So You Want To Cook?
Beginner cooks come in all ages, ranges of intellect, motivations, and genders. The decision to learn to cook is important. Once you acquire control over what you eat, you'll reap multiple benefits: eating food you make yourself costs less and if you learn well, your dishes will taste great and sport a good nutritional profile. Yet for all the sound reasons to learn, the excuses and imagined pitfalls of cooking come fraught with anxiety. What if it burns? What if the courses aren't timed right? You're positive you're not a "natural" at cooking. Knives seem big and dangerous. You hate chopping onions. You prefer life when it has no dirty dishes. If you've tried cooking before and gave up, you may have started in the middle. Rather than attempt a TV chef's beurre blanc over duck breast with fruit coulis, better start with first things first -- with the Eight Immortal Chores.
Choosing a Cooking School
When choosing a program at a cooking school or culinary institute there are several important factors to consider. Your personal career preferences are a good starting point to comparing schools and your choice of culinary school will likely mould your direction after graduation. Researching cooking institutes online and requesting information from culinary art schools is a great beginning, but you'll need to consider other details to narrow down your search. If you've determined what area of study you wish to specialize in your choice will be made easier. If you haven't, many schools offer broader programs that will allow you to "test the waters" before concentrating in a particular area.
You'll want to come up with a list of criteria that are important to you.