The Effect of Television Programs on Education, Career and Professional Plans of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Students

Abstract

Nowadays, culinary arts profession has gained popularity as a consequence of television cooking programs. This popularity has generated an expansion in the number of departments of universities providing undergraduate study in the field. This situation requires studies on the effect of television programs on the selection and career plans of students who want to study gastronomy and culinary arts. This study aims to investigate the television cooking programs effect on the education, career and professional careers of the students studying at Kütahya Dumlupınar University. For this purpose, Interviews were conducted with gastronomy and culinary arts students. Researchers created the research setup by using content analysis in the phenomenology approach. Findings of the study reveal that television cooking programs did not affect the students' career education and vocational plans. The most remarkable outcome of the study is that the students expressed positive opinions about the careers of the chefs in television cooking programs while making their career plans. At the end of the study, researchers discussed the findings in comparison with the conclusions of other studies in the literature. At the end the researchers made academic and sector-based recommendations.