Going to school for the culinary arts can evoke visions of Julia Child and French cuisine. But today's students are learning much more than how to prepare coq au vin. They have to know about international ingredients, global politics and fancy point of sale computer systems.

They have to be part sommelier, part nutritionist and part food specialist. And they have to learn to run a business, from purchasing to pricing.

But that's not scaring people away. Careers in the culinary arts are growing in popularity, picking up people who are leaving other fields in the down economy and perhaps harboring dreams of being the next Bobby Flay or Rachael Ray.

To help them prepare, culinary arts schools are rushing to expand their programs.

"Historically, food and construction have been the easiest to get into," said Penny Prichard, instructor and department head in Culinary Technology and Hotel/Restaurant Management at Wake Technical Community College. "But people just expect more now."

Prichard is heading up an effort to improve culinary arts programs in North Carolina's community colleges. This year, Wake Tech has added a baking and pastry arts degree.

The changes there come on top of the August opening of the Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham, which has its own culinary degree program.

"People are very interested in food, they see it around them," said Daniel Taylor, chef director for the Art Institute's program. "The media attention on food has just increased the interest by people. ... A chef was not a celebrity 10 or 15 years ago."

Of course, not everyone will rise to the level of Food Network star. In North Carolina in 2007, chefs and head cooks made a median annual wage of $33,570. For food service managers, it was $47,390.

Still, that's not stopping people from jumping on the culinary bandwagon.

The dramatic rise in interest can be attributed in large part to the glamorization of food jobs, thanks to shows such as "Hell's Kitchen" and media coverage of food careers. But the culinary arts have also experienced a surge of interest because of the growing number of people quitting 9-to-5 desk jobs to follow their dreams.

Timothy Cozart used to be an information technology worker for EMC but was laid off in 2001.

"Everybody kept saying, 'You're so good in computers, you're so good in math,' " he said. "That's where the money was. At the time, culinary was not respected at all."

Cozart, 41, now runs a personal chef business, First Earth Sage & Fire, and he teaches culinary skills courses at Wake Tech.

He said following his passion for food has been rewarding, and the extra course work in purchasing, pricing menu items, wine appreciation and other functions has been essential to helping him succeed.

"It's things like how to determine how many people you should have on staff in relation to how much business you are getting," he said. "But when I'm pricing out menus and things like that, that's invaluable to me, because I'm in business to make money. If I price it out wrong, I don't make money."

Those skills are increasingly important, said Prichard of Wake Tech, which is why the state's community college programs are being revamped.

"We want to have more of an emphasis on entrepreneuralism," Prichard said. "Most of our students at some point want to own their own -- fill in the blank -- their own bakery, their own restaurant."

With 60 percent of restaurants failing within the first three years of operation, equipping students with the skills to cook and operate a business is increasingly important.

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