Continuing Ed: Beginner or Intermediate?

[littlegem]

I am planning to start my own personal chef gig in the next year, and to kick off the process I am going to enroll in a 6-week, non-credit course at the Restaraunt School in Philly. I have no formal culinary education, but I'm a passionate, accomplished home cook, not afraid of trying new techniques or recipes. I'm not sure if I should start out with Intro to Culinary Arts, or if I should just jump to the Intermediate level class. The agenda for the Intro class is as follows:
Knife Skills and Safety
Soups and Stocks
Ribbon Pasta
Grains and Potatoes
Vegetables
Intro to Sauces

I'm awaiting a response from the school as to which would be more appropriate for me, but in the meantime, what do you all think? I don't want to waste $300 on the Intro if I'm going to be bored...

Thanks,
Melissa

[kuan]

See if the local health department offers a food handler's sanitation course. You might also try calling the National Restaurant Association and seeing where you can get servsafe certified. IMO, this is the most important thing you need to know.

Then comes the knife skills course...

Kuan

[panini]

I agree with Kuan and I'll also through in some business is also helpfull.
Intro courses usually incorporate basic fundimentals and formulas, it will certainly not hurt.
Good Luck

[Suzanne]

I also think that business courses will be more useful to you than cooking classes. Yes, you'll learn things in cooking classes that will help you work more efficiently. But if you don't know how to manage your business, how to purchase, how to market the business and yourself, how to deal with clients, how to manage the business's money (not your own anymore) -- it doesn't matter how well you cook. And if you don't know how not to make your clients sick, your business will be very short-lived.

Oh, and don't forget Time Management as well.

[littlegem]

Thanks for your responses...I absolutely agree that the safe food handling and business classes are essential, and will be taking those as well. But while I could probably get by on my cooking abilities as they are, it can't hurt to brush up on my skills, and that's one of the reasons why I want to take a few culinary classes as well.