Culinary Arts Programs in San Antonio, TX

The Culinary Institute of America, San Antonio:
The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is a cooking school for the culinary arts profession located in San Antonio, Texas. Located in the gateway city to Mexico and Latin America, the CIA is a private, not-for-profit, culinary school dedicated to providing the world’s best education to aspiring professionals. Learn exciting cooking skills and the secrets of the professional kitchen. If you’re pursuing a culinary career, you know that interest in all things food-related has never been greater. For those with a strong culinary education, new doors continue to open.

Cooking Associate Degree Programs:

Associate Degree in Culinary Arts
The CIA's Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree program provides you with the broadest culinary arts education possible. It exposes you to the different styles and experiences of the college's faculty members, acquaints you with a wide variety of foodservice equipment, and prepares you for whatever area of the foodservice and hospitality industry you choose to enter.

Associate Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts
The CIA's Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degree program in baking and pastry arts provides you with an amazingly well-rounded education that will prepare you for the growing food world. You'll practice fundamental baking and pastry skills, study baking ingredients, and build your command of critical subjects such as cost control, customer service, and menu development. At the CIA San Antonio, you'll get the same hands-on learning and in-depth knowledge students receive at the college's main campus. 

Culinary Certificate / Short Courses

- Culinary Math
An exploration of percentages, ratios, the metric system, conversion factors, yield tests, and recipe costing as they relate to the foodservice industry. Students will develop projections and analyze costs in yield tests and recipe pre-costing.

- Product Knowledge
An introduction to the identification and use of vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, grains, dry goods, prepared goods, dairy products, and spices in various forms. Explore both fresh and prepared foods and learn to identify, receive, store, and hold products. Students will also learn to evaluate products for taste, texture, smell, appearance, and other quality attributes.

- Gastronomy
An introduction to the social, historical, and cultural forces that have affected the culinary, baking, and pastry professions; traditional foodways; and ways these traditions translate into the professional environment of the foodservice industry today. Topics include the contemporary challenges facing food professionals in the twenty-first century and etiquette as a historical, social, and professional discipline. Students will be expected to complete several written assignments.

- Food Safety
An introduction to food production practices governed by changing federal and state regulations. Topics to be covered include prevention of food-borne illness through proper handling of potentially hazardous foods, HACCP procedures, legal guidelines, kitchen safety, facility sanitation, and guidelines for safe food preparation, storing, and reheating. Students will take the National Restaurant Association ServSafe® examination in this course.

- Culinary Skill Development I
An introduction to, and application of, fundamental cooking theories and techniques. Topics of study include tasting, kitchen equipment, knife skills, classical vegetable cuts, stock production, thickening agents, soup preparation, grand sauces, timing, station organization, palate development, culinary French terms, and food costing.

- Culinary Skill Development II
Continued instruction in fundamental cooking theories and techniques, including product tasting, stock production, vegetable cookery by color and family, potato cookery, grain cookery, rice cookery, fresh pasta cookery, dry legumes, production of stews from vegetables and grains, broth/bouillon, and advanced soup cookery. The course also explores timing, station organization, culinary French terms, and food costing.

- Culinary Skill Development III
Continued instruction and skill improvement in fundamental cooking theories and techniques including the reinforcement of vegetable, rice, grain, pasta, dry legume, and potato cookery as well as contemporary sauce cookery. Focus will be on product tasting, station organization, egg cookery, small sauce production, and protein cookery such as braising, stewing, roasting, sautéing, broiling, grilling, and poaching. The use of culinary French terms and food costing will be reinforced. Students will learn to prepare, simultaneously, several portions of vegetables, starches, and proteins; construct food presentations on plates; and evaluate the results. In this class, time management will be driven by limited production requirements.

- Cuisines of the Americas
Prepare, taste, serve, and evaluate traditional, regional dishes of the Americas. Emphasis will be placed on ingredients, flavor profiles, preparations, and techniques representative of the cuisines of the United States, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

- Breakfast and Lunch Cookery
An introduction to the basic skills necessary to prepare breakfast and lunch in a foodservice operation. Learn to organize and maintain a smooth work flow on the breakfast line, present and garnish food, and the basic methods of egg cookery, quick breads, grains, fruit plates, breakfast beverages, meat, and potatoes. Prepare, taste, serve, and evaluate traditional and contemporary lunch items served in casual foodservice operations. The course will emphasize the basic cooking principles of quantity food preparation. Skills of efficiency, organization, speed, timing, and quality volume production will be stressed.

- Garde Manger
An introduction to 3 main areas of the cold kitchen: reception foods, plated appetizers, and buffet arrangements. Learn to prepare canapés, hot and cold hors d'oeuvre, appetizers, forcemeats, pâtés, galantines, terrines, salads, and sausages. Curing and smoking techniques for meat, seafood, and poultry items will be practiced, along with contemporary styles of presenting food and preparation of buffets. 

- Baking and Pastry Skill Development
An introduction to the principles and techniques used in the preparation of high-quality baked goods and pastries, with an emphasis on fundamental production techniques and evaluation of quality characteristics. Topics include bread fermentation and production, ingredient functions, and custard ratios and preparations.

- Cuisines of Europe and the Mediterranean
Prepare, taste, serve, and evaluate traditional, regional dishes of Europe and the Mediterranean. Emphasis will be placed on ingredients, flavor profiles, preparations, and techniques representative of the cuisines of the Middle East, Spain, France, Italy, and Eastern Europe.