The Sous Chef™ in Education
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The Sous Chef™ for Educators
The Sous Chef™ is the only multimedia training system designed and built exclusively for culinary educators. It can be used in place of, or as a supplement to, a text-based curriculum in secondary, junior college and vocational, and/or academic training environments.
Currently being used by thousands of students and in over 800 high schools and colleges, the Sous Chef™ is a teaching tool that, instead of being printed, is based on Computer-DVD technology. Its unique advantage is in its use of high-quality video to teach culinary techniques and principles.
A traditional text uses one or more static photographs to demonstrate a skill like dicing an onion or making an omelet. The Sous Chef™ instead has a master chef/instructor demonstrating the same skill in a voice-over video. Over 340 instructional videos are contained in Version 7 of the Sous Chef™. The videos everything from handwashing and knife skills to cooking techniques and advanced garde manger.
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The Sous Chef™ is not just videos, however. The program contains eleven chapters and more than 1200 “text” pages with words and pictures that can be viewed individually on the computer screen or shown through a projector or monitor to a large group. Schools that purchase or license the Education Edition of the Sous Chef™ are also permitted to print out these pages to use as student handouts and study aids.
Because the Sous Chef™ was written and produced based on decades of classroom and teaching experience, it is designed to offer “in the classroom” support to instructors who have a broad spectrum of experience and culinary skills. As one of our supporters has commented, “You make chefs better teachers…and you make teachers better chefs.”
Like the sous chef in a professional kitchen, this Sous Chef™ will act as your teaching assistant – helping with demonstrations, repeating lecture content, and reinforcing classroom material. (It is also an assistant that is always available – no sick days, vacations, or salary increases needed.)
The Sous Chef™ can be of special help in working with both your advanced students (by giving them access to culinary topics and techniques that might not be applicable for the entire class) and your struggling students (by offering them repetitive material and demonstrations that might not continue to engage the entire classroom and by audiovisually reinforcing the material they have already been taught).
There are many ways people use the Sous Chef™. Here are a few tips on how many educators have made use of the program.
- Use in conjunction with a projector for class lectures, similar to a PowerPoint presentation..
- Save lesson plans on floppy disks and distribute to students who have abridged student CD-ROMs. (For users of the Education Editions only.)
- Install on multiple computers in a computer lab for students to conduct their own workshops.
- Print handouts and specific pages to create student portfolios and study sheets. (For users of the Education Editions only.)
- Keep a computer or laptop ready in the kitchen for students to easily and quickly reference material and videos.
- Place in the back of the house to cross-train employees.
The Sous Chef™ is an excellent solution for the
needs of medium and large school districts that have, or are thinking about
starting, culinary training programs.
Some of the school systems currently using the Sous
Chef™ are
the CPS (Chicago Public Schools), School District of Philadelphia, Mesa (AZ)
School District, LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District), and
MCS (Memphis City Schools) Read More >
Academic and University Curricula
Academic/University Teaching. While primarily designed for "hands-on" training in the culinary arts, the Sous Chef™ has also proved its value in higher education classrooms, libraries, and media centers.
The Sous Chef™ was written and produced by a community college culinary arts lead instructor and department chair with decades of culinary and teaching experience. It draws from his depth of knowledge in instructing college students and teaching professional development summer programs for high school culinary arts teachers. The Sous Chef™ strives to impart the culinary knowledge needed for success and to deliver that information in a way that makes learning accessible and productive. Read More >
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Culinary arts education is one of the fastest-growing segments of vocational/career training in U.S. high schools. If you are a secondary teacher, The Sous Chef™ is designed to help you in a number of ways.
First, the Sous Chef™ can be used as a supplement to, or a replacement for, the textbook you are now using. The platform of the Sous Chef™is almost one thousand pages of text information and photos/illustrations that are presented in a standard “book” format. (The book “pages” just happen to be on a computer screen.) These pages can be printed out, viewed on monitors in the classroom or computer lab, or used with a projector as lecture slides. Read More >
The unique multimedia platform of the Sous Chef™ allows it to offer an extensive array of educational content at "per-student" prices well below traditional textbooks. However, many schools and training programs still find themselves under severe budget restraints and in need of strategies for funding their acquisition of the Sous Chef™. Read More >
Mike Zema – Elgin Community College, Elgin IL:
"I really love how this program is laid out. It simplifies and makes
our teaching clearer for the students. The Sous Chef does a great
job at covering the foundation of cooking and supports those skills very well. I
personally love the way it parallels the foundational skills with visuals of
equipment the students will be using with those skills." Read
More >
Barbara Matusky – California School for the Deaf, Freemont, CA:
"Our students really love to use this. It has great clear pictures, content and wonderful demonstrations which are very instructive for our students. Our teachers have created great lessons around The Sous Chef for our students." Read More >
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Where can I use The Sous Chef™?
Wherever you can use a computer or laptop. It can be used in any classroom or kitchen with an electrical outlet.
So The Sous Chef™ is computer software?
No. The Sous Chef™ is not a computer nor computer software. It is teaching material, like a book, but installed on a computer system instead of being printed. The material is delivered on a set of DVDs and installed by you on your computer. See the What is The Sous Chef page for minimum system requirements to run The Sous Chef™. We can also build a complete turnkey computer hardware system for you with The Sous Chef already installed; please Contact Us for information and pricing. Read More >
For a Custom Proposal or Quote
To request a proposal or quote please email us at: proposal@kpcds.com
Return to the What is The Sous Chef™ Page.
