Learn to Cook Delicious Vegetarian Dishes

Find Culinary Programs

Cooking is a passion that many people turn into a career. For vegetarians, getting quality training can be a special problem, as many cooking techniques focus on preparing meats as the main dish. As a growing awareness of health and alternative cooking rises through America, there are now several options as to training in vegetarian culinary arts.

The Natural Cookery

One alternative to traditional culinary training schools is The Natural Cookery school. This school offers two different programs, The Professional School of Natural Cookery, founded in 1991, for those interested in professional training and The Natural Cook, founded in 1983, which offers training for those interested in learning to cook vegetarian food in their home life. Both programs are based on The Language of Cooking, founded by Joanne Saltzman, using no recipes. This is the first and only school to follow this program. The idea is to teach cooking as a process where the theories and techniques of cooking in order to form the building blocks to explore cooking and be able to suit any diet. Since the foundation of the Boulder, Colorado based school, the curriculum has grown to incorporate nutrition, wine pairing, and a protein focus course.

Though the school is based in Boulder, Colorado, there are also many distance learning courses offered online, and there are culinary travel courses. The traveling courses are focused on learning about healing foods from traditional cultures and schemes to maintain wellbeing.

Natural Gourmet Institute

The Natural Gourmet Institute, founded in 1977 (the professional training program begun in 1987) by Annemarie Colbin, is a New York, NY based culinary institute that offers both a chef’s training program and public classes for personal enrichment. The program is based on a health-supportive motif. The professional program focuses on giving their students the knowledge and skills to expand their culinary potential to succeed in a food and health profession from health spas to catering to teaching. The professional program is offered for both full-time and part-time students. The program encompasses 619 hours of training in natural ingredient identification and expertise, whole grain baking, recipe conversion from traditional to natural/vegan, culinary science knowledge, human nutrition, diet and health. There are separate models on Western Nutrition, Chinese Medicine, Macrobiotics, Raw Foods, Fermentations, and Medicinal Cooking amongst others.

The Natural Gourmet Institute public classes offer a wide variety of classes. The classes will teach how to eat healthily and get more energy out of food, be a healthy vegetarian or flexitarian, prevent diseases or help to heal with diet, and manage weight issues. The classes vary in participation level from demostrations to students doing the cooking. There are classes dedicated to types of food such as poultry, seafood or breads, and classes aimed at specific groups of people such as youth and those who need to cook gluten-free food.

The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts

Founded in 1994 by Elizabeth Ann Foster, the school The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts teaches Southwestern cooking with natural, whole foods. It is currently run out of Austin, TX by Dawn Pallavi, a macrobiotic chef who attended the school at one time. The school attempts to train their students to be healthy and live a balanced life through macrobiotics. The approach encompasses techniques, artistry, and attitude. The classes are small and facilitate understanding of how to select, prepare, and present whole foods, and understand the relationship between food and health.

The program is 800 hours and teaches macrobiotic, vegan, and vegetarian cooking. There is also an emphasis on how eating healthily can improve health and even cure diseases. There is a culinary program, advanced macrobiotic training, and community classes to span the range of interests and professional levels.

In addition to the above culinary programs for vegitarians, there are a number of popular schools offering vegan training.