Culinary Skills and Their Importance to Practicing Dietitians

Abstract

Knowledge of food plays an important role in all areas of dietetics. The American Dietetic Association recently updated standards of practice to require that entry level dietitians have basic knowledge of culinary skills. However, there is limited researcn on the culinary or food skills needed by dietitians. This purpose of this research was to determine the basic culinary skills important to practicing dietitians. A convenience sample of 83 Registered Dietitians who attended the national meeting completed the survey.Of the respondents, 31% had food management responsibilities. The respondents rated 26 basic culinary skills on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 very unimportant to 5 very important. The highest rated skills were handling food safely (4.17), making food substitutions for special diets (4.11), and developing menus (4.02). The lowest rated skills included understanding leavening systems (2.20) and preparing yeast breads (1.98). When comparing dietitians with food management responsibilities to those without, there were significant differences (p≥.05) for 15 of the 26 skills. Those which were not significantly different were knowledge of international cuisines, making substitutions for special diets, and using common food substitutes. In today's dietetic practice, many “nutrition” experts have tried to separate themselves from food. These findings support the American Dietetic Association and its Standards of Practice because they indicate that culinary skills are a key competency for practicing dietitians.