Although Food Studies has been acknowledged as a distinctive field in Canada for almost two decades, until now there has not been an undergraduate degree in Food Studies in this country. This is changing with the development of Canada’s first Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Food Studies (BFS) at George Brown College, launched in September 2021. This field report describes the process, opportunities, and challenges of developing a Food Studies degree at an Ontario college. It explores the unique openings at the intersection of food studies education and applied practical skills training for work in the food sector. In particular, we ask: What can food studies bring to culinary education? And, what can culinary education bring to food studies? We contend that food studies can contribute to a more transformative culinary education focussed on social, cultural, political, and environmental influences in the food system. Simultaneously, culinary education brings distinct insights into operationalization within the food sector which provide new openings for applied research in food studies. We demonstrate how this new collaboration and knowledge are a necessity in a turbulent world.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Scott, C. M., Stahlbrand, L., (2025), "Opportunities and Challenges of Developing a Culinary Food Studies Bachelor’s Degree", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i4.463)

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1. culinary arts
2. food studies
3. pedagogy

Original publication: Scott, Caitlin Michelle; Stahlbrand, Lori. "Opportunities and Challenges of Developing a Culinary Food Studies Bachelor’s Degree." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 8, no. 4, 2021. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i4.463. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.