Master of Science in Culinary Arts and Science

The Culinary Arts and Science (CAS) program investigates the modern system of food production and consumption by combining critical, systems-thinking based scholarship and experiential, hands-on culinary learning. Faculty in the CAS program come from a mix of disciplinary backgrounds, and contributes a range of perspectives and approaches that all converge in the object of study: food and the system in which it is produced. The CAS program focuses on three core pillars of study: culinary arts, food and culinary science, and food systems. Drexel University’s CAS program is unique, as it is the only program in which students can combine rigorous, academic studies with culinary-arts training. While all students will take courses in all three pillars, each individual will be able to focus his or her program through electives on the particular area of CAS that they wish to engage with. Students will work individually with faculty or staff advisors to develop an individual plan of study. Students who will fit well within the CAS program are independent, rigorous thinkers who are first and foremost interested in effecting change within the food system. Students come from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds, but share a deep commitment to understanding and responding to the world’s food-related challenges. The CAS program at Drexel offers more than just critique and theory-development; classes emphasize the development of practical, real-world fixes to food-system problems. Students will have the opportunity to engage further with the a required practicum course and the option for a research-based thesis project. Students who are considering the CAS program see this degree as a dual opportunity: to gain the skills necessary to respond to the dilemmas facing the world’s food system and to advance their careers within the culinary world, food industry, and non-profits who share their goals. The program appreciates and welcomes a diversity of backgrounds, including students from the liberal arts and professional studies, the hard sciences, and professionals who are seeking to orient their career towards food-related work.