Attitudes and Opinions of Associate and Undergraduate Students Towards Applied Kitchen Courses

Abstract

The field of gastronomy offers important opportunities not only as a cultural and artistic discipline in its multidimensional development process, but also in terms of new employment opportunities, technological innovations and economic returns (Akmanoglu, 2025). Gastronomy and culinary arts and cookery education are known as two concepts that have come to the forefront in tourism education in recent years.  This study aims to determine the attitudes and opinions of undergraduate and graduate students of gastronomy and culinary arts, food and beverage management and cookery departments towards applied kitchen courses. A quantitative design was adopted in the study and survey techniques were used. Çemrek & Yılmaz (2010) developed a questionnaire consisting of 25 statements in order to determine students' perceptions of applied kitchen courses and this questionnaire was used in the study. In the study, a questionnaire was administered to associate and undergraduate students taking applied kitchen courses across Türkiye. A total of 392 valid questionnaires were obtained between May-June 2025 and the data obtained were subjected to analysis with the SPSS program. As a result of the t test and one-way analysis of variance, no significant difference was found between the program, department, class and gender of the students. In the study, it was concluded that students showed positive attitudes towards applied kitchen courses. However, it was concluded that kitchen courses are important and will be useful in their daily and professional lives, but there is not enough practical training. It is recommended that the study be more comprehensive and repeated.