CA 109 - Introduction to Culinary Arts

Credits: 1-6
LAB hours per week: 2-12
This course is an introduction to food safety and sanitation policies focusing on current regulations, best practices, and science-based information. Students develop knowledge of the organization of food service storerooms including product and equipment identification. Industry standard knife skills and common culinary math principles are covered. Students learn the basics of breakfast and egg cookery and fabrication techniques for meat and seafood.
Course Outcomes:

Identify common ingredients used in a professional kitchen.
Maintain and safely operate standard industry equipment.
Execute industry standard knife skills.
Research foodborne illnesses to explain their prevention, and systematically practice procedures to prevent them.
Analyze critical control points throughout the flow of food
Perform cleaning and sanitation as it pertains to facilities and equipment.
Perform calculations of weights, measurements, and recipe conversions.
Define and detail purchasing, receiving, storage, and inventory management in a professional kitchen operation.
Execute basic meat and seafood butchery.
Produce breakfast and egg dishes using basic cookery techniques.

Course Topics:

What is a safe food handler?
Bacteria, virus, parasite, fungi, and biological toxins
The Flow of Food: purchasing, receiving, storage, preparation, service
Foodborne Illnesses
Cleaning vs. Sanitizing
Cross-contamination & time/temperature abuse
How to calculate a Recipe Scaling Factor
Identification of equipment, dry goods, meats, seafood, produce and dairy products
Inventory control systems
Classic knife skills: dice, brunoise, julienne, batonnet, tourney, rondelle, lozenge, fermiere, chiffonade.
Fabrication of a whole chicken
Fileting of whole fish
Egg cookery: scrambled, over (easy, medium, hard), hard/soft boiled, poached, omelets