Moving from a professional kitchen to a classroom requires shifting from the "master-apprentice" model to an academic, student-centered, pedagogical approach.
Here are resources categorized to help a new professor, particularly one coming from a professional chef background, succeed in teaching students:
1. General Transition to Teaching (Pedagogy & Faculty Life)
These resources focus on the how of teaching in a higher education setting, which is often new to career-change faculty.
- Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning at the CIA
- We offer the following assistance:
- Focus on Pedagogy (The Science of Teaching):
- Book Recommendation: Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning by James M. Lang. This is highly recommended for new faculty and offers quick, research-based ways to improve teaching.
- Concepts to Research: Look into "Backward Design" (starting with learning objectives) and "Active Learning" (engaging students beyond lecture/demonstration, e.g., group work, quick quizzes, focused discussions).
- Faculty Community & Mentorship:
- Action: Seek out an experienced faculty mentor (inside or outside the department). They can provide insight into the institution's culture, student expectations, and administrative processes.
- Action: Attend general new-faculty workshops and events. Connect with other first-time faculty members.
- Syllabus & Course Design:
- Action: Find syllabus templates from the CIA CETL. A syllabus is a legal document outlining policies, learning outcomes, and assessment—very different from a kitchen training manual.
2. Resources for Teaching Culinary Arts
These resources help structure a class that focuses on fundamental skills and academic concepts for non-specialist or beginner students.
- Focus on "Why" as well as "How":
- Integrate Science & Culture: Link the practical cooking to its academic context. For example, when teaching emulsification, discuss the chemistry of fat and water. When teaching regional cuisine, discuss the culture, history, and sociology of the food.
- Research Paper Topic: Search for academic articles on "culinary arts pedagogy in higher education" or "John Dewey's kitchen-based pedagogical model" (which advocates for the kitchen as an ideal experiential learning lab).
- Curriculum Materials (Non-Academic but Useful for Techniques):
- Freshman-Specific Focus:
- Address Lack of Experience: Many freshmen have never cooked beyond the microwave. Design the class with very basic prerequisites. Focus on food safety, knife skills, and simple flavor pairing as core learning objectives.
- Dorm-Friendly Cooking: Consider including recipes that are manageable in a small apartment or dorm kitchen, demonstrating the practical application of their skills in a real-world (college life) setting.
3. Bridging the Chef-to-Professor Gap (Mindset & Skill Translation)
The biggest challenge is often translating expertise into effective teaching.
- Mastery vs. Instruction:
- Challenge: As a chef, you perform tasks on instinct (mastery). As a professor, you must explicitly break down every step and explain the reasoning (instruction).
- Action: When demonstrating, verbalize why you are doing something, not just what you are doing. Slow down the steps significantly.
- Classroom Management vs. Kitchen Management:
- Challenge: Kitchens rely on hierarchy, immediacy, and high pressure. Classrooms require patience, encouraging inquiry, and fostering a positive learning environment.
- Action: Review CIA policies on academic honesty, student accommodations, and professional behavior. Your authority comes from your role as an educator, not solely from your expertise.
- Assessment Shift:
- Challenge: Kitchens assess based on final product quality, speed, and efficiency. CIA courses assess based on demonstrated learning and meeting course objectives.
- Action: Shift from just grading the taste/plating (product) to also grading the process (technique, sanitation, organization, explanation of method). Use rubrics to make expectations transparent and objective.
4. Active Learning and Hands-On Strategies
These techniques ensure students are doing and thinking during class time, not just watching.
- "The Why" over "The How" (Academic Hook):
- Action: Begin each practical session with a discussion of the science, history, or culture behind the dish/technique. For example, before making bread, ask: "What is the role of gluten (protein structure) and yeast (microbiology)?"
- Resource Concept: This connects the "doing" to the "academic content" required by the educational setting.
- Think-Pair-Share (Quick Engagement):
- Action: During a demo or before starting a recipe, pause and ask a conceptual question (e.g., "Why is it critical to chill the dough now?"). Students individually jot down an answer (Think), discuss it with a neighbor (Pair), and then a few pairs share with the class (Share).
- Benefit: Gets all students thinking, not just the confident ones.
- Intentional Mistakes or "What's Wrong with this Picture?":
- Action: The instructor (you) deliberately commits a common cooking error (e.g., adding cold butter to a hot sauce, crowding a pan). Students have to identify the mistake, explain the resulting issue, and propose the fix.
- Benefit: Focuses critical observation and problem-solving skills, leveraging your deep experience to teach.
- Student-Led Tutorials (Peer Instruction):
- Action: Once a basic skill is learned (e.g., knife cuts), assign small groups to become the "experts" for the next week's class. They film or present a 3-minute tutorial on a specific technique to the rest of the class.
- Benefit: Teaching a concept is the highest form of learning and gives students ownership.
- Gamification and Challenges
- Use your professional background to turn labs into exciting, low-stakes competitions that teach core skills like time management and adaptation.
- Mystery Ingredient Challenge:
- Action: Provide each small group with a "mystery basket" containing one or two unexpected ingredients (like on Chopped). Their task is to successfully integrate the ingredient into the planned lesson's dish or create a simple new dish using only pantry staples and the mystery item.
- Assessment: Grade is based on teamwork, sanitation, and creative use of the ingredient, not just taste.
- Timed Mise en Place Competition:
- Action: Set a 5-minute timer and challenge groups to prep a set list of vegetables (e.g., "medium dice one onion, julienne one carrot"). This brings the speed and pressure of the kitchen into a fun, controlled environment.
- Benefit: Reinforces the importance of efficient mise en place (getting organized) for success.
- "Cook-Off" Project:
- Action: For a final project, have teams develop a dish based on a specific criteria (e.g., "The perfect healthy dorm meal for under $5"). They present, cook, and critique each other's work (using a grading rubric you provide).
- Connection to Real Life and Career
Freshmen are highly motivated by courses that connect directly to their future.
- Ingredient Storytelling:
- Action: Always tell the "story" of a key ingredient: Where did it come from? How is it grown? Why is it historically significant to a cuisine? What is its impact on the environment or the local economy?
- Resource Concept: Connects to themes in history, environmental science, and business management.
- Budgeting and Meal Planning Lab:
- Action: Assign a project where students must plan a week's worth of meals for a college budget, including a shopping list and cost breakdown. They then cook and present one of the meals they designed.
- Benefit: Highly relevant to a freshman's life, connecting cooking skill to financial and health literacy.
- Sensory Evaluation (Formal Tasting):
- Action: Introduce a formal tasting panel structure (similar to a chef's tasting) where students learn to critique food objectively using proper terminology (acidity, texture, balance, aroma).
- Benefit: Sharpens palate and critical thinking, moving beyond "I like it" to "The sauce is under-reduced, resulting in a thin mouthfeel and muted flavor."
By blending the structure of academic pedagogy with the dynamic, hands-on nature of the professional kitchen, you can create a highly engaging and impactful class.
