Cooking was once seen as either a hobby or a job. It is still considered a highly skilled job in a multi-billion dollar industry. Culinary Arts students are equipped with varying levels of skill and knowledge, but they all share one thing in common, and that is a passion for cooking. You’ll never go on to study culinary arts if you’re not interested in cooking in the first place, right?
Food is the one thing that has always been and will be a big part of our daily lives thanks to family recipes that we carry with great care from many generations. For some, it’s learning new cuisines, while others even go to culinary schools to hone their skills and experience and earn a degree in culinary arts. Knowing that everyone needs food is so easy to understand, but don’t you wonder when and where the different kinds of tastes, presentations, and characteristics of food began? If so, let us discover the history of culinary art.
Culinary history can be traced back to the 19th century, when the first cooking school in Boston taught the art of American cuisine and prepared students to pass on their knowledge to others. The first cookbook ever published was written by Fannie Merrit Farmer in 1896, who also attended Boston Cookery School, and whose book is still widely used as a reference and remains in print today.
The next stage in the history of culinary art was television, where in 1946 James Beard, who is also recognized as the father of American cuisine, held regular cooking classes on the art of American cuisine. French cuisine, on the other hand, was revived in American society by Julia Child in the 1960s, when it reached every kitchen across the country with the power of the radio.
Later in culinary history, the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) was founded and was the first culinary school to offer career courses in the art of cooking. Its first location was at the Yale University campus in Connecticut, which was later moved in 1972 to New York. But before the CIA was founded, those who wanted a career in the culinary arts normally had to go through apprenticeships under experienced chefs to get on-the-job training. This teaching method was a traditional course in Europe, but a rather challenging arrangement, as an organized apprenticeship was an entirely new concept in the history of the culinary arts in the US. Today, however, apprenticeships continue to offer budding chefs an excellent culinary experience.
