“I had researched culinary schools for a couple of years. Escoffier kept coming up in my top five. I looked at graduation rates, retention rates, enrollees, and how many people were working in the industry after three to five years. Escoffier was consistently at the top of the list.”*
Brent Unruh, Executive Chef at Target Hospitality, Boulder Culinary Arts Graduate
Program Highlights
Hands-On Training
Small Class Sizes
Entrepreneurial Curriculum
Farm To Table® Experience
Culinary Industry Externship
Experienced Chef Educators
Career Services Support
Nationally Accredited
Joseph Low, Boulder Culinary Arts Student*
Associate of Occupational Studies Degree in Culinary Arts
60 Weeks
48 weeks of training
Exciting 6-week Farm To Table® Experience
12 weeks of industry externship
Curriculum
Culinary Foundations I
This course begins with food safety and sanitation in the professional kitchen, including proper hygiene, food handling, food storage, cleaning, pest control, in a food service operation. Students become acquainted with tools, utensils, and equipment in professional food service and discuss kitchen layout. Fundamental knife skills, cutting techniques, and the concept of mise en place are covered. Production of stocks, soups are included along with an introduction to grain and legume cookery. An introduction to the role of heat in various cooking techniques rounds out a foundational knowledge in culinary arts.
Culinary Foundations II
This course offers a deeper level continuation of understanding of foundational culinary skills. Students will be introduced to various dry-heat, moist-heat and combination-heat cooking technqiues, as well as understand the role of the five Mother Sauces in cuisine. A greater emphasis on knife cuts and accuracy is focused upon, and plating and presentation are introduced to give students the basic skills necessary to advance in a culinary arts education.
Doughs and Leaveners
This course covers ingredient function, leavening agents and mixing methods related to doughs with an emphasis on understanding bakeshop techniques to produce savory results. Production of quick-doughs and batters, flatbreads, yeast-raised-doughs, various formations and related accompaniments.
Culinary Garde Manger
The Garde Manger is responsible for cold foods, including salads, sandwiches, dressings, pâtés, cold hors d’oeuvres, and various buffet items. Students will prepare items to be served cold in a sanitary and appealing way, and learn about various cold kitchen production techniques, including methods of preserving meat and produce.
American Regional Cuisine
Students have the opportunity to gain an understanding of American Regional cuisine by exploring history, traditional and indigenous ingredients, flavor components and cooking techniques. Application of classical and contemporary cooking techniques, plate design, and application of proper sanitation techniques.
Western European Cuisines
Students have the opportunity to gain an understanding of Western European cuisines by exploring history, traditional and indigenous ingredients, flavor components and cooking techniques. Application of classical and contemporary cooking techniques, plate design, and application of proper sanitation techniques.
Farm to Table Experience®
This course provides the students with a hands-on experience on a working farm/ranch or vineyard/orchard. The Instructor conducts the lecture and lab activities to coincide with the harvested item(s) for a catered event executed by the students. Students in the residential delivery of the course, under the direction of a Farmer/Rancher collect or harvest foods and/or proteins for the students’ lab activities.
This class also focuses on the ever-growing relationship between the chef and the farm/factory/ranch. This course will result in a daily lab menu production of selected sustainable and/or organic foods. Also presented will be concepts of traditional and nontraditional farming and sourcing for vegetables, as well as the impact of land and sea animal-based food sourcing as practiced globally.
Restaurant Operations
Three out of five restaurants fail within five years of opening, often due to money mismanagement; this residential program course gives students the skills to not only keep their restaurant in business but also turn a profit. In this course, students study the hierarchy of management in food service, and the skills needed to succeed as a manager: training employees, motivating them, disciplining them, and creating a safe and positive work environment. This course explores different types of menus (including both food menus and beverage menus) and their applications. Aspects of menu planning and design, ranging from visual design to price analysis to making use of available resources are covered. The menu is both a financial tool and a communication tool, and students learn about its uses as both. Students are introduced to accounting and managing budgets, especially as it relates to the hospitality industry. Students learn how to minimize costs and maintain a full range of customer services. This course covers such topics as business planning, pricing, credit management, government regulation, and legal concerns. Business ethics and the crucial role and importance of management and leadership are also covered. For the final project for this course, the student will complete and present a business plan for a foodservice operation.
Business and Professional Communications
The Business & Professional Communications course emphasizes the principles and practical application of effective professional communication behaviors within professional, business, and organizational contexts.
In addition to identifying the importance of effective communication skills to the hospitality industry, communication styles and effective listening methods are addressed. Listening skills, verbal and nonverbal communication, conflict resolution, cultural differences in communication, and debate techniques are also covered.
World History & Culture from the Culinary Perspective
Throughout history, food has done more than just provide nourishment. From prehistoric times to the present day, food and the pursuit of it has had a transformative role in human history. Food has impacted societal organization, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. As epicure and gastronome, Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin stated, “Gastronomy governs the whole of human man.” In addition, food also serves a role in the cultural development of religion, economics, and politics. This course examines the role of food and its contribution and influence over history, culture, religion, economics, and politics. Food customs and attitudes are also explored, as well as, the social awareness selected food patterns and customs.
