Basic Principles of Cooking and Food Science
Course Outline

Course Fee: $50
ACF Approved CEH: 6 Hours
Subject Area: Fundamentals of Professional Cooking Series
Course Approved by: The American Culinary Federation
Instructor: Amber Johnson
Instructional Videos Included (4 total videos):
Boiling Steaming and Pan Steaming, Pan-Frying and Deep-Frying, Understanding Sous Vide: Fish, Meat and Poultry, Grinding Spices

This course has been developed and optimized for online delivery using the licensed title Professional Cooking, 8th edition, published by Wiley and Sons, Inc. and authored by Wayne Gisslen. The fee for this course includes access to all online course materials, instructional videos and an official certificate of completion from chefcertification.com. Once your course is completed, your course completion will be authenticated, and a certificate of completion will be generated. This official certificate of completion will be uploaded to your account, and will be available through the course dashboard for this course.

Introduction/Course Description:

No written recipe can be 100 percent accurate. No matter how carefully a recipe is written, the judgment of the cook is still the most important factor in a preparation turning out well. A cook’s judgment is based on experience, on an understanding of the raw materials available, and on knowledge of basic cooking principles and food science.

Ever since Carême began to define the principles and methods that lie behind the recipes we use, professional cooking has been based on procedures and methods rather than only on recipes. In the twenty-first century, chefs have improved their knowledge not just of cooking theory but also of the science behind it.

This course deals with basic principles. You will learn about what happens to food when it is heated, about how food is cooked by different methods, and about rules of seasoning and flavoring. It is important to understand the science of food and cooking so you can successfully use these principles in the kitchen.

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Course Objectives/Program Outline

Module One - Basic Concepts in Food Science

Learning Objectives:

• Name the most important components of foods and describe what happens to them when they are cooked.
• Explain the composition of temporary and permanent emulsions.
• Name and describe three ways in which heat is transferred to food in order to cook it.
• Describe the two factors or changes in cooked foods that determine doneness.
• List three factors that affect cooking times.
• Explain the advantage of boiling or simmering in a covered pot. Describe three situations in which a pot should not be covered during simmering or boiling.
• Explain how cooking temperature affects the doneness characteristics of a food item.

Quiz: Multiple-choice questions that pertain to objectives above.

Module Two - Cooking Methods

Learning Objectives:

• Define each basic cooking method used in the commercial kitchen.
• Describe the two main steps in the process of cooking sous vide.
• List six safety guidelines for cooking sous vide.

Instructional Videos: Boiling, Steaming and Pan Steaming, Pan-Frying and Deep-Frying, Understanding Sous Vide: Fish, Meat and Poultry
Quiz: Multiple-choice questions that pertain to objectives above.

Module Three - Building Flavor

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the difference between a seasoning and a flavoring ingredient and give examples of each.
• Identify appropriate times for adding seasoning ingredients to the cooking process in order to achieve optimal results.
• List eleven guidelines for using herbs and spices in cooking.

Instructional Video: Grinding Spices
Quiz: Multiple-choice questions that pertain to objectives above.

Final Exam

Multiple choice questions taken from each module

Final Learning Statement

Learning statements should be in a narrative format – as opposed to an outline format. Depending on individual writing styles Learning statements should be around 1 page. The learning statement can vary according to individual style. Your learning statement should answer the broad question of "what did you learn?". To help get you thinking, here are some suggested questions:

• What are the major concepts of the course that you have learned?
• What new professional language have you acquired relating to the topic?
• What new resources did you find in the study of the content?
• Are there any ideas that presented themselves as enlightening and useful?

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Requirements for Course Certificate of Completion

The following are the general course requirements for issuing a certificate of completion for this course:

• Student must receive 80% or better on each module quiz as well as the final exam
• Student must complete a Final Learning Statement at the end of this course