Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Practice Exam 2026 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

Heat moves in three ways in cooking: conduction, convection, and radiation. Conduction is transfer through direct contact, like heat from a hot pan passing to the food it touches. Convection involves the movement of hot air or liquid, such as boiling water or a circulating oven that sweeps hot air around the food for even cooking. Radiation is heat delivered by waves from the heat source, as in broiling or grilling where infrared heat shines onto the food.

The other terms aren’t heat-transfer modes: pyrolysis is chemical decomposition caused by heat, and evaporation or condensation are phase changes that involve heat exchange but aren’t separate methods of heat transfer themselves. The set that includes all three true heat transfer modes is conduction, convection, and radiation.