Food for thought.

Begin with a cup of classic cooking techniques. Sprinkle in a liberal arts education. Stir in the expertise of culinary professionals, and let the mixture simmer in the minds of aspiring food connoisseurs. This recipe for success is now on the menu at Mississippi University for Women's Culinary Arts Institute.

Established in 1996, the Culinary Arts Institute is an interdisciplinary program that recognizes the diverse needs of the food industry. MUW in Columbus is one of only a handful of institutions in the nation to offer a four-year degree in culinary arts, and the cooking school's curriculum is designed to prepare students for a variety of food-oriented careers. Students have the opportunity to obtain Bachelor of Science degrees, become culinary specialists, and pursue focused minors that fine-tune their professional goals.

"MUW realized that a person's career wants and needs change over the course of a lifetime and that having a broad-based academic education helps people make career shifts more easily," says chef Sarah Labensky, the Culinary Arts Institute's founding director. "Having a Bachelor of Science degree helps our graduates seek employment within a wider range of opportunities."

Students and faculty members agree that the institute's small class sizes, interactive learning environment, and specialized minors are key ingredients to its growing popularity. The degree program requires students to pursue at least one of the four emphasis areas of study: food art, culinary entrepreneurship, food journalism, or nutrition and wellness. The minors are geared to prepare students for careers in both traditional and non-traditional culinary settings. Graduates can pursue various avenues of employment, including positions as business professionals in dining facilities, food critics for magazines or newspapers, food stylists for media enterprises, or wellness experts in the health-care industry.

"I would say about SO percent of our students want to follow the traditional chef route, and the others have aspirations in other directions," says chef Scott McKenzie, an instructor and the institute's interim director. "It makes for a very interesting mix of students."

Housed in the campus' Shattuck Hall, the Culinary Arts Institute has about 90 students in its kitchens this fall. McKenzie says cooking classes cover a smorgasbord of topics and can range from a study on cuisines around the world to how to clean different types of seafood. Many classes are supplemented with trips to food markets, test kitchens, publishing houses, and other workplaces of culinary professionals. Students also do a weekly television spot for the "Noonday Cafe" segment on WTVA Tupelo-Columbus. McKenzie says he hopes the institute's students will be able to hone their culinary skills in a catering company or campus restaurant in the future.

For Vicki Leach, a culinary instructor and kitchen manager at the Viking Cooking School, a few weekend classes at the Culinary Arts Institute turned into the pursuit of a degree. She says the focus on science and food she encountered at the institute is a unique and real asset to the culinary world. "I cannot tell you how much having food science, microbiology, and chemistry under my belt has done for my ability to share an understanding of food with recreational cooking classes," she says. "The focus on food is not just how the recipe is executed or plated. It is in the principles behind the flavors and the science behind the food."

For more information on the Culinary Arts Institute, see www.muw.edu/interdisc/.