu schools around Asia, Two in Japan, one in Thailand, one in Korea, I have never enter either one of them, and since they all advertise through THE Le Cordon Bleu Paris web, they should be really worth look into. I know they are expensive schools to enter, everything together just for the Grand Diploma will coast you around 40K, however, you can complete all three tiers of study both culinary, and patisserie in about nine months, it will be time will worth spend from what I see. Myself will going to the Ottawa school at the end of this year as well. I think you give them a hard look, if you don't what to fly 14 hours around the globe.
hope this will help you.

[RAS1187]

35k for a certificate? Thats like $6,000 per month.