Pilgrims' Progress: Attending a Massachusetts Culinary School

Seafood, especially shellfish such as clams and lobster, are abundant and inexpensive in the greater Boston area. Lobster is a particularly noteworthy specialty in New England, and can be found prepared in a variety of styles, from the humblest lobster pound to the fanciest restaurants.

Hearty soups and stews are popular in this cold-weather locale, including the famous New England clam chowder and Boston baked beans. A tradition carried over from the days of Paul Revere, these sweet, slow-baked beans earned Boston the nickname of "Beantown."

Aspiring pastry chefs who choose to enroll in a Massachusetts culinary school can experience the ultimate in Northeastern desserts: the Boston cream pie. Bostonians prefer their cake layered, full of custard and topped with cream and chocolate. A delight for any sweet tooth, the Boston cream pie has been the official state dessert of Massachusetts since 1996.

TV and cooking superstar Julia Child lived for almost four decades in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband Paul, where her home kitchen became the backdrop for several of her television shows including In Julia's Kitchen with Master Chefs, Baking with Julia and Julia Child & Jacques Pépin Cooking at Home.

In 2001, Child donated her Cambridge home to her alma mater, Smith College, and her entire kitchen, including its original furnishings such as pots, pans and dishes, is now on display at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian.

A guest on Julia Child's Cooking with Master Chefs, Chef Gordon Hamersley has been a mainstay of the Boston food scene since the early 1970s. Having lived briefly on both the West Coast and abroad, studying under legends such as Wolfgang Puck, Chef Hamersley returned to Boston to open Hamersley's Bistro in 1987.

An award-winning restaurant, Hamersley's Bistro was consistently at the top of the Zagat Guide for Boston and has been inducted into the "Hall of Fame" in Boston Magazine.

Massachusetts culinary school students are surrounded by up-and-coming chefs and a burgeoning restaurant community. The National Restaurant Association predicts that 19,100 new foodservice jobs will be created in the next 10 years in Massachusetts' roughly 14,000 eateries.

Here is a list of annual salaries for chefs in Massachusetts:

Students who choose to attend a Boston or Cambridge culinary school get not only a quality culinary education, but also access to one of the oldest and most exciting cities in America.

At Salter College, a private two-year college just outside of Worcester, students prepare for the exciting world of food service through a combination of practical, hands-on classroom training as well as through an externship program which puts students in the kitchens of local restaurants to gain first-hand experience in the field. With a reputation for excellence, Salter College is a member of the American Culinary Foundation and the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.

Learn more about this and other Massachusetts culinary schools by browsing All Culinary Schools' online directory and get started on your culinary education today!

_{Source: Salary data from Indeed.com 2010}