Are There Kosher Culinary Schools?
Photo Credit: Eric Michael Johnson for The New York Times
Dear Jamie:
I know someone who is thinking about going to culinary school. I’d like your opinion about going to culinary school. Is it needed? If so, should a kosher cook seek out only a kosher school, or would the regular schools be good enough (without eating what is cooked)? While searching online we found two different schools that have exclusively kosher programs.
Chanan in Colorado
Dear Chanan,
I am a big fan of the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts, located in Brooklyn, NY. It’s a school that provides professional training in all culinary arts, as well as baking and pastry arts. In addition to learning their way around a professional kitchen, students learn about the application of kashrus in a professional environment. Of course, all standard skills are taught too, including butchering and cooking of meat, fish and poultry. There’s also menu design, plating and presentation, fruit and vegetable garnishing – and so much more! If you’re interested, take a look at the CKCA website:
www.kosherculinaryarts.com.
The advisability of going to culinary school depends on your goals. If you want to work in a professional kitchen such as a restaurant or in catering, etc. I think it’s essential. Before there were kosher programs available Stateside, I would have said just go and get the most that you can out of any course, but there is nothing like having the opportunity actually taste the chef’s example and cook and taste as you go. Cooking is such a tactile experience and to be able to truly use all your senses – especially your sense of taste – is important. It’s wonderful to have kosher programs!
If you have dreams of building a career in the culinary arts, culinary school also opens so many doors to you: there are internships and networking opportunities. And you learn how many careers there are in the food industry: food chemist, food stylist, food photography, executive chef, pastry chef, personal chef, cookbook author, restauranteur, and on and on.
The instructors at CKCA are real professionals at the top of their fields; it’s not a second tier program. So I don’t know why any aspiring kosher chef would shy away from this wonderful experience.
And no, CKCA is not paying me to say this. I truly believe in it. 
I always fantasize about having an extra hour in my day to hit CKCA for a knife skills class.
Are there any kosher cooking pros, culinary school attendees or family and friends of culinary school attendees out there who would like to share their experiences and advice about cooking schools?
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About jamie geller
Jamie Geller is a bestselling author of the wildly successful QUICK & KOSHER cookbook...
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While I don’t know all of the professional, Orthodox Chefs in the U.S. I can tell you from personal experience how difficult, if not impossible it is to go to a treiff culinary school to learn cooking. The main barrier to hurdle is preparing dishes with milk and meat. Probably 90% of prepared entrees are milk and meat combinations, with many other recipes utilizing “grunt” meat and seafood. It’s too difficult to attend a school whose teva or natural orientation it is to cook treiff. Contrary to some opinions, no suitable ingredient substitutes are available for many entrees made with seafood and/or grunt meat, and pastries and desserts made with milk and milk bi-products. Further, I know that many Orthodox chefs are Baalay Teshuvah, which would answer the question as to how they attended treiff culinary schools, learned how to be expert cooks and chefs and were later able to apply their skills to kosher when they changed their religious affiliations.
We need more kosher culinary training schools in other parts of our country and not just New York. Believe it or not, there are many vibrant Orthodox communities west of Jersey!
Well, you got me seriously rethinking my summer plans…
There is a $250 tuition credit/reimbursement for those from outside the tri-state area…I guess we “vibrant Orthodox communities west of Jersey” are acknowledged after all…
ahnoldw – I agree with you – no substitute. Now who are we going to get to open a culinary institute west of NJ?
Several well-known, local, treiff cooking schools I’ve contacted, have shown an interest in creating a Kosher, stand-alone program, but they’re telling me it will cost approximately $400,000 to outfit a new, secured kitchen and would include: Supplies, rent, utilities and shared janitorial services. The $400,000 doesn’t include hashgacha, which, depending on the degree of hashgacha may not be that much. Outfitting a separate kitchen, at its own location, would cost considerably more, due to supplies, rent, utilities and other costs.
Now, if anyone knows a benefactor(s), who would like to be the catalyst for better tasting Kosher restaurant, catered and home food, please step up. Your name and number have been announced. You’re at bat!
as it was already said it a great question if there is kosher culinary schools in other states of the country besides NY and NJ. I live in Hallandale Beach, FL and would like to know if there is such school near me. If you have any information to give me. I would greatly appreciate it.
Rivka.
aholdw – scary! we need a culinary donor – someone that can name the school/program after their mother/father/grandmother/grandfather master chef — or we need to convince CKCA to open a satellite branch outside of NY. rivka1 I don’t know of any in south FL or FL for that matter – but anyone else speak up now or forever hold your peace.
I am definitely west of the tri-State area. I’m in California
I keep a Kosher Kitchen at home; however I don’t have two different sink areas, two different dishwashers, etc.
I would love going to culinary school, but the idea of handling, touching, and TASTING treif gets me ill. That is why I went into a different field. However, I would still like to go to a Kosher Culinary school IF there was one here on the west coast. The idea of proper cooking without mixing milk and meat; the proper way to sharpen knifes; and even butchering would be fascinating. But not a pig!
~From somewhere near the Pacific Ocean
Does anyone teach kosher cooking to small groups ithe Scottsdale, AZ area?
I am a professionally trained chef, now living in Texas. I was the Temple Chef at Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas, and also opened the new dining room at the Adelson Educational Campus. I would be interested in traveling to Scottsdale and teaching.