New Culinary School in Los Angeles, California

There's a new Culinary Arts School in Los Angeles called the Kitchen Academy-Hollywood, at 6370 West Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, California.

In my previous article on this subject, New Culinary School in Los Angeles, California, I told you about the two schools in Los Angeles which I personally attended. These were the Los Angeles International Culinary Institute (no longer in existence) and the affordable Los Angeles Trade Technical College.

The thing these two schools had in common was that much of the training consisted of classroom-based education, in addition to culinary training. Unlike these other schools, the Kitchen Academy's program is 100 percent hands-on culinary training. The student is in the kitchen from the first day.

The curriculum at the Kitchen Academy is also accelerated, so that the students can graduate in as few as 30 weeks with a Professional Culinary Arts Diploma. The program I attended at LA Trade Tech required that I attend four traditional college semesters. Unlike the Los Angeles International Culinary Institute, the Kitchen Academy is fully accredited.

The following is the Kitchen Academy Accelerated Training System:

Stage 1. Professional Culinary Arts I earns 9 Quarter Credit Hours and lasts for 6 weeks.
Course material explores standard knife cuts and techniques, culinary terms, professional expectations, weights and measures, stock and soup making, sauces, starches, vegetables, pasta, legumes, oils and vinegars, egg and breakfast cookery, and basic custards.

Stage 2. Professional Culinary Arts II earns 9 Quarter Credit Hours and lasts for 6 weeks.
Students can learn to put the skills acquired in Professional Culinary Arts I to use with newly added techniques in complete and balanced plate presentations. Butchery and the cooking of proteins are introduced into the curriculum along with cooking methods appropriate for each individual cut or portion.

Stage 3.Culinary Techniques

a. Cold Cuisine Techniques earns 4 Quarter Credit Hours and lasts for 3 weeks.
Course material covers a wide range of cold cuisine topics and begins by exploring the versatility of various products relating to pork. Students also cover salads, sandwiches, cold appetizers, oysters, gravlax, caviar, and artisan farm cheese.

b. Baking and Pastry Techniques earns 4 Quarter Credit Hours and lasts for 3 weeks.
Introduces the fundamentals of the baking and pastry kitchen, and the unique equipment and techniques used within. Students are exposed to essential baking and pastry skills as they work through a series of breads, tarts, meringues, muffins, pies, custards, mousses, sauces, cakes, and plated dessert concepts.

3. Advanced Professional Culinary Arts earns 9 Quarter Credit Hours and lasts for 6 weeks.
Coursework is preparation for employment in the professional kitchen. Students make their transition from amateur to professional by working through a unique system of mock drills and real world situations.

4. Externship earns 5 Quarter Credit Hours and lasts for 6 weeks.
For the final six weeks, students have the opportunity to apply their learned culinary and professional skills in the work environment.

Partial list of available externships
* Patina Catering
* Opus
* Omni Hotel
* Wolfgang Puck Catering
* The Standard Hotel
* The Renaissance Hotel
* The Beverly Hills Cheese Store
* II Capriccio
* Cafe Pinot
* Cypress Market

To enroll, students must have a high school degree or equivalent. They must also take and pass the Wunderlic scholastics exam with a score of 13 or higher. The Wonderlic Personnel Test (also known as Wunderlich), is a 12-minute, 50-question exam that assesses basic learning and adapting skills.

According to the web site, "enrollment is easy. Just click the Enroll Now button and you'll be led through the entire process. At the point, you may also arrange for financial assistance. There is a $100 deposit* which is completely refundable if you decide not to attend class. Remember, your Admissions Rep is also available to walk you through the entire process."

Programs will be offered 8 times throughout the year, with the following start dates already posted:

July 5, 2006
August 21, 2006
October 13, 2006

The Kitchen Academy's tuition is priced at approximately $18,500, which includes books and supplies!*

* Actual cost of program tuition and fees are subject to change. For actual cost of tuition and fees please reference the school's catalog tuition addendum.

The classrooms are small, designed for an effective student / chef instructor teaching environment, with the ratio 16:1 - students to instructor. Classes are conveniently timed to fit with the students' particular lifestyles, mornings (6am), afternoons (12:00pm), and evenings (6pm).

I particularly like the externship feature. Externships let the students know first hand just how hard the work is in a professional kitchen. Kitchen work has extreme temperature variance, long hours of backbreaking labor, and requires constant sweeping, mopping and washing up. The floors are slippery, the knives are sharp, and the pressure to keep performance numbers high is just as extreme as in the corporate environment.

There is one other issue which none of the schools turning out these educated cooks wants to address: Most people who graduate this year will not become the next Wolfgang Puck or Julia Child.

The companies with whom the Kitchen Academy has externship agreements are up-scale, which hopefully will insure that, after having spent almost $20,000 to become chefs, they will not wind up working for $8.00 per hour.

Contact Information:
http://www.kitchenacademy.com/
Pam Ramirez
Director of Admissions
Kitchen Academy
6370 W. Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, California 90028
Phone: 866-KIT-ACAD (548-2223)
Fax: 847-466-3611
E-mail: info@kitchenacademy.com