The Sous Chef™ Introduces Small Program and License Editions

Schools have two new options for acquiring the Sous Chef™ culinary education resource, the publisher recently announced. “These new pricing structures will help schools with smaller programs or budgets,” said Jim Murray, Director of Sales and Marketing for KP Educational Systems.

The Sous Chef™ is a complete multimedia culinary arts instructional program designed to be used in place of, or as a supplement to, a text-based curriculum. It is a teaching tool that, instead of being printed, is based on Computer-DVD technology.

“The new Small Program Education Edition consists of a single copy of the material, instead of the ten installs included in the Large Program Edition,” said Murray. “It offers all the educational features of the full program but at about half the cost. Many smaller schools have been saying they would like to use the Sous Chef™, but haven’t had the funds.”

The License Edition also offers the full range of teaching material and features, but in a “pay as you go” structure, Murray said. “Instead of purchasing the Sous Chef™ outright, the License Edition allows schools and organizations to pay a smaller yearly fee to use the program.”

“Each License Edition contract is different. We consider the size and type of program, the number of students, and the way teachers will use the Sous Chef™. Then we write the proposal,” explained Murray.  “Users of the License Edition tell us that annual student tuition or lab fees help to pay for the Sous Chef™. So a smaller yearly payment to KP Systems makes more sense than one large purchase payment.”

“The yearly cost of using the program can be as little as twenty dollars per student, about a quarter of the cost of a textbook,” he said.

The unique advantage of the Sous Chef™ system is 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 250 instructional videos are contained in Version 5 of the Sous Chef™. They cover everything from handwashing and knife skills to cooking techniques and advanced garde manger.

The Sous Chef™ does not consist of just videos, however. The program includes eleven chapters and over 850 “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 Editions of the Sous Chef™ are also permitted to print out the text pages to use as student handouts and study aids. These editions also come with note-taking and lesson planning features.