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Do you believe your hands were made for cooking perfection? If you love whipping up delicious meals and dream of becoming a real culinary enthusiast, an associate degree in culinary arts is what you need.

Luckily, we’ll see more jobs for culinary experts in the next few years. Chefs and head cooks are predicted to have a 5% job growth from 2022 to 2032, where each year, on average, 22,000 chefs and head cooks will be needed.

Being a student at Lackawanna College, you can get hands-on culinary arts training for two years and become a skilled culinary professional ready to shine in your career. We offer a 30-credit Associate Degree program with full accreditation where you master various culinary techniques such as knife skills, kitchen management, beverage service management, baking and pastry, food plating, food service handling, etc.

We also prepare our graduates for job-sector challenges so they can build rising careers in food service. With our associate degree in culinary arts training, you can seek job opportunities in restaurant ownership and management, banquet chef, private chef, nutritionist, retail store manager, and more!

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[1] Chefs and Head Cooks, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 6, 2023
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/chefs-and-head-cooks.htm

Let’s find out how getting an associate degree in culinary arts can help your love for culinary techniques shine through your cooking.

What Does a Career in the Culinary Arts Look Like?

Regarding a career, an associate degree in culinary arts can offer you more than you expect. Even with limited skills and specific cooking interests, as a culinary art student, you can learn to thrive in many job positions. You can establish yourself as a banquet chef or personal chef at restaurants. However, a culinary career is wider than positions doing hands-on work in the kitchen.

With diverse knowledge and the most in-demand skills you learn at Lackawanna College, explore various unique opportunities available in the culinary arts industry. You can even build a thriving career in the business side of the culinary arts. Some examples are the following:

• Human Resource Management

• Customer Service Relations

• Food and Beverage Financial Management

• Connect With an Admissions Counselor

• Strategic Branding and Business Management

What Can You Expect From a Culinary Arts Associate Degree?

Our two-year associate degree program in culinary arts delivers a well-rounded education where you can learn various cooking techniques and topics, such as beverage management, baking techniques, culinary concepts of the Mediterranean, and American regional cooking studies.

This program is a blend of in-demand cooking techniques and hospitality skills needed to establish your career in the food industry. After earning the associate degree, the students still have the scope to continue their education. 

With our culinary arts curriculum, you can:

• Develop working knowledge to excel in a professional kitchen and prepare to build your career in the real-life job field.

• Practice and master classical knife skills and cooking techniques like food plating, beverage management, etc.

• Develop skills in human resource management, customer service relations, strategic branding and business management, and food and beverage financial management.

• Learn to comply with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s food service sanitation and service standards.

• Learn to implement beverage knowledge to create menus and recipes in a professional food service establishment.

• Learn to become a culinary arts expert who can incorporate sustainable practices within the culinary field.

What’s Included in the Associate Degree in Culinary Arts Curriculum?

When you plan to hone your skills in many on-demand cooking methods and styles, Lackawanna College’s two-year Associate Degree program is handy!

Our culinary arts associate degree program empowers you to be a sought-after culinary professional. Along with culinary techniques, you’ll learn nutrition, food safety, and other skills needed to work in any food establishment. We’ll help you become so versatile that you can prepare for any kitchen and build a career where your heart desires.

Some of the popular courses included in our curriculum are:

• Beverage Service Management

• Meat and Seafood Identification

• Baking and Pastry Skills

• Cuisines of the World

If you want to know more about our associate degree in culinary arts, please don’t hesitate to explore our website for more information or contact us.

Where can you seek Lackawanna College’s Culinary Arts Associate Degree? This program is taught on our main campus in Scranton. Apply today to become a culinary arts student at Lackawanna College and build a prospective career in the culinary world.