What theoretical learning is involved with commercial cookery?

When you think of a commercial cookery course, you things like:

• Handling kitchen equipment
• Honing basic chopping and dicing skills
• Learning different cooking techniques

What a lot of prospective students might not realise is that commercial cookery isn’t all about cooking!

In addition to practical cooking skills, it’s important that commercial cookery students enter the workplace with theoretical knowledge to support their cooking skills.

Because of that, your commercial cookery course has two components: a practical one and a theoretical one.

What the practical half involves is pretty self-explanatory – but what type of theoretical learning might your commercial cookery course in Melbourne involve?

Read on to find out!

Food hygiene

Poor hygiene while cooking at home can knock you and your family out for a few days.

Not a great outcome – you might have to call in sick to work… and you might lose kitchen privileges from your family!

The vast majority of the time however, the consequences end there.

If the same thing happens in a commercial kitchen however, the consequences are worse:

• Your employment might be at risk
• Your hospitality business’ reputation may suffer
• Negative reviews can come in
• You might even be liable for legal action

Hygiene is critical when working in a commercial kitchen – that’s why our commercial cookery courses in Melbourne put a heavy emphasis on teaching you the importance of kitchen hygiene.

As part of the theoretical part of your course, you’ll learn everything there is to know about keeping cooking equipment and benches clean during cooking and between cooks, as well as safe handling criteria for a range of different foods and ingredients.

Storage

Commercial cookery isn’t just about creating meals – on top of cooking, you’re also in charge of looking after inventory. After all, good ingredients are the key to creating a tasty meal!

And as we all know, certain ingredients or types of food come with unique storage requirements.

As part of the theory component of your commercial cookery course in Melbourne, you’ll learn everything there is to know about safely storing food.

That includes things like:

• Proper storage methods
• How long certain types of food last
• Ways to identify spoiling ingredients

Each of our commercial cookery courses features an entire unit focused on teaching you how to maintain the quality of perishable goods – knowledge that you’re no doubt going to fall back on almost daily during your career!

Special dietary requirements

You’d think that accommodating special dietary requirements would be easy – just don’t include anything that a customer says that they’re allergic to.

However, in many cases, accommodating special dietary requirements can be more complicated than that.

In many commercial kitchens, it can be challenging to avoid cross-contamination, especially if you’re working in a small area and using the same surfaces. For example, flour has a habit of drifting everywhere and sitting in the atmosphere, which can be bad news for celiacs.

Not only that, but you’ll also need to learn how to identify certain allergens just by looking at the nutritional information label.

You’ll need to be able to look at the label on a box of ingredients and immediately figure out which ones are unsuitable for a customer’s allergies.

Workplace safety practices

Sharp knives, hot stoves, and fast-moving environment: it’s clear to see that commercial cookery carries more safety risks than your average office job!

Working in a commercial kitchen comes with its risks – that’s why each of our commercial cookery courses in Melbourne comes with a considerable focus on teaching you everything you need to know about workplace safety!

You’ll learn about the relevant workplace safety laws, as well as safety procedures in the kitchen covering things like:

• How to safely carry and move heavy objects
• Safely handling broken objects
• How to identify and address slipping and tripping hazards
• Uniforms, hairnets and gloves for safe food handling
• Fire drills, evacuation plans, and operational fire safety equipment

Our commercial cookery courses in Melbourne cover the relevant workplace OHS laws that govern the hospitality industry.

Moreover, we’ll also teach you about your rights as an employee.

Managerial skills

We don’t just teach basic commercial cookery skills – our Certificate IV in Commercial Cookery and Hospitality Management school aims to prepare the next generation of hospitality leaders.

And as part of these courses, you’ll learn all of the essential managerial skills you’ll need to succeed as a hospitality leader.

That means things like:

• Menu creation and pricing
• Managing finances
• Monitoring kitchen operations
• Timetabling and rostering
• Inventory management

These are skills you’ll need to master if you want to climb the ranks or open your own hospitality business – and luckily, these essential skills can be learnt!

Become work-ready with our online cookery courses

When you study cookery in Melbourne, a lot of it is going to be practical – however, an equally large amount of it will be completely theoretical.

And these parts can be taught completely online – good news given the current circumstances!

Unlike other online courses, our online cookery courses replicate the in-person as much as possible.

What a lot of online courses do is have you perform a lot of independent study, sending through worksheets and quizzes for you to complete on your own. Your only interaction might be a short video chat once a week.

With virtual whiteboards that allow you to interact with the course material and private channels for group work, you’ll get the full classroom experience with our online cookery courses.

We even endeavour to maintain our low student-instructor ratios to ensure you get the one-on-one attention you need to succeed.

And finally, each of our commercial cookery courses – online or otherwise – qualifies for government funding for eligible students!

Study cookery in Melbourne with Academia

If you want to break into the commercial cookery industry, you’ll need to get qualified first

Getting your foot in the door doesn’t just require you to be good with a knife or to know your way around a stove – it also requires you to have a strong theoretical base.

And fortunately, our commercial cookery courses strike the perfect balance.

Our commercial cookery courses in Melbourne are designed to turn you into a well-rounded job applicant, and to help you get started in our city’s bustling hospitality scene.
Find out more by getting in touch with our friendly course advisors today – call our Melbourne campus on (03) 9671 4755, or click here to touch base online.