By Paul Sorgule, MS, ACC                                                  

Assessment, assessment, assessment – without a doubt assessment is what is at the top of every Dean and Director’s list of priorities. We are all keenly aware the credibility and value of our program is determined by results, just like in any other business. The business of education should be viewed in terms of how well-prepared graduates are to begin and continue to grow in their respective fields of study.

There certainly are many factors that play into effective outcomes: curriculum, faculty, methods of delivery, attitude and ability of enrolled students, connections to the industry served, feedback from all stakeholders, etc. But, the more important question is: How are individual schools viewing these factors and assessing performance against a standard of excellence? 

A good starting point is to look at current critical outcomes expected by employers and graduates and simply compare those to what your program currently offers. Some may view this as a definition of specific skills, as is the case with the American Culinary Federation Knowledge and Competencies. Or the outcomes could be even more specific, such as the Skills Passport that I have previously promoted. The more I look at programs and successful outcomes, the more I look toward broader educational environmental issues and aptitudes.

The following is a list of questions as they pertain to this environment and the aptitudes that lead a graduate through a successful career. Please do not view them as all-inclusive; they are simply a starting point. I would encourage you to look at your individual programs and pose these important questions to your faculty and administration.

Does Your Program Keep It Real?
By this, I am referring to the environment you and your faculty create for the delivery of the curriculum. Do your faculty always build an environment where the pressure of timing is present? This can be accomplished not only in cooking labs, but also in courses with projects as an assessment tool. Preparing students for the inevitable impossible timelines that will be presented once they start working is a powerful learning tool.

Do you practice scenario planning in your classes and force students to think differently and design solutions to problems that might exist in the future? Being prepared is the best tool for problem solving. Chefs and restaurateurs live by the realities of Murphy’s Law, so teach students to be ready for whatever might be thrown in their paths.

Does Your Program Include Repetition, Repetition and Repetition?
Skills are developed not through simple exposure, but through constant repetition. We may expose students to stocks and sauces, but unless a student has made a hollandaise 20 times or more, he or she will not really KNOW how to make it. Building knife skills does not happen in a knife skills class, it takes place when assessment of knife skills happens every day throughout a culinary curriculum. If you want to learn how to turn potatoes then take a 100-pound bag of chef’s potatoes and start turning. You get the idea.

What Are You Doing to Build a Student’s Confidence Level?
Knowing how to and having the ability to execute a skill with real confidence are two different realities. A student may understand how to sauté a dish, but confidence comes from working on a line and being able to sauté multiple dishes with the pressure of a steady stream of orders and an expeditor pushing for finished dishes in the pass. Shouldn’t a culinary graduate be able to walk into a kitchen and jump onto the line, at any station, and be able to perform?

Is Discipline the Rule of Thumb in Each of Your Program’s Courses? Do Students Understand the Critical Need for Discipline in a Kitchen?
It may seem old school to some to promote the “Yes Chef” environment, but any and all kitchens operate with efficiency require this type of response. Discipline begins with dependability, uniform, respect for tools, respect for ingredients, respect for co-workers and customers, and continues with commitment to proper cooking methods, station organization, mise en place of ingredients, and respect for the chain of command. Is it evident that discipline exists in every aspect of your program?

Are Your Students Patient When It Comes to Their Career?
Are you inadvertently promoting false expectations with regard to a graduates abilities and career track? Do your students realize and do they expect the path to a career as a chef will take many years of trial and error even after they complete their degree? Are students cognizant of the fact that most will start off as a prep or line cook, work to a position of roundsman, prove their value over a period of a few years before they can expect that first sous chef position, and rarely realize that position of chef until they are well seasoned - eight to 10 years down the road?

Are Students and Graduates Respectful of Others?
Do you and your faculty promote the ideals of equality and do you encourage and insist that students and faculty are respectful of each person’s stature, background, and beliefs? The quality of a chef’s team environment is often determined by how well we prepare them while they are learning to build their personal character in our programs.

Do Students Understand and Appreciate This is a Business of Pennies?
Of course, you have classes in cost controls and maybe even accounting. But, do your students really understand not only how to determine financial performance but more importantly how to control financial performance? Students should realize, “You don’t make money on the onions, you make it on the onion skin? You don’t make money on the lobster; you make it on the lobster shells.”¹ Waste and spoilage are the kiss of death for a restaurant. Are you preparing students to understand and practice this?

Do Students Truly Understand Their Role in Society?
Cooking is not a job. If this is how graduates view their role then their lives will fail to be complete. Cooking is a passion for many because they understand the greater purpose. Cooks and chefs not only provide sustenance, they also provide rewards for guests. Chefs give people an opportunity to break bread both literally and figuratively and help bridge the gaps that tend to exist between people of different backgrounds and beliefs. Great things happen over a plate of exceptional food and this is a chef’s calling.

If an educator begins with the basic premise that graduates of associate or certificate programs should be kitchen ready when they walk across the stage and baccalaureate graduates should be career ready, then it becomes possible to accurately assess a program and its ability to meet or exceed expectations. Ask the questions and take the answers to heart.

^{1 =} A paraphrased quote from Chef Marc Meneau of L’Esperance Restaurant in Vezelay, France, when asked by me: “What is your food cost percentage?”

Plan better – train harder! 

Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC, president of Harvest America Ventures, a mobile restaurant incubator based in Saranac Lake, N.Y., is the former vice president of New England Culinary Institute and a former dean at Paul Smith’s College. Contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..