Culinary schools are places where cooking is taught. Today, cooking is an art, rather than just cooking. There are several specialties in cooking who can make you an expert chef, either for professional reasons or just for fun. They teach fundamental and traditional cooking while encouraging innovation and novelty. Getting trained at a culinary school may help you become an executive-chef, sous-chef, saucier, garde manager, pastry chef, or a sommelier.

There are also online culinary schools that provide training in culinary skills. These offer several courses relating to pastry preparation, wine tasting and selecting, knife skills, baking and dessert making, holiday cooking, healthy cooking, regional cooking, style cooking, safety and sanitation, cost management, food handling and identification, food and nutrition, special cuisines, gourmet cooking, catering and more. These classes are offered either in a distance education format or as online classes in the regular mode. They are taught by providing video demonstrations, online instructions, recipes and directions through e-mail or websites, web-based tutorials, CD-ROM/video or audio-based tutorials, e-books, threaded discussions, weblogs, online forums, video conferencing, teleconferencing, chat and so on.

Online culinary schools offer certifications that are applicable worldwide. They have good facilities and instructors, food service operations, job placement assistance, good credentials, teaching by experts, hands-on teaching, and so on. There are different kinds of certifications available: diploma programs, associates degrees, apprenticeship programs, bachelors degree programs, vocational programs and certificate programs. These programs are also offered in different levels, like level 1 for basic introduction, level 2 for more experienced cooks and level 3 for learning professional cooking. Online culinary schools have their own advantages: you can learn at your own place, time and pace; it has a variety of styles for learning as well as delivery methods; the course can be designed as per the learners needs; it is cost-effective, as travel costs are eliminated; they are flexible enough for self-learning; and there is greater teacher-student collaboration.

There are many online culinary tutorials that provide courses for beginners, amateurs and professionals. Many professional culinary schools are also offering online courses. Information can be found online or at the websites of these schools.