Chef Schools and Culinary Training in Missouri

Cooking schools in Missouri deliver culinary programs on par with the best industry educators. You’ll find Diploma programs from technical colleges specializing in accelerated job-placement, Associate’s Degrees from career-focused community colleges, and Bachelor’s Degrees that emphasize hospitality, restaurant and culinary management.

The State University system tackles advanced studies in hospitality management, nutrition, and dietetics.  Missouri’s stand-alone culinary arts schools are among the best in the country, offering a range of schooling options for chefs at all levels.  As you study the myriad of Missouri alternatives, define your culinary career objectives.  Are you management minded, or content to step into entry-level kitchen work?  Are you setting the stage for an entrepreneurial venture?  Does your true calling come from a chef’s specialty like Pastry Arts?

Answering career questions and envisioning your dream job are essential for orienting yourself on the best educational path forward. Choose a school with a track record for placing graduates in work roles that resemble your dream job.  Whatever your aspirations, make sure your school has these culinary tools in place, to prepare you for employment:

• Internships/externships in reputable kitchens
• Student-run restaurants
• Well-equipped teaching and demo kitchens
• Professional chef/instructors
• Guest chef presentations
• Career guidance and continuing education opportunities
• Job placement

Use every resource at hand to boost your career credibility - consider membership in a professional organization.  Industry groups and associations are notorious for their strong commitment to education.  Scholarships and educational seminars are members-only events, designed to advance industry careers. Local chapters of professional chef organizations engage with local culinary talent for networking and job placement opportunities.  By establishing yourself as a regional student-member, your associations with like-minded industry pros can be tapped later for apprenticeships and jobs.

• American Culinary Federation-St. Louis, Branson, Kansas City, Central Missouri chapters
• Research Chefs Association-South Central Region
• United States Personal Chefs Association-Greater St. Louis Chapter

Missouri Food Scene as Educational Experience

Your culinary education must include a heavy dose of regional cuisine. Dissect local menus of note, and whenever possible, introduce yourself to the chefs who are responsible for creating local trends.  Pay particular attention to the creative use of seasonal ingredients that make their meals stand out.  Understanding local culinary traditions and food trends provides essential input for carving out your own niche on the local job scene.

St. Louis, Kansas City, and Springfield offer clusters of eclectic and innovative culinary experimentation, but barbecue and other Missouri meals are also showcased at regional festivals and food events.  The concentration of local culinary talent is high at these foodie outposts, where participating chefs are eager to put their best feet forward for hungry hometown diners.

For students, Epicurean festival learning opportunities run the gamut. Participating in student competitions ala Iron Chef America or doing volunteer prep-work in festival kitchens are valuable resume entries for chefs-to-be.  High-volume food production experience and industry networking opportunities add further educational value to fun food festivals.

Get a Chef’s Job in Missouri

Chefs work across a wide spectrum of employment environments, so don’t limit yourself at job hunting time. Your first job won’t be as an Executive Chef, so your path to kitchen management success might include a job in one of the following hospitality areas.

• Fine-dining restaurant
• Hotel kitchen
• Nursing home, hospital, medical center
• Corporate kitchen
• Banquet, catering facility
• Personal, private chef
• Resort, spa
• Casino

Leading Missouri Cooking School

L’Ecole Culinaire - Ladue – One of two world-class campuses in the region, promoting exacting chef curriculums. Courses are taught by professional chef/ instructors with baking and cooking experience that translates to classroom understanding of the precise skills required to propel any chef’s career forward.

Ladue campus boasts nearly 30,000 square feet of classroom and lab space.  Classrooms are equipped with computers and learning aids that help instructors lay down a solid theoretical foundation.  Practical application of classical cooking techniques occurs at student work stations, within the kitchen labs.  Stoves, sinks, ovens and a wide array of most-often-used cooking implements are provided for the hands-on phases of instruction that reflect authentic commercial scenarios.

For the ultimate real-time training, chef students are dispatched for work shifts at the school’s fully operational restaurant.  The Presentation Room serves the St. Louis public, from a student-conceived and executed menu.  Gratuities and other donations are used to help culinary students with educational funding needs.

Ten-week phases break the curriculum into manageable modes that are applied to popular L’Ecole Culinaire degrees like; Associate’s in Occupational Studies – Culinary Arts, A.O.S. – Culinary Management, and Diplomas in Culinary Essentials or Culinary Fundamentals.  A state of the art facility has recently been added to the campus lineup, in Olivette, MO.

