Cooking up a new major

IU-Bloomington undergraduate students can choose from more than 180 majors when deciding what degree they are interested in pursuing throughout college.

Whether a potential student desires a future career as a violinist or a graphic designer, IU can provide the appropriate guidance and education.

Potential IU-Bloomington students cannot, however, expect to attend IU if becoming a culinary expert dominates their life aspirations. Despite IU’s diverse array of majors, the culinary arts have been left in the dust.

Personally, I find cooking and baking offer a source of stress relief. Every evening I am provided with a miniature escape from the nagging realities of student life, and I can turn a pile of ingredients into a creative synthesis of endless flavors.

OK, so maybe my description of cooking is a bit romanticized, but the benefits far surpass that of a bit of stress relief.

Not only can an individual cook healthier meals for less money than purchasing the family a round of artery-clogging KFC Double Down sandwiches, but according to a 2008 study published in Creativity Research Journal, when cooking a culinary creation, a chef’s thought process mirrors Wallas’s 1926 class model of the creative process.

Simply, cooking promotes both creativity and novel thinking.

And isn’t that what college art programs strive to achieve?

More importantly, the culinary arts employment sphere is increasing steadily.

It’s no secret that Americans enjoy spending leisure time in the presence of friends or family.

More often than not, this leisure time is also spent in the presence of food.

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that as of 2000, more than 2.8 million individuals secured employment as chefs, cooks and food preparation workers, and that this number can be expected to rise throughout the decades.

As an institution that values preparing students to enter flourishing employment spheres and confidently secure jobs, culinary arts could prove a stellar major choice.

Now, I’m not suggesting that IU officials drop everything and immediately outline a plan for a brand new culinary arts curriculum, but offering this particular major should be seriously considered in the future.

To be perfectly honest, after I escaped my Wright quad dining hall binges of freshman year, I began personally preparing all of my meals and seriously considered whether my passion for food may provide the right career path for me.

Upon further research, I was surprised IU lacked a culinary program.

All right, so maybe I was finally knocked off my high horse when I failed to complete the simplest chicken Parmesan recipe and managed to scorch the chicken breast beyond recognition, but there are other students who truly do have a knack for culinary creation.

Creativity. Opportunity. Learning Experiences. Culinary arts would certainly broaden the scope of IU’s academic reach.

If we realize the diversity of job opportunities available, similar to the diversity of flavor combinations present in a single dish, creating a culinary arts major becomes an appetizing prospect.

­— kfasone@indiana.edu