Culinary Arts Scholarships And Grants — How Delicious!

Students who plan on majoring in the Culinary Arts while in college realize that the top programs — Johnson & Wales University and the Culinary Institute of America — are the Ivy League equivalents of Harvard and Yale when its comes to food. Award winning chef, Emeril, is a Johnson & Wales graduate while many of the top chefs and foodie specialists in the world have received their schooling from the elite schools and chef programs.

But there is one challenge facing students that can thwart their dreams — top notch training in the culinary arts is expensive and the first job for recent grads typically do not pay all that much. Thus, if you are saddled with a lot of debt upon graduation, you could feel that your education is more of a liability than an asset.

Fortunately, most of the schools will work with their students by crafting a financial aid plan that can reduce their costs significantly. Still, that could leave students responsible for covering thousands of dollars of college costs each year which means that they’ll be forced to tap their own limited college funds, take out costly student loans or seek college scholarships, with the latter requiring no repayment for funds awarded.

7 College Scholarships For Culinary Arts Majors

We’ve done our research and have turned up a number of college scholarships for Culinary Arts majors, funds that have been awarded in the past and are expected to awarded in the future. Please visit each site to see if you’re eligible and how you might apply:

1. American Hotel & Lodging Foundation (AH&LEF) — Representing hoteliers on a national level, the AH&LEF will begin to accept applications for the 2010 academic year starting January 1, 2010. The deadline date for 2010 academic scholarships is May 1st. More than $500,000 was awarded to culinary arts students in the most recent scholarship cycle.

2. Chef4Students.org — A nonprofit organization consisting of chefs from around the world regularly awards $1000 college scholarships to ten students, more if funding is available.

3. Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation — The world’s largest soft drink maker is also an active supporter of higher education and is one place where Culinary Arts students should apply for a college scholarship. Coke’s application window is from August 1st through October 31st, awarding 250 scholarships annually. 50 “national” winners can win $20,000 toward their education while 200 “regional” winners can be awarded $10,000 in scholarship funds.

4. Les Dames d’ Escoffier International — Women have often found it difficult to compete in food service, particularly as a chef at some of the finer restaurants in the world. Those barriers are falling down thanks in no small part to an organization of women who help other women get the education they need in order to succeed. Local chapters of the Les Dames d’ Escoffier International have awarded more than four million dollars in culinary scholarships to deserving students to date.

5. National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) — You don’t have to be of Italian heritage to apply for an NIAF scholarship, but that is one category that makes you eligible to receive a portion of their annual one million dollar educational scholarship award. For everyone else, studying Italian heritage, language or perhaps planning to center your food studies on Italian cooking could endear you to the foundation.

6. The Charlie Trotter Culinary Education Foundation — University of Wisconsin (Madison) grad Charlie Trotter has successfully founded four fine dining restaurants in Chicago and Las Vegas, but hasn’t forgotten to give back to the community in the form of his personal education foundation. Since its inception, the foundation has raised more than one million dollars for students seeking to major in the culinary profession.

7. Worthy Goal Scholarships — The International Food Services Executive Association (IFSEA) awards college scholarships ranging from $250 to $1500 which can be used by culinary majors at two- and four-year institutions.

Other Business Who Can Help

Culinary Arts majors should also visit the websites of leading food processing companies, food distributors and restaurant chains including fast food establishments to see what scholarship programs are available through them. You don’t have to work at McDonald’s once you graduate but you can ask them and other community minded organizations about their college scholarship opportunities.

Tags: grants, scholarships