The document provides an introduction to the culinary arts. It defines key terms like culinary, culinarian, and cuisine. Culinary arts refer to the art of food preparation and cooking. A culinarian or culinary artist is someone who works in the food industry as a cook or chef. Cuisine describes a style of cooking associated with a particular culture. The document then gives a brief history of culinary arts, noting the opening of early cooking schools in the 1800s and the influence of chefs like Julia Child in popularizing French cuisine in America in the 1960s. It establishes the Culinary Institute of America as the first dedicated culinary school, founded in the 1940s.