Culinary Science

Types of Degrees Culinary Science Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many culinary science/culinology graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Basic Certificate	176
Bachelor’s Degree	102

What Culinary Science Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to culinary science and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Culinary Science Majors

Culinary Science majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
• Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.

Skills for Culinary Science Majors

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to culinary science:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.

Abilities for Culinary Science Majors

As a culinary science major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

What Can You Do With a Culinary Science Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with culinary science:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Chefs and Head Cooks	9.6%	$48,460
Cooks	9.0%	$28,650
Food Scientists and Technologists	5.9%	$65,300
Food Service Managers	9.0%	$54,240
Professors	9.4%	$65,660

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Culinary Science?

This major is dominated by women with about 58% of recent graduates being female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of culinary science majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	7
Black or African American	5
Hispanic or Latino	7
White	50
International Students	15
Other Races/Ethnicities	18

Geographic Diversity

Culinary Science appeals to people across the globe. About 14.7% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Culinary Science

Some careers associated with culinary science require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

Find out what the typical degree level is for culinary science careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	5.5%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	23.5%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	9.2%
Some College Courses	9.1%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	15.1%
Bachelor’s Degree	26.7%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	2.5%
Master’s Degree	6.2%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	1.2%
Doctoral Degree	2.5%

Online Culinary Science Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	1	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	1	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	1	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Culinary Science

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to culinary science.

Major	Number of Grads
Culinary Arts/Chef Training	10,286
Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef	5,508
General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts	3,586
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager	1,291
Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant	804
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services	382
Institutional Food Workers	214
Bartending/Bartender	194
Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, & Dining Room Management/Manager	80
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter	54
Wine Steward/Sommelier	3

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By U.S. Army Europe Images under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.