In tough economy, culinary schools sizzle

The Institute of Technology at Clovis has moved into its expanded culinary school — and is poised for more students amid a struggling economy.

The old school, at Willow and Shaw avenues in Clovis, was “busting at the seams” with 250 students at a time, says Don Waddell, director of the institute’s culinary division. “We have a waiting list for the baking pastry specialist program, often times several months out.”

The new school at Herndon and Willow avenues has a seven-kitchen campus with more than twice the kitchen space of the old school. It has green technologies, such as energy-saving stoves, lights that automatically turn off and skylights in classrooms.

The new school could fit up to 360 students at a time, Waddell says. It was conceived as a way to turn the institute into a regional cooking school that draws out-of-area students. Given the economy’s anemia, however, the school may become packed with more local students.

Vocational schools “do well in down economies,” he says. “Now’s the time to get additional education.”

One example is Andi MacDonald, a former teacher at the Charlie Keyan Armenian Community School. As belt-tightening became the order of the day, she wondered about the outlook for private elementary schools.

Her job was safe, but the 55-year-old MacDonald started to think about a long-standing dream.

“I always wanted to go to culinary school,” she says. “The economy gave me the impetus to do that.”

As a full-time student at the Institute of Technology in Clovis, she’s relying on her husband for financial support. She’s also a freelance writer. And she started a catering company, Events Spectacular, with a classmate.

After graduating this week, MacDonald hopes to expand Events Spectacular.

“My husband would love it if I had a job,” she says. But he’s excited about her new career, especially her upcoming externship at Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

After working for a day in Chez Panisse’s kitchen doing tasks such as shelling black-eyed peas and cleaning squid, MacDonald was invited back to work for a stint next summer.

In other parts of the country, culinary schools are seeing more interest. Some are career-changers like MacDonald. Some are midcareer professionals brushing up on their skills. Others are youngsters, driven to cook after watching Food Network shows.

“I believe everyone is seeing strong admission numbers for requests right now,” says William Tillinghast, director of culinary and pastry programs at The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. Current enrollment per quarter is about 600 in his program, up from 250 eight years ago.

“The hardest thing is to make them understand that they’re only going to leave here with foundational skills,” Tillinghast says of his students. “They’re not going to be chefs right away.”

It’s not a life for everyone. Tillinghast says about 20% of his students don’t continue after the first quarter. “After they see how much work it really is,” he says, “they find out the work isn’t really for them.”

As a result, about 170 students graduate from his program every year. Many of them already have professional kitchen experience from working while in school. “If you know how to cook,” Tillinghast says, “you’re somewhat recession proof.”

When the white-tablecloth restaurants take a hit, students move into other segments, such as supermarkets, casual restaurants and country clubs, he says. More than half of his students seek jobs in “the nontraditional side: colleges, universities, hospitals, and retirement communities.”

The Institute of Technology at Clovis has similar numbers. Within a year, it graduates about 155 students, Waddell says.

Depending on his students’ work experience and skills, they can earn “anywhere from minimum wage to whatever the market will bear,” he says.

At leading culinary schools, such as the Culinary Institute of America, enrollment has been steady “because we are very selective about who we take,” says Drusilla Blackman, the CIA’s vice president of enrollment planning.

At the CIA’s flagship campus in Hyde Park, New York, about 1,200-1,300 graduate every year from the associate’s program. About another 300 graduate from the bachelors program.

She does see more demand for the bachelor’s program, which offers two years of management training beyond the two years of kitchen skills all students study.

More and more, the top jobs in the culinary field require “all of the things that make a successful entrepreneur and a successful businessperson,” she says.

The Institute of Technology at Clovis doesn’t have plans to add more business classes, Waddell says. Culinary students spend about five weeks learning how to create business plans. They also learn skills in supervision, customer-service and computer programs.

With the expansion of its kitchens, the institute is focusing on teaching more hands-on skills. Willem Bezemer, a former executive chef at the Acapulco Princess Hotel and Resort in Mexico, is now a part-time baking and pastry instructor for the institute. In his classes, he demonstrates how to use a pastry sheeter, an industrial tool that was too big for the old building. Cooler temperatures in the new building also allow students to create chocolate sculptures.

As a vocational school, the Institute’s program is less expensive than other schools. (At the Culinary Institute of America, for example, tuition and fees for a two-year program in the culinary arts are $55,610. Financial aid in the form of grants, loans and work study is available, Blackman says.)

The cost of the Institute of Technology’s program was welcome news to students such as Sonya McCraney, who says she was in prison for forgery and released after six months.

“I’ve always been interested in cooking,” she says. Along with working in the California Conservation Corps, “this is the most positive thing I’ve had in my life.”

McCraney chose the Clovis Institute of Technology because it didn’t require a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate. And at about $28,000 for the 15-month program, “it was the cheapest one,” she says. The institute also offers different types of financial aid.

She’s not too worried about finding a job afterward.

“Everybody has to eat,” she says. “They’re always going to need cooks.”

The reporter can be reached at jobra@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6365. Read her blog at fresnobeehive.com/author/ joan_obra.