By Austin Wells
The Culinary and Hospitality program is ready to step up their game this semester, having moved their headquarters to the brand-new $13 million facility. As one of the most successful culinary programs in the nation, the college’s 700 culinary students will learn, cook and serve in the newest building on campus.
Of those 700 enrolled, 525 of them are degree seeking in Culinary and Hospitality. They have five degrees to choose from, with another choice of two certificates.
Lindy Robinson, Dean of Business, had a vision of building a new facility for the Culinary and Hospitality program. After receiving a gift of $750,000 from David Wysong, Lindy had teamed up with Wysong and the JCCC Foundation to work on a plan to take this proposal to the board or trustees.
From there, the Board of Trustees challenged the foundation to raise $3 million in 24 months. If this was accomplished, the board would provide the rest of the funding for the new facility. 18 months later, the foundation had fundraised $3.2 Million Dollars. After presenting the money to the board, the new $13 Million Dollar, 36,000 sq. ft. facility was approved.
“Once the [Board of Trustees] approved the building, DLR was hired as the architect and the entire process took approximately two years” Robinson said.
Ona Ashley, Director of Hospitality Management, thinks very highly of the new building.
“[It’s] amazing. We finally have a building that reflects the quality of our students,” Ashley said.
This past spring, the Culinary Team had traveled to New Zealand winning Best appetizer and Entrée. This summer, the team traveled to Costa Rica where they won a Gold Medal.
In addition to their awards, the Culinary and Hospitality program is accredited by the American Culinary Federation.
With one of the largest Culinary apprenticeships in the nation, students have to go through 75 credit hours for their Associates Degree. On top of that they must have 6,000 hours on the job training over a three-year span.
The culinary team is traveling to South Korea for the next competition. One team is selected per country for these competitions. The college’s culinary team has been chosen as the representative for the United States.
Edward Adel, assistant professor, will be the coach for this competition.
“As I trained and started learning in a kitchen, when I truly began to take steps to become a chef, an old man once said to me, ‘become the Jack of all Trades, but master of none”, Adel said.
The new Culinary and Hospitality Academy showcases the success and hard work the students in the program have put in. The new building can be found on the west side of the JCCC campus.
Contact Austin Wells, reporting correspondent, at awells29@ jccc.edu.
Photos by Julia Larberg.