Culinary Arts Training Programs

If you do not want to go through a formal culinary arts training program, then it is not a problem. Having a culinary degree does not mean that a person can cook and not having one does not mean that you cannot cook. But there are still terms that you should know in the kitchen, if you are to learn from recipes and cook books. Terms like coddle, poach, chiffonade and julienne can be confusing.

There are many resources in the culinary community to help you learn some of the most foreign terms. A simple web search of "culinary terms" yields great results; however, just in case you missed it, here are some definitions of the more obscure terms. Chiffonade literally means "made of rags" and is a technique used with a knife on flat, pliant vegetation, such as basil, lettuce or cabbage. Using basil as an example, you simply stack the pieces of basil on top of each other. You then roll the basil into a tight round tube. The next step is to run your knife down the length of the tube and cut into fine strips. You have now mastered the chiffonade technique.

Did you know that to "coddle" is to slowly cook a dish to just under the boiling point. This term mostly applies to eggs, such as in the poaching technique. There are hundreds of other terms tossed about frequently in the kitchen. No one is expecting you to be a culinary whiz and know them all right off the bat. Culinary students work continuously on learning these terms and techniques.

The next time you run across a culinary student who is attending a culinary arts training program or someone who has a culinary degree, perhaps you will know the difference between a chiffonade, a julienne and a chop. Not to mention that you now know what it means to coddle something. It is all a fantastic journey into learning and in time you will pick up more terms.