Technical Writing for the Hospitality Industry
Technical Writing for the Hospitality Industry, prepares students to write in the hospitality and foodservice professions. In a professional setting, writing provides readers information they need in a format they can understand. Unlike most academic writing, in which students demonstrate their learning to a professor who already knows the subject, in technical communication the writer is the expert, and the readers are the learners. In the hospitality and foodservice industries, students and professionals write a variety of documents for supervisors, colleagues, and customers such as explaining a problem or product, preparing a proposal, or illustrating a project. This course teaches students to adapt their writing to different audiences and purposes. This course outlines strategies for making subjects clear to readers who need to understand them. To communicate effectively with an audience, writing must meet rigorous editing standards, in addition to writing in a clear, concise style and presenting information logically.
Foodservice Math & Accounting
Foodservice Math & Accounting introduces students to managerial accounting concepts and explains their applications to specific operations within the hospitality industry. Emphasis is placed on how to administer accounting procedures to minimize costs and maintain a full range of customer services.
After summary of the fundamentals of culinary math, an overview of basic business accounting transactions is covered including asset/liability accounts such as accounts receivable and payable, ledgers, balance sheets, payroll and financial statements.
Student Success Essentials
This course equips students with essential tools and skills to thrive in their culinary studies and prepare for future success in the culinary industry. Students will develop effective time management strategies, refine professional communication skills, and gain valuable insights into available Student and Career Services. The course is designed to set learners on a path toward achieving their academic and professional goals.
The Science of Nutrition
In the Science of Nutrition course, the basic principles of nutrition are investigated. Emphasis is placed on the nutrients, food sources, and their utilization in the body for growth and health throughout life. Contemporary and global nutritional issues are also discussed.
Culinary Entrepreneurship
This course is a culmination course in entrepreneurship. This course covers such topics as business planning, pricing, credit management, government regulation, legal concerns. Business ethics and the crucial role and importance of management and leadership are also covered. For the final project for this course, the student will complete and present a business plan for a food service operation.
Culinary Industry Externship I
This course provides opportunities for real life experiences in an operational restaurant or related business and builds on the skills and techniques covered in previous courses. Externship courses are specific to the area of program concentration and must be completed for each concentration in which a student is enrolled. Externship must be completed for each new program enrollment.
Culinary Industry Externship II
This course provides additional opportunities for real life experiences in an operational restaurant or related business and builds on the skills and techniques covered in previous courses Externship courses are specific to the area of program concentration and must be completed for each concentration in which a student is enrolled. Externship must be completed for each new program enrollment.
“I absolutely loved the small class sizes because of the hands-on learning. Escoffier taught me skills that are useful no matter what field you work in. Resilience is one. Time management is an amazing asset. Leadership skills have just blossomed within me.”*
Colton Ragland, Boulder Culinary Arts Graduate
Farm To Table® Experience
The 6-week Farm To Table® Experience provides students with an in-depth knowledge of where food comes from, the advantages of buying local, various farming and production methods, and how to make the best sustainable and ethical ingredient choices throughout their culinary careers.
Farm Days
Farm Days
Visiting a farm or food procurement facility to see specific parts of the food cycle; some of these are tours of facilities and others are very hands-on.
Kitchen Days
Kitchen Days
Students work in the kitchen to apply the concepts and techniques that they have learned from previous classes to new material gained from the farm days.
Culmination Days
Culmination Days
Students work in teams to plan and execute an event for friends and family within a specified budget.
Farm To Table® Experience Kitchen Days
Where Does Your Food Come From?
Discussion about product sourcing, fabrication, processing, types of farming, history and modernization of food processes.
Whole Animal Butchery
Discussion of butchery processes and practices; explanation of technique and primal/sub primal cuts.
Food Service Operations
Discussion of food service operation types, front of house service, kitchen processes, basic management principles; students plan and prepare for culmination and conduct Quick Fire drills in the kitchen to get used to traditional line cooking operations and stations.
Sustainable and Ethical food sourcing
Discussion of sustainable food sourcing practices; debates about efficacy and other aspects of these practices; students engage in exercises to evaluate proteins raised and processed in a variety of ways (i.e. conventional vs grass fed beef, etc.)
Event Planning and Execution
Discussion of event types and basic procedures for planning food and beverage events; students work as a team to prepare for their culmination events including all menu development and design, product procurement, budgeting, service, and food preparation tasks.
“One of the huge deciding factors for me to choose Escoffier over other schools was the farm-to-table section available to us here. Studying farms was something I decided was absolutely necessary for my education. I didn’t want to go somewhere if they didn’t want to talk about it.”*
Kadie Sardo, Boulder Culinary Arts Student
An Inside Look Into The Farm To Table® Experience
A Typical Week at Escoffier**
25 hours per week on campus
5 to 10 hours per week for work outside of class
Class format consists of research, planning, discussion, experience, feedback and reflection
kitchen courses, lecture courses and 12 week industry externship experience
Online interface for course materials so all resources are in one place
**Hours per week recommended for academics and school-related activities, depending on the student’s learning style.
Tuition
TOTAL PROGRAM COST:
$40,535*
*Total program cost includes tuition, uniforms (non-refundable), toolkit, and an optional non-refundable technology fee. The Associate of Occupational Studies Degree in Culinary Arts cost also includes non-refundable coursepacks. The cost of books is not included. Students may choose to purchase books when enrolling. For more cost details, see the catalog.
“One of the things I love about being an instructor, it’s really exciting to see the love the students have for this business. Everybody comes from a different background, but everybody has one thing in common: they have a passion for cooking.”*