Culinary Program

Find culinary inspiration and helpful career information on topics such as cooking with chocolate, French and Greek cuisine, the life of a Chef, and what to expect in culinary school.

Does your sweet tooth lead you straight to your oven? Read how to avoid the pitfalls of cheese cake, bake creative cookies, use fresh fruits in baking, and more.

Catering and Restaurant Management

If you've ever prepared a Thanksgiving dinner, you know that cooking for a group takes planning and skill. Learn more about the art of catering and restaurant management, including specialized catering such as chocolates or high tea and how to prepare for a restaurant career.

Culinary Schools in the United States

With culinary schools in all 50 states and additional culinary education available online, you don't need to relocate unless you want to. Each state has its own special mixture of culture, cuisine, and locally grown agriculture that inspires the chefs and students who work and live there. If you're passionate about Maine lobster dishes, California cuisine, or any dish or state in between, you'll find a culinary school that is where you are or where you'd like to be.

Home | Culinary | Culinary Arts | French Bistro Cooking: A Way of Life

French Bistro Cooking: A Way of Life

French Bistro cooking isn't just about food. It's a way of life. French Bistro cooking has stayed close to its roots. The word "bistro" conjures up romantic images, fancy French desserts, and lovers sipping wine, but bistro cooking actually is very rustic, down to earth food you can easily learn with training at any of the nation's top culinary schools.

French Cuisine History

In the 19th century, the restaurants that sprang up all over Paris and France itself were often high class and high priced. But bistros also sprang up with neighborhood clientele, local atmosphere, and local cuisine. These were places to get together and socialize and eat good, basic food.

French Bistro Cooking Highlights

Bistro cooking highlights seasonal, local, fresh, ethnic foods of the locale. Bistro cooking is honest cooking; it's nothing new and nothing so fancy you couldn't learn it with culinary training.

Bistro cooking is a skill you can learn at culinary school. It's the beauty of a bowl of French onion soup, covered with crusty baguette slices and topped with lots of shredded Gruyere cheese, served with coarse sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. It's as simple as chicken roasted with bay leaves, thyme, and lemon tucked under the skin, gently flavoring from the inside out. It's as comforting as potatoes baked with Reblochon cheese and as simple and elegant as a pear and almond tart.

The Culinary Art of Bistro Cooking

Bistro cooking is a way of life that started in home kitchens and spread to restaurants, so you probably have everything you need in your kitchen. Although if you take classes at culinary school you may find a few new culinary inventions you can live without but don't want to.

Bistro is about friends and neighbors relaxing in the kitchen or on the back porch with crusty bread and local wines, with a pot of kitchen garden soup, a garlic shrimp side, and a main course of tarragon chicken. Culinary training can get you there; and once there, you may never want to leave.

Sources
French Bistro Cooking (http://www.chefhome.com/CBBistro01.html)
"Bistro: French Country Recipes for Home Cooks," by Laura Washburn

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