Education/training

Cooking is a science at Humber

Humber College has exactly the right program for the cook who wants to move up in the kitchen hierarchy.

DAVID CHILTON

[ 2008-02-27 ]

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Rudi Fischbacher, culinary programs co-ordinator at Humber, is accepting 24 students into the new part-time chef program for journeyperson cooks. (Humber College photo)

The chef program for journeyperson cooks starts in March and runs for 14 months part time and costs just $600, thanks to Ontario government support for provincial apprenticeship programs.

Rudi Fischbacher, culinary programs co-ordinator at Humber, is accepting 24 students into the first class. Students will learn in class and online, Fischbacher says, and care has been taken so kitchens won't lose staff in November and December when the need for them is greatest. "It's a very, very industry-friendly delivery method," he says.

As open and flexible as the program is, not just anyone can pay their money and sign up. Fischbacher says applicants must be one year past their Red Seal certification -- a qualification that allows its holder to practise a trade anywhere in the country.

COOK-APPRENTICE TRAINING

Getting that Red Seal requires an apprenticeship, and one of the places to obtain it is Georgian College in Barrie. David Jones, co-ordinator of culinary programs at Georgian, says cook-apprentice training at the college has been running for more than 20 years -- in fact, Jones himself is a graduate of the program.

At Georgian, Jones says some of his students have been in the industry for years and others are just starting out. But irrespective of their seniority, to get the Red Seal -- essentially a journeyperson's ticket -- students have to work in a kitchen under a suitably qualified trainer, such as an experienced chef, and register as an apprentice with the Ministry of Colleges, Training and Universities.

At one time students at Georgian were required to spend three years full time enrolled in the program to obtain their college certificate. These days, Jones says, there is a training manual that students must complete with their supervisor-chef in a working kitchen, so finishing times are flexible. Nevertheless, done properly, students are still looking at two to three years of study five days a week at the school.

Tuition fees for apprenticeship programs at Georgian vary, so would-be students should call the Barrie campus for information. But if the balmy shores of Lake Simcoe aren't to your liking, then George Brown College's well-regarded cook, chef and baker/patissier programs should be checked out.

Although some aspects of both Georgian and George Brown programs will be similar, the new venture at Humber will differ in that subjects to be studied will be more science than art.

Fischbacher says advanced sanitation and occupational health and safety will figure prominently in the program that begins in March. That's no accident: Fischbacher, who learned his trade by cleaning kitchens and washing dishes before taking more formal training, says improper food handling and the lack of regulation for cooks and chefs are major bugbears for the industry.

Fischbacher, who was just in Ottawa talking up the need for more regulation, says his colleagues are broadly and enthusiastically in favour of a formal setup.

"Even hairdressing is a regulated trade," he says. "Those in (our) industry are very supportive of more regulation."

Whether cooking and serving food will ever become a regulated trade is difficult to predict, although it's far easier to say that wages are low starting out.

"It's a very demanding job. They don't get well paid at the beginning," says Jones, who tells all his students just where new graduates will find themselves in a kitchen -- close to the bottom of the ladder.