Missouri State Colleges, Community and Technical Colleges Offering Culinary, Restaurant Management, and/or Hospitality Degrees

• Central Missouri State University – Warrensburg
  
• College of the Ozarks - Point Lookout
  
• East Central College – Union
  
• Fontbonne College – St. Louis
  
• Forest Park Community College – St. Louis
  
• Lake Career and Technical Center – Camdenton
  
• Jefferson College – Hillsboro
  
• Metropolitan Community College - Kansas City
  
• Northwest Missouri State University – Maryville
  
• Ozarks Technical Community College - Springfield
  
• Patricia Stevens College – St. Louis
  
• Rolla Technical Institute – Rolla
  
• Saint Louis Community College - Forest Park
  
• Saint Louis University – St. Louis
  
• Saline County Career Center – Marshall
  
• Southwest Missouri State University – Springfield
  
• University of Missouri-Columbia – This flagship campus of the University of Missouri system offers more than one food related degree.  Nutrition Studies and Food Science are food related majors that lead to work in institutional settings like hospitals and schools, and as consultants for restaurants and corporate food entities.  The best fit for dedicated food professionals who want to work on the recreational side of the food service business, is the Bachelor’s of Science in Hospitality Management offered by the school. 

The Food and Beverage emphasis is particularly well suited for students seeking employment as kitchen managers, F&B directors, and restaurant entrepreneurs.  Four-year credentials in the hospitality field are stepping-stones to employment at hotels, motels, casinos, fine-dining restaurants, cruise lines and in entrepreneurial roles like owner/operator, personal chef, and brand innovators.

• Waynesville Technical Academy – Waynesville

 

ACF Accredited Programs

Postsecondary

College of the Ozarks
1 Opportunity Ave.,
Point Lookout, MO 65726-9300

Phone: (417) 690-2108
Contact: Robert J Stricklin, CEC, AAC - rstricklin@cofo.edu

Programs

• Bachelors Degree in Culinary Arts

East Central College
1964 Prairie Dell Rd.,
Union, MO 63084-4344

Phone: (417) 690-2108
Contact: Michael A. Palazzola, CEC - michael.palazzola@eastcentral.edu

Programs

• AAS Degree in Culinary Arts

Ozarks Technical Community College
1001 E Chestnut Expy.,
Springfield, MO 65802-3625

Phone: (417) 447-8281
Fax: (417)895-7264
Contact: Lisa Gardner - gardnerl@otc.edu

Programs

• AAS Degree in Baking & Pastry
• AAS Degree in Culinary Arts - Culinary Arts Option

St. Louis Community College
5600 Oakland Ave.,
Saint Louis, MO 63110-1316

Phone: (314) 644-9617
Fax: (314) 951-9405
Contact: Ellen E Piazza - epiazza@stlcc.edu

Programs

• AAS Degree in Culinary Arts
• AAS Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts

Secondary

Fort Osage Career and Technology Center
2101 N Twyman Rd.,
Independence, MO 64058-3200

Phone: (816) 650-7190
Contact: Lisa Burgess - lburgess@fortosage.net

Programs

• AAS Degree in Culinary Arts
• AAS Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts

Lake Career and Technical Center
PO Box 1409,
Camdenton, MO 65020-1409

Phone: 573-317-3483 x 7370
Fax: (573) 346-9284
Contact: Elaine S. Mallahan - smallahan@camdentonschools.org

Nichols Career Center
605 Union St.,
Jefferson City, MO 65101-2814

Phone: (573) 659-3100

North Technical High School
11700 Derhake Rd.,
Florissant, MO 63033-6419

Phone: (314) 989-7726
Fax: (314) 989-7665
Contact: Wayne L. Gerler - wlgerler@ssdmo.org

Northland Career Center
1801 Branch St.,
Platte City, MO 64079-8372

Phone: (816) 858-5505

Saline County Career Center
900 W. Vest St.,
Marshall, MO 65340-1668

Phone: (660) 886-6958

South Technical High School
12721 W. Watson Rd.,
Saint Louis, MO 63127-1324

Phone: (314) 989-7460
Contact: David A. Bass - DABass@ssdmo.org

Waynesville Career Center
400 G.W. Ln.,
Waynesville, MO 65583-2384

Phone: (573) 842-2500
Contact: Jon E. Dye - jdye@waynesville.k12.mo.us