A Critical Outlook on the Problems of Formation and Content of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Education

Abstract

This research study was conducted to determine the formation and content problems of both gastronomy and culinary arts education programs in Turkey. In parallel with the purposes of the research study, first of all, the existing literature was reviewed in detail and a conceptual framework was drawn in line with the obtained information. The research data were collected by the interview technique, which has been frequently used in studies designed with a qualitative approach. In this context, a semi-structured interview form was applied to 39 academic staff members who acquired undergraduate and/or graduate-level education in the field of gastronomy and culinary arts on a voluntary basis, and statements that would have influenced the participants were avoided during the interview. As a result of the content analysis conducted on the obtained data, it was determined that the participants made 261 similar or different statements regarding their undergraduate and graduate education. The themes that contained the most statements in the research results were academic staff for undergraduate level education (n=56, 30%), curriculum (n=35, 19%), cost (n=31, 17%), academic staff for graduate level education (n=28, 38%), course contents (n=15, 20%), and student acceptance (n=14, 19%). Furthermore, the suggestion item for which the participants sent the most statements in the study was found to be the employment of academicians with gastronomy education (undergraduate, n=16; graduate, n=10).