You don't need a culinary degree to emulate the career trajectory of Kitchen Confidential chef-author Anthony Bourdain, who, like many celebrated chefs, started in the dish pit. After all, humans have been cooking since acquiring fire, passing the knowledge of all things culinary across generations and geography. All that information has since been codified into books, videos and other instructionals, allowing would-be cooks to more or less teach themselves.
However, the culinary industry is broader than just restaurants, says Hillary Faeta-Ginepra, North Idaho College's culinary arts program instructor. It also includes cooking for hospitals and schools, product development, catering and retail, food systems, and even teaching others about food and cooking.
And there's a clear difference between observing kitchen mechanics and running a kitchen.
"Culinary school helps students understand why they're doing what they're doing," Faeta-Ginepra says. "And when you go out into the industry... you know what you're doing, and that propels you not only in creativity, but speed and confidence."
Those qualities are especially important in an industry with a high projected growth rate — around 25 percent over the next 10 years, according to 2020 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — combined with existing labor shortages that were exacerbated by the pandemic. High turnover and other pressures make it key for restaurant operators to be able to hire staff who can hit the ground running and handle whatever's thrown at them.
Both North Idaho College and Spokane Community College are helping prepare tomorrow's highly skilled, adaptive culinary workforce to do just that. Although the two programs differ slightly, each offers courses that weave practical and applied skills, including reading, writing and science, with vital hands-on experience at each program's on-site restaurant.
It's Tuesday, March 22, and diners are queuing up for the end-of-quarter buffet at Orlando's Restaurant, which doubles as SCC's on-the-job training facility for its Inland Northwest Culinary Academy, or INCA.
Over the next hour and a half, approximately 80 diners are greeted, seated and pointed toward the smorgasbord: wine-braised chicken, short ribs, numerous salads, chowder with scratch-made croutons, and a dozen-plus desserts from huckleberry macarons with silver leaf to turtle brownies.
Every bite has been prepared and is being served by 30 or so SCC culinary students for whom meal service is a culminating project. Prior to the buffet, they'd all earned their chops serving and preparing food during other times Orlando's was open for take-out and on-site dining.
To work at Orlando's, students must learn to set up a mise en place food prep station, follow a prep list, and time the creation of dishes just like at a full-service restaurant, says Julie Litzenberger, one of INCA's seven culinary instructors.
At $13 per person including tax, the buffet is "wildly successful," Litzenberger says.
Litzenberger's students are responsible for front-of-house operations during the buffet. One of them is 21-year-old Connor Ramey, whose patches on his white chef coat indicate he's the captain, ready to jump in as servers bustle back and forth: filling water, taking plates, checking on guests.
"When we say it is a 100 percent student-run restaurant, we mean it," Litzenberger says.
Orlando's is located inside SCC's recently remodeled and expanded Building 1, which faces East Mission Avenue and also houses the baking program, as well as cosmetology and counseling services. Orlando's is named for Orlando Longos, who taught food trade classes at the college from 1963 to 1975.
"Musical instrument repair, custom apparel and watch repair have fallen by the wayside, but culinary training continues to remain a strong presence on campus," Litzenberger says.
To earn an associate degree, students must complete 105 credits, typically spread over two years or six quarters (fall, winter and spring). Culinary basics, nutrition, baking, menu planning and mechanics of the hospitality industry are all part of the curriculum. Industry-specific fundamentals like food science and written communications ensure interdisciplinary competency beyond cooking. Taking the food service safety and sanitation class earns students a certification by the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association.
INCA also offers a separate three-quarter, certificate-only program in professional baking, which many culinary students pursue after completing their associate degree. Students in the professional baking program contribute desserts and breads to the buffet, and also stock and staff Orlando's retail bakery.
Culinary students during the recently ended quarter range in age from 18 to 65. Many of them already work in hospitality, both for the pay and for experience.
"Many 'seasoned' cooks come to INCA because they've found that promotions and advancement often require or prefer a culinary degree," Litzenberger says.
And like everyone in the hospitality industry, many students were especially hard-hit by the pandemic, she adds.
"Those working in restaurants were faced with unemployment and isolation, and our students became part of an experiment in attempting to teach very hands-on content in online format," Litzenberger says.
Unable to offer in-person dining for much of the past two years, INCA pivoted to take-out meals, which it continues to offer.
"While the sales are helpful to the overall success of the program, more importantly the students are learning what it means to produce a different style of profitable service," says Litzenberger.
She's also begun training students to explain the ordering process and menu via phone, as well as manage orders, schedules, payments and pickup.
Not all who start SCC's program earn a degree — sometimes less than half of the students — due to reasons like lack of finances and poor study habits, factors not necessarily unique to this area of study. Moreover, Litzenberger says, some students don't realize the rigor required by INCA's program, which emphasizes cooking as much as management and business skills.
"It is not an easy program, and our standards are very high to send the most dedicated, qualified and ambitious students out into the industry," she says.
"Our students became part of an experiment in attempting to teach very hands-on content in online format."
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Similar to Orlando's, Emery's restaurant at North Idaho College provides real-life opportunities for students to hone front- and back-of-the-house skills.
The restaurant and a smaller grab-and-go deli service are open on select days throughout the semester. Each week features a new, student-planned menu, such as Irish fare around St. Patrick's Day and more recently, Filipino food like lumpiang shanghai or spring rolls ($6) and sinigang, a savory-sour stew ($8).
Emery's is located in the college's Hedlund Building with an enviable view of Lake Coeur d'Alene and a modest dining room befitting the still-growing program, which began in 1989.
In 2019, the program transitioned from offering a technical certificate to a two-year associate degree. The college hopes to expand enrollment caps for the 2022-23 school year, and is pursuing accreditation through the American Culinary Federation (similar to SCC's program), says program instructor Feata-Ginepra.
Currently, students' first semester courses include customer service, menu planning and procurement, as well as interdisciplinary classes in writing and communication.
Dakota Hughes, a first-year student, relocated from McCall, Idaho, to attend NIC after searching the internet for "best culinary" school, she says. Like many of this year's 14-member cohort, Hughes works in a local restaurant, Bardenay Restaurant and Distillery in Coeur d'Alene, while attending college.
"I've done about everything you can do in a restaurant," says Hughes, who grew up in the industry. Her father helped open Bardenay in Boise, and she wants to be an executive chef.
By their second year at NIC, culinary students develop an entrepreneurial project, and learn about purchasing, nutrition, alcoholic beverages and restaurant supervision.
Scott Adamson, who graduates in May, left his job teaching middle school to pursue a culinary career after taking personal enrichment classes taught by Faeta-Ginepra. Although he's contemplating developing a food truck for his final project, at 56, he's not sure what he's going to do with his culinary degree.
"It's been all about the journey," he says. ♦
