
12-month Holistic Chef Culinary Program, 100% Online + Industry Externship
Join the food change movement and become a Holistic Chef! You can train to create delicious, health-forward dishes from your own kitchen. Learn to feed your community in a way that promotes wellness, enhances mood, and honors our collective food history.
At Bauman College, we believe that chefs are truly the first caretaker of a person’s well-being. By what you choose to include on a plate, you can bring nourishment, enjoyment, and connection to people. And there are so many ways that you can do this!
As a private chef, you may work directly with families in their homes designing daily menus and serving food that meets their lifestyle needs.
As a personal chef, you may work with several clients, meal planning, and batch cooking to stock their fridges and feed them for the week.
As a caterer, you’re trusted to create memorable special occasion meals that bring together loved ones in joy and celebration.
Or you can reach more people by starting a meal delivery service where your customers order from your set menus so that they can eat convenient and wholesome meals at home.
Your Holistic Chef certification opens doors as a food writer, cookbook, author, restaurant owner, head chef, and food advocate.
Upon completion of our 12-month, 100% online + industry externship Holistic Chef culinary program, you will have expertise in the following areas so that you can craft your own career and find work you love:
- Culinary Foundations + Knife Skills + Kitchen Safety
- Cooking for Food Allergies + Sensitivities
- Restorative Cooking + Menu Planning
- The Eating for Health® Approach
- Farm-to-Table Culinary Techniques
- Alternative Baking
- Cultural Cuisines + Flavor Profiles
- Plating Styles + Culinary Entrepreneurship
- And More!
You’ll learn how to create meals based on a person’s unique lifestyle, tastes, and dietary requirements while considering the importance of flavor, texture, and visual appeal.
- Make vegetables taste delicious!
- Understand the health benefits of the ingredients you use!
- Choose to cook with either animal proteins or plant proteins.
- Utilize alternative ingredients to promote health.
- Source sustainable quality foods.
- Reduce food waste and consider the environment.
- Specialize in vegan, paleo, keto, gluten-free, dairy-free, or other therapeutic diets.
- Honor traditional foods and food preparations
- Consider food access and food cost when creating recipes
As a Holistic Chef, you’ll learn the business skills and day-to-day operations needed to succeed as a chef. While traditional culinary schools train almost entirely for restaurant work, Bauman College trains you to have a sustainable and health-supportive culinary career with better pay, better hours, and a healthier approach to feeding people.
The 12-month, online Holistic Chef Program is composed of:

Kitchen Courses
- Culinary Foundations trains students on the fundamental skills and food preparation techniques needed to work in a professional kitchen. Students simultaneously learn about the nutrition behind the food they are making and about food equity, and ecological issues that impact the food system. This approach helps students cook with confidence and integrity.
- Culinary Innovations teaches students advanced culinary techniques and ancestral cooking methods like fermentation and sprouting. The program recognizes that many ingredients that have been used for centuries (like gluten, daily or eggs) aren’t health supportive for every person and students learn new innovative ways to accommodate food intolerances and still make delicious meals. Students have the option to work with their choice of traditional ingredients or alternative ingredients in these labs.
- Holistic Cooking trains students to cook with attention to and compassion for individuals based on their life stage like childhood, pregnancy or older adulthood, health conditions like cancer and diabetes, and common therapeutic diets. Students learn to work with individuals as well as other health and wellness professionals like nutrition consultants and functional medicine doctors.
Culinary Career Courses
- Holistic Business covers operational tasks required to cater or run a restaurant including topics such as food costing, scheduling, and recipe testing. Students plan a menu and host a Chef’s Table Event that features dishes that resonate with the student and their culinary perspective. Students also learn about marketing, business finance, professional sustainability, and entrepreneurship. They graduate with a professional resume and a business plan so that can begin their career as a Holistic Chef.
- Externship prepares students for finding and maintaining employment in the field of personal or private cheffing by providing them with a similar experience while under the supervision of Bauman College. The Externship is an opportunity for students to gain understanding, experience, and confidence before employment or entrepreneurship by providing them with this smooth transition from school to the workforce.Externship hours are supervised and may include working in the following settings:
- Restaurants
- Catering Companies
- Business Corporations
- Nonprofit Organizations
- Resorts, Hotels, or Retreats
- Food Production Companies
- And More!
Holistic Chef Career-Oriented Features
The Holistic Chef Program also offers resources and educational experiences which are directly beneficial to working as a personal chef, private chef, meal-delivery chef, or dinner-party caterer.
- ServSafe® certification: Students receive their ServSafe® certificates in kitchen safety and sanitation. This certificate is an asset to chefs working in people’s homes, to reassure clients that the chef is knowledgeable and competent in the best practices of food safety.
- Modernmeal: Students receive access to our Bauman College recipe database on the Modernmeal platform. They learn how to use Modernmeal to create menus and shopping lists for clients and to connect with other culinary students and professionals.
Equipped with health-supportive culinary expertise, how to cook to support clients’ individual health goals, and business and professional acumen, Bauman College Holistic Chef graduates find fulfilling work in the food industry while bringing individual and societal healing.

