Food Communications Program: Apicius, Florence, Italy
Apicius in Florence, Italy is offering a food communications program with classes in Food Photography, Food Styling and Food Writing as well as a class in Italian Language. It’s not cheap (tuition and fees look to be around $6500), but you get 6 classes of 3 credit hours each for a full semester. They also offer smaller, customized programs, so it may be possible to just take one or two of the classes for a bit less. Sounds like heaven to me.
Hello!
I just found this program too. Doesn’t it sound fantastic! I was wondering if you know if it is a new program. I am considering spending the money!
Great photos. I’ve just joined your Flickr group too.
Hi Robbin,
It sounds wonderful doesn’t it! I think too costly for me this year, but I’m hoping next!
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Robbin,
I just responded to your query on the Slow Food forum. Here’s what I wrote:
“Hi Robbin,
I don’t know much about the food communications program at Apicius or specifically the photography classes, but I can speak from the perspective of someone who went through their culinary side.
For me there were a number of problems with the education at Apicius. My most important complaint was the poor quality of the classes. Everything was just so chaotic and haphazard. I expected a type of class like you get at other cooking school, where the teacher does a demonstration and then every student prepares the dish themselves. The classes at Apicius were just too crowded, so we always had to team up and work on a fraction of a recipe. The supply process was also completely incompetent. I never really felt like I was getting a serious education or learning the basic skills that I’d need to demonstrate when I went on interviews. Of course, it didn’t matter to most of the students, alot of whom were very young and seemed much more interested in partying and getting drunk than in learning anything about food.
Dealing with the school’s management can be a nightmare too. They leave you in the dark until the absolute last minute about important things like internships or even whether the second half of the full-year program you signed up to complete is going to happen. When you try to complain to the school or even suggest improvements, they suggest that your expectations are at fault, not their product.
I can’t speak to the food communications program. My sense was that it was much smaller. If you’re seriously considering the photography program, you should look for people who went there in the past by posting as much as you can on Internet forums.
As for people who are looking at culinary programs, there are just so many other wonderful schools out there, why waste your time and money at Apicius?”
I am planning on attending apicius this fall 2008 semester for their Food Communications program. I have yet to apply because they have not posted the new application yet. The program looks wonderful. I am applying through Study Abroad Italy and the woman there is fairly helpful and very nice. I have been in talks with one other girl who will be attending this spring, so if she has any problems, hopefully I’ll know before its too late.
I know for a fact that the Food Comm. program is one of the smallest they offer, the advisor told me this. It is a fairly new school that began in 1996 but I also don’t know of any other Food Comm. programs out there, so I’ll take what I can get!
Best of luck!