CUL-100 Culinary Fundamentals

This lecture course is the foundation course for the culinary arts curriculum. The course focuses on developing students’ understanding of the history of the culinary industry as well as examining proper identification, preparation, and evaluation of basic culinary ingredients. Students will learn the principles of cooking as well as proper cooking methods for different products. Basic math skills necessary for recipe conversions will be introduced as well as writing standard recipes.

Credits

3

Corequisite

CUL-105

Lecture Contact Hours

3

Lab Contact Hours

0

Other Contact Hours

0

Department

• Business

Grading Scheme

• Letter

SUNY Gen Ed Credit

• No

Semesters Course Will Be Offered

• Fall
• Spring

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Identify and delineate successful preparation methods for produce items, starch items, and leading sauces, as well as describing the methods of cooking these food items.
2. Compose an original, functional menu using standardized recipes.
3. Articulate the roles of ingredients in a recipe from both a preparatory and a nutritional point of view.
4. Debate and discuss current food trends and how these trends influence consumer behaviors with regard to food consumption.

View Course Outline

CUL 100: Culinary Fundamentals

Department

Business

Course Description

This lecture course is the foundation course for the culinary arts curriculum. The course focuses on developing students’ understanding of the history of the culinary industry as well as examining proper identification, preparation, and evaluation of basic culinary ingredients. Students will learn the principles of cooking as well as proper cooking methods for different products. Basic math skills necessary for recipe conversions will be introduced as well as writing standard recipes.

Credit Hours

3

Contact Hours

Lecture	3
Lab	0
Other	0

Grading Scheme

Letter

Semester(s) Course Will Be Offered

Fall, Spring

Corequisites

CUL-105

Course Learning Outcomes

1. Identify and delineate successful preparation methods for produce items, starch items, and leading sauces, as well as describing the methods of cooking these food items.
2. Compose an original, functional menu using standardized recipes.
3. Articulate the roles of ingredients in a recipe from both a preparatory and a nutritional point of view.
4. Debate and discuss current food trends and how these trends influence consumer behaviors with regard to food consumption.

Topic Outline

1. Orientation and Overview of the Foodservice Industry
   1. Introduction to the Principles of Cooking, moist and dry heat, Breakfast cookery including eggs, pancakes, French toast, styles of omelets, and scrambles.
   2. Weights, Measures, Recipes and Conversions including Metric to English units, conversions of volume measure, mass measurements to volume equivalents, volume measurements of cans, how to measure accurately, temperature measurements.
2. Writing Effective Recipes and Requisitions including usage of appropriate terminology to ensure results, attention to detail, considerations for the end user, specification of product, technique, and cooking methods.
   1. Menu Engineering and Concepts including styles, considerations for the reader, visual cues and the flow of attention, flaws in menu writing, concept, and /or assessment of target markets.
3. Cooking Vegetables and Potatoes
   1. Effects of acids and bases on color and texture retention, families of vegetables and potatoes, use and cookery of waxy vs. starchy potatoes, appropriate cooking and preparation methods, definitions and discussion of GMO, selective breeding, and organic produce, market forms of vegetables and potatoes.
4. Soups
   1. Consommés, chowders, potages, purees, broths, clear, and cold soups, appropriate ingredients, garnishes, common pitfalls, service temperatures and portion sizes.
5. Pasta, Grains and Legumes
   1. Ingredients, cooking methods, names of pasta cuts, proper use for sauces, grain substitutes for traditional starches, use in gluten free products, use of legumes in a vegetarian diets.
6. Stocks and Bases
   1. Chemical and physical properties of stocks and bases, ingredients and methodology for production of white chicken, beef, veal stocks, brown chicken, beef, and veal stocks, vegetable stocks, fumets, and remouillages.
7. Food and Culture, Nutrition and Food Science, Specialized Diets
   1. Vegetarian, vegan and lifestyle diets, medically necessary diets, cultural norms for food consumption including portion sizes, consumption of well rounded diets, impacts on the modern foodservice industry.
8. Salads and Dressings
   1. Basics of Food Costing including vinaigrettes, dairy based dressings, mayonnaise and mayonnaise based dressing, the process of emulsification, identification of emulsifying ingredients, salad green families, care and flavor profiles, entrée salads bound salads, the role of salads within the meal, complimentary flavor profiles and plating techniques.
9. Introduction to Sauces
   1. The mother or leading sauces, bodies and thickeners, contemporary versus classical sauce making, 10,8,5 rules for roux, the production and use of white, blond, and brown roux, arrowroot versus cornstarch slurries, whitewashes, classical terminology use, and guest expectations.
   2. Small sauces and Condiments including derivatives, classical garnishes, catsups, relishes, chutneys, salsas, aiolis, and remoulades.