The document provides an introduction to the culinary arts. It defines culinary arts as the art of preparing food and discusses key related terms like culinary, culinarian, and cuisine. The history of culinary arts in outlined, noting the opening of early cooking schools in the 1800s in Boston and the influential works of chefs and writers who helped establish and popularize American cuisine. Major developments include the French cuisine being introduced to American society by Julia Child in the 1960s and the founding of the Culinary Institute of America in 1946, the first culinary school to offer career-based cooking courses.