Let's face it - culinary schools are expensive. That's horrible for so many who want to be chefs and restaurant owners. However there's always community college. This staple of suburban life is stepping in and stepping up helping those to achieve those dreams.
Regular contributor, cookbook author and chef herself, Priya Krishna wrote about this new facet of American education in today's New York Times Food section. Thanks to their high tuition, and pandemic many culinary schools are closing. The only ones still opened are the famous one like the CIA, the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde park and ICE The Institute of Culinary Education in the heart of the world's restaurant capitol, new York ity.Even the famed Johnson & Wales , a college with a culinary bent has closed their Denver and Miami campuses. Community colleges will always be open, offering a variety of majors from communications to nursing and now aspects of the food industry.They are also much cheaper. A student ca receive a certificate for only $6500 and $14,000 for a two year Associates Degree. One semester at the CIA is $20,000.There is already too much student debt and starting out line cooks can''t afford that on their beginning salaries.
Many companies and local governments are realizing that the culinary departments are worth investing in . The state-of-the-art kitchens at North Essex Community College in Haverhill Massachusetts were built and equipped from funding from the state and Lupoli Companies. The last is a Massachusetts real estate developer that owns the culinary arts building.Graduates are then hired at Bosa, owned by Lupoli. There are also perks too such as breaking down meats at Haverhill Beef Company, a local butcher. Other have gardens planted on site such as Butler Community College in El Dorado Kansas. This allows students to cook in the farm to table method. At Mott Community School in Flint, Michigan run the student coffee shop that in turns fund scholarships. Yet there is criticism despite all the good they do. Jeffrey Gardner , a consulting chef in Atlanta feel the community college grads have an outdated French cuisine background along with teachers not having adequate restaurant backgrounds. There's also no ethnic diversity in the training either. None have backgrounds or classes in African and Asian cooking. Yet these courses and programs do fill a need. Local businesses need the grads and they are hard working according to Sussex Community College's superviser Martin Kestner. His grads help out the local restaurants in Newton, New Jertsey
Community colleges have a lot going for them. Their culinary programs are worth looking into. Young chefs can get a good education at a reasonable price.
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