Tuition & Financial Aid
The Holistic Chef and Nutrition Consultant programs are approved to offer Federal Student Aid under the National Holistic Institute for students who qualify. To see what you may qualify for, please visit National Holistic Institute’s Federal Student Aid Page.
Online Holistic Chef Culinary Program
- 800 Hours | Total Hours to Complete
- 12 Months | Program Length
- 100% Online + Industry Externship | Learning Environment
- $17,750 Tuition
- $50 Registration Fee
- $693 Books & Supplies
- $15 ServSafe
- $579 Surface Go & Keyboard
- $45 Student Tuition Recovery Fund
Would you like more information on what types of financial aid you may qualify for?
We encourage you to submit your contact information using the “Get Details Now!” form so that one of our Admissions Representatives can help you connect with a Financial Aid Advisor

You can afford to go to Bauman College
The Holistic Chef and Nutrition Consultant programs are in the process of applying for all appropriate approvals to offer Federal Student Aid under the National Holistic Institute. To see what you may qualify for, please visit National Holistic Institute’s Federal Student Aid Page.
Holistic Chef Career Opportunities
Being trained as a Holistic Chef opens the door to many opportunities across the country and globally. Whether you want to stay right where you are, practice in another state, or find work across the globe, there are a variety of job and business opportunities for our culinary graduates.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects chefs and cooks to have a faster than average growth rate in the next ten years.* Whether you prefer to work with your hands, want flexible hours, or are looking for a great self-employment opportunity, Holistic Chefs can look forward to exciting work opportunities in a growing variety of settings.
Over 95% of our 2022 graduates are currently working in the culinary field.

Some positions you may work in as a Holistic Chef include:
- Chef (restaurant, wellness center, café, retreat, etc.)
- Caterer
- Personal or Private Chef
- Culinary Educator, Instructor, or Program Consultant
- Menu Development/Meal Planning
- Cookbook Author/Recipe Writer/Culinary Content Writer
- Meal Delivery Service Business
- Food Product Development & Sales
- Buyer for specialty markets or grocery stores
- Food Stylist
- Entrepreneur/Small Business Owner
- Food and Beverage Sales Representatives
- Culinary Research and Development
No matter where you go after Bauman College, you will have earned more than just a career. Bauman College was built to share our knowledge and heal the world through better nutrition. You will combine that philosophy with a strong foundation of culinary skills and therapeutic nutrition to improve the health of your clients and your community
Join our growing industry and discover the rewarding, flexible career you’ve always wanted.
*(https://www.bls.gov/)
Is a Rewarding Career as a Holistic Chef Right for You?
If you’re interested in learning more about a career as a Holistic Chef and exploring whether this is the right path for you, click the “Get Info!” button to receive more information.
A helpful Bauman College admissions representative will answer all of your questions, from program details to career opportunities, and will help you discover the best option for you.