Cooking Scholarships

A student who loves to cook and wants to learn more about cooking by pursuing a career in culinary arts should definitely look for cooking scholarships.  As a student who loves cooking, nothing is better than doing what you love the most, enjoying what you are studying, and at the same time receiving financial aid through a culinary arts scholarship. This is especially true if the student is somewhat limited financially by the economic crisis that the country is experiencing nowadays. 

There are a number of cooking scholarships that are available for students and professional alike.  Some of them are from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), a group of gifted and innovative culinary arts professionals with almost three thousand members

The foundation provides great opportunities to students and professional alike with scholarship grants and internship program. It offers two types of scholarships – one is for the up-and-coming culinary professionals while the other is for cooking professionals who would like to further their education on culinary arts.  The latter, which is officially called the Julia Child Grant, requires a minimum experience of 2 years in the culinary arts.

The foundation’s cooking scholarships can only be won by the applicant through its participating schools.  The foundation has 15 participating culinary schools in its 2011 – 2012 scholarship program. These are Enstitu – Istanbul Culinary Institute in Turkey, LAcademie de Cuisine in Maryland, Le Cordon Bleu Anahuac – Mexico in Mexico City, Le Cordon Bleu in Australia, Le Cordon Bleu in London, Le Cordon Bleu in Canada, Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York, The Boston Foundation in Massachusetts, The Culinary Trust in New York, The French Culinary Institute in New York, The French Culinary Institute in California, The Institute of Culinary Education in New York and Italy, and The Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts in Texas. 

This year, The Culinary Trust Foundation awarded cooking scholarships to 15 deserving students.  These students are now enjoying and learning the necessities of becoming culinary arts professionals.  The application for the 2012 – 2013 scholarship program will open this coming November.  Students who would like to apply may do so online and download the scholarship application form.  The deadline of submission will be on February 2012.  The successful students who will receive cooking scholarships will be notified in May 2012.  Scholarship applicants must submit a resume, 2 reference letters, a two-page essay on culinary goals, and, if the applicant has attended a school within the last 5 years, a transcript of records.

The American Culinary Federation (ACF), an organization of professional chefs and cooks, is another institution that offers cooking scholarships.  Since its beginnings in 1929, the organization has been promoting the image of professional American chefs through culinary education across all levels.  In 1976, the ACF was instrumental in making the executive chef position a professional category in the Dictionary of Official Titles of the United States Department of Labor.  This led to the tremendous growth in the culinary industry that a lot of culinary arts practitioners are enjoying at present.

Through its honor society, the American Academy of Chefs (AAC), the American Culinary Foundation offers high school student scholarships, college student scholarships, as well as professional chef scholarships.  These cooking scholarships are offered to those who want to acquire basic to advanced skills in culinary arts.  This year, the American Academy of Chefs awarded scholarships to a total of 17 deserving culinary arts students.

A student looking for cooking scholarships might want to try their luck in Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C---CAP).  ‘The Careers through Culinary Arts’ was founded by Richard Grausman in 1990 to educate young Americans about the value of cooking at home.  To achieve this goal, he demonstrated French cooking in Home Economics classes of twelve high schools in New York City.  Upon realizing the greater need of preparing the kids for their jobs in the future, he created C-CAP to improve the public schools’ culinary arts curriculum to prepare the students for college and possibly a career in culinary arts.

Getting a cooking scholarship through this program can really be a challenge as it involves an application that includes not only submitting an application form but also performing in an actual culinary arts competition!  The application process may be challenging but the scholarship grants are rewarding. Post-Secondary Scholarship recipients can receive up to $96880 for a bachelor’s degree.  Junior Scholarship recipients, where only high school juniors are eligible, give a grant of up to $650 for one year.

If a student fails to land any of the cooking scholarships including the ones mentioned above, he/she may try others such as regular university scholarships, breast cancer scholarships, and sports scholarships.