My younger brother Craig found himself taking the heat in the kitchen by accident. He was an American in Paris, a newly graduated French major looking for a way to hang out. Craig ended up a translator at a prestigious French cooking school. Years later, armed with a journalism degree and a knowledge of cuisine, he's the restaurant critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. People go to cooking schools for a variety of reasons. Some are just weekend warriors with a passion for the kitchen. Others are serious artistes, seeking a career in culinary management. Chicago offers a broad range of educational options for any cook's goals.
The area's two best-known cooking schools are Kendall College in Evanston and The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, otherwise known as CHIC. Although both Kendall and CHIC are oft-cited for their on-campus dining rooms where chefs-in-training prepare gourmet meals for student prices, the similarities end there.
The Culinary School of Kendall College offers accredited college degrees that include subjects outside the kitchen. Although its most popular program is its two-year associate degree in applied science in culinary arts, many Kendall students go on to obtain the school's four-year BS in culinary management or international culinary arts. Kendall also offers a degree in hospitality management.
Kendall graduates can be found in many of the city's finest establishments. More than a half-dozen Kendall cooks, most notably chef de cuisine Michael Maddox, stir things up at Le Titi de Paris. Alumni also include Don Yamauchi, executive chef at Gordon; Sean McLean of Trio; and Steven Chiappetti, whose culinary harvest has grown from Mango to include the highly regarded Grapes and Rhapsody.
According to Kendall's Jase Fredericks, only second-year students, those who have completed internships and worked in the field, cook in the school's restaurant, "so food preparation tends to be consistent, even at the beginning of the school year." The restaurant serves gourmet lunches and dinners at a discount price. Every Monday night, an international banquet highlights a different country or region. For $24.50, which includes tip, diners tuck into a half-dozen exotic courses.
CHIC, on the other hand, offers a two-year associate degree program, along with certificate programs in professional cooking and baking that can be completed in eight months full-time. The school, right in the center of the urban action with its River North campus, prides itself on being "customer-driven." To that end, CHIC stays in session 7am-10pm six days a week, and a half-day on Sunday for flexible scheduling. Half of CHIC's 700 students are part-timers; students can take one class at a time and don't need to sign up for an entire program. But CHIC grads also can be found in kitchens all over town, including Carlos, Harvest on Huron, The Ritz-Carlton, and several Lettuce Entertain You concepts. The school, which produces some of the area's most innovative cooks, has been criticized for attempting to be too innovative in its own dining room - the Chicago Tribune recently called the menu "too ambitious, too graduate-level, when some core courses haven't been mastered." Linda Calafiore of CHIC replies, "We wouldn't want to not be too ambitious - it's a quality we strive for."
A newer entrant on the Chicago culinary scene, the Cooking Academy of Chicago also offers industry-recognized certification courses in two different programsÐ culinary or baking and pastry. The programs can be completed in six months for full-time students and in nineteen months for part-timers.
For those who are looking for a far-suburban culinary experience, Moraine Valley Community College offers two-year associate degrees in culinary arts management and restaurant/hotel management that often lay the groundwork for a transfer to a four-year program. The school also offers several one-year certification programs in bakery & pastry arts, beverage management, culinary arts management and restaurant/hotel management. And Joliet Junior College offers non-credit classes for dabblers, along with a two-year associates degree in culinary arts.
Folks with a hankering to master culinary and food service management in preparation for a career in the hotel industry attend Roosevelt University's Manfred Steinfeld School of Hospitality Management. Roosevelt offers bachelors and masters degrees in various areas of hospitality management. The school sees plenty of interest from students pursuing career changes, and the average age of the students is 29.
But most of us with an itch to expand our culinary horizons are looking for cooking lessons rather than full-blown cooking schools. The Cooking Academy of Chicago offers a slate of evening "recreational classes" covering topics like yeast and bread production and shaping techniques. This school also regularly runs "Dinner at Nine," a three-part series highlighting the preparation of eight dishes representing four different courses, which everyone eats at 9pm.
Other options for part-time cooks include The Chopping Block and Ovens of Evanston. The former is a retail store and hands-on cooking school located in a Lincoln Park cottage and run by chef/proprietor Shelley Young, whose experiences include the former Café du Midi. The Chopping Block stands out with its special six-month programs that highlight a specific food group, like desserts, breads or sauces - and which take students from Beginner Level I through Expert Level XI for each food category. Upcoming one-shot classes at The Chopping Block also include "Mexican Summer Fiesta," "Cool Summer Soups" and "Knife Skills."
Ovens of Evanston, which teaches in the Whole Foods kitchens, is probably best known for its "Cooking for Rookies" classes, designed to deliver the "culinary building blocks for the home chef." Students who move beyond the basics can graduate to "Baking with Whole Grains and Organics" and "Rush Hour Cooks: 30-Minute Meals that Dazzle."
copyright 1998 New City Communications, Inc.