Culinology® in Canada

Culinology® continues to spread steadily throughout the United States, and has recently crossed the northern border into Canada. The Chef School at George Brown College, Toronto, Ontario, and the Guelph Food Technology Centre, Guelph, Ontario, are geared up and ready to present several Culinology continuing-education workshops this year. Along with these offerings, a Toronto chapter of the Research Chefs Association is in the works. In addition, Food in Canada, a national industry magazine for food and beverage processors and manufacturers, is planning to publish four supplements this year titled “Research Chefs in Canada.”

George Brown College already has one workshop under its belt, having presented the first-ever Culinology workshop in Canada in Oct. 2007. “Our first course had a full enrollment and strong support from both Canadian and American foodservice partners,” says Stephen Field, culinary instructor, George Brown College, and an enthusiastic supporter of the discipline.

“What the education process fulfills for our food technologists/scientists” says Field, “is to broaden their perspective in food preparation, gaining a holistic approach of mastering the art of cooking and combining their expertise in science.” Along with Field, Winnie Chui, a food scientist and managing director of the school’s Culinary Studio, guided 15 students through the Culinary Arts Fundamentals course.

Jane Chung, quality assurance manager, west region, Avendra, Rockville, MD, was one of those students. Based in southern California, she elected to take the class in Canada, since the course at The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY, had already wrapped up. “As a food scientist,” she says, “my brain is focused on the technical side, so this course was a nice bridge between the science and the art of cooking.”

Like Culinology workshops held in the United States, classes begin with a lecture on culinary fundamentals, followed by a demonstration of the dishes students themselves will prepare later. “Being food scientists, the natural tendency is to measure everything and stick to a formula,” Chung says. “But we were encouraged to experiment and be creative.” Duly inspired, she intends to work toward accreditation as a Certified Culinary Scientist.

At George Brown College, a course on Culinary Arts Fundamentals for Food Technologists took place at the end of February, and Advanced Culinary Arts for Food Technologists is scheduled for June.

This year, the facility is offering classes on Fundamentals of Food Science for Chefs, Basics of Food Processing and Food Systems, and Development of Food Systems & Commercialization. Carol Finlan, senior technical services manager, Guelph Food Technology Centre, will serve as the lead instructor for these upcoming classes. To prepare, she audited Food Science for Chefs workshops at Rutgers, New Brunswick, NJ, and Mercer County Community College, West Windsor, NJ. “The idea of bringing together the two disciplines is fantastic,” she says. “It’s a perfect marriage for us; we have the room, the facilities.”

Finlan acknowledges that the coursework benefits chefs by encouraging them to think about shelf life and to think about the flavor of products in terms of concentrations. “Chefs design by art, by knowledge of the taste of products, but they don’t keep numbers in their heads as far as concentrations,” she says. “Knowing what 1% citric acid solution tastes like would reduce trial and error.”

Finlan believes many product-development departments are missing one element: a chef. And she believes the industry trend will be to hire research chefs. “It’s fine and dandy to develop a food product,” she notes, “but if it doesn’t taste good, well…”

Flavor, after all, is a mighty big piece of the food puzzle.