{"id":2809,"date":"2025-12-09T15:08:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T21:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/?p=2809"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:09:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T21:09:00","slug":"jcccs-whca-building-prepares-students-to-different-careers-in-the-culinary-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/2025\/12\/09\/jcccs-whca-building-prepares-students-to-different-careers-in-the-culinary-world\/","title":{"rendered":"JCCC’s WHCA Building Prepares Students For Different Careers In The Culinary World"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Photo by: Miranda Sue Philpot)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The art of pastries, savory dishes and management are all taught in the same, delicious-smelling building. The WHCA (Wylie Hospitality and Culinary Academy) building on campus is the home of multiple programs like the Chef Apprenticeship, Hotel and Lodging Management, Food and Beverage Management, and Pastry\/Baking, and no, it\u2019s not like Gordon Ramsey\u2019s \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, that’s not real life. You\u2019re going to work, you know, you may have those situations sometimes where you work for someone that might be like that,\u201d Alison Reed, an associate professor in hospitality management said. \u201cI mean, some people might thrive in a situation like that, but really, that\u2019s all for show. It\u2019s not really like that, but it\u2019s very intense, fast-paced, and sometimes there’s pressure. But if you\u2019re not busy at a job like that, you\u2019re going to get bored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three of the programs, excluding the Pastry\/Baking program, will give you an associate\u2019s degree in applied science.<\/p>\n

The Chef Apprenticeship program is a 75-credit-hour program that is completed in two to three years. It requires about four gen eds, and students are required to have a full-time job in a kitchen during the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t really have time for anything besides school and work for three years. It\u2019s a lot of hard work,\u201d Hailey Kahler, a current student in the apprenticeship program, said. \u201cI think it\u2019s really cool to look back and see how far you\u2019ve grown.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from the Chef Apprenticeship program, students will leave with an associate\u2019s degree and a sous chef certification from the American Culinary Federation.<\/p>\n

One way students may be familiar with the WHCA building is through the weekly bake sale that is hosted by the Pastry\/Baking program. The bake sale is hosted every Thursday during the semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot at the beginning or end of the semester, because they\u2019re preparing everything,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

The possibilities within the WHCA building are endless\u2013you don\u2019t have to be interested in pursuing a career in a kitchen to enroll in one of the four programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want students to know that there are many more options available in the industry than just being a chef or cook. A lot of people can\u2019t handle those hours, maybe, or physically don\u2019t want to stand on their feet for that long\u2026 But [with] the amount of other options that are available now, you don\u2019t have to work in a kitchen. You can be a food writer, a food stylist, work on a cruise ship, work at a country club, work at a casino, a resort, be a general manager, be a housekeeping supervisor, be a travel agent,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

Students who aren\u2019t interested in pursuing a degree within the programs offered can still take classes within the program, such as Professional Cooking 1 and Fundamentals of Baking. All students are required to take the Food Service Sanitation class as well, which is the prerequisite or co-requisite for every culinary class. These classes are 16 weeks long, and each lab class is three and a half hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets easier as you learn more and your skills build upon each other in every class, and your skills from work will help you out,\u201d Kahler said.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the program, associate professor Reed asks that students set up a meeting and speak to a professor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The art of pastries, savory dishes and management are all taught in the same, delicious-smelling building. The WHCA building on campus is the home of multiple programs like the Chef Apprenticeship, Hotel and Lodging Management, Food and Beverage Management, and Pastry\/Baking, and no, it\u2019s not like Gordon Ramsey\u2019s \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[321],"class_list":["post-2809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-life"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Saul Epstein","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/sepstein\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/12\/38-IMG_2841_optimized_2000.jpg","coauthors":[{"link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/sammie-magee\/","display_name":"Sammie Magee"}],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Featured<\/a>","Life<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Featured<\/span>","Life<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 9 months ago","modified":"Updated 9 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on December 9, 2025","modified":"Updated on December 9, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on December 9, 2025 3:08 pm","modified":"Updated on December 9, 2025 3:09 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":321,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"sammie-magee","display_name":"Sammie Magee","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/12\/38-IMG_2841_optimized_2000.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2809"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2812,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2809\/revisions\/2812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2809"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}