The Commis Culinary program represents the culmination of years of research and program development by some of the finest culinary educators in the country. Based upon proven methods of culinary education and incorporating current thinking on how people learn, the Commis Method leads aspiring Chefs through a more logical series of courses. This is an educational strategy that makes more sense. Each course in the series leads naturally to the next and relies inevitably on the preceding.
This is a hands-on program (80% of your studies take place in the kitchen). We believe that culinary students learn more working in a kitchen, with product. At SDCI, every student prepares food every day — no fighting for space or kitchen resources with other students. And again, you learn techniques, not recipes. With a command of foundational techniques, Commis students can execute virtually any recipe from any cookbook, rather than a limited number of dishes taught out of a cookbook.
The Commis Method will first lead you through foundational courses: in flavor, business, and professional concerns (such as safety and sanitation and the history of the profession).
Next students move into the kitchen to train in: knife skills; fundamental techniques — poach, braise, roast, sauté, etc.; stocks; sauces — the mother sauces, classic small sauces. Throughout students apply their earlier theoretical work in flavor and reinforce fundamental business concepts. They learn the delicate art of seasoning.
The Commis Method demands that while in the kitchen, students work in small groups, with limited class sizes. Students first observe the Chef demonstrate each new skill and then practice it under his watchful eye. Students practice culinary theory in the kitchen with product; they don't just read about it in a book or hear about it in a crowded lecture hall.
In the next sequence, students learn to apply fundamental techniques to a wider variety of proteins and classic preparations. They practice with a variety of equipment.
Flavor and business: the Commis Method revolves around these two essential pillars and virtually every course day in the program teaches or reinforces both. Appreciate a new concept of flavor, how to engage not just taste but all five senses, and which flavors always work together and those that don't.
After years of experience in the kitchen, the successful fine dining Chef learns to understand the intricacies of flavor, how they interact with the human physiology, how certain flavors always seem to work together as 'flavor friends' and others seem to fight with one another as 'flavor enemies'. SDCI's new concept of flavor teaches you to engage touch, hearing, smell, sight, taste — and also a 6th sense. Once you study the Commis Method, each of these senses will play a role in your cooking.
In addition, learn to incorporate business fundamentals in everything you do in the kitchen: profit and loss, marketing, kitchen design. SDCI is a professional culinary school — not just a place to learn to cook. Most of our students aspire to become Chefs. Today's successful Chef must be more than just a good cook, but must also understand how to run a business. > Learn more about Career Planning
Come to see our program for yourself. Contact us today and discover how you could begin a new career in the culinary arts.
Call us at 619.644.2100