My view: Kitchen rules put too much heat on schools' culinary arts ajc.com
The DOE has come up with an excellent new culinary curriculum for our kids. This curriculum was first discussed in 2006, and they announced a professional kitchen or at least a modified kitchen would be required to teach the new curriculum. In late spring 2007, the requirements of these kitchens were still not available.
In October, the DOE announced that all 80 schools must have a professional, commercial kitchen in order to teach the new program. Representatives from the state said there was a possibility that the other schools without the commercial kitchens might be grandfathered into the program, with the understanding that they would be given time to raise the $300,000 to $600,000 to build these kitchens.
Two weeks ago, on a videocast to all of the culinary teachers, the DOE announced its decision to make the professional kitchens mandatory for August 2008. The schools that do not have professional kitchens can only teach an Intro Culinary Class to freshmen with only home economics and nutrition classes to follow in upper-class grades.
At last count, only 20 schools had professional kitchens. Sixty schools will not be able to teach advanced culinary classes starting in August 2008. Everyone reading this knows the importance of the hospitality industry and its growth in our state.
These 80 schools have been the foundation for many of our young adults to find an interest in the culinary hospitality field that they would have never had. These kids are the future chefs, general managers and restaurant owners in Georgia. At the school where I chef mentor this program, our classes have doubled and tripled in size over the past years. The DOE has decided that equipment is what makes a chef.
I beg to differ. Our kids can learn just as well in the kitchens they have now, until the funds can be raised to build professional kitchens. To halt these successful classes now would leave a gap in the education of those who have started their culinary training, and a void for those to come, until a kitchen is built.
The DOE is doing a great disservice to the children of Georgia, the hospitality industry in Georgia (which has a hard time finding adequate staffing, as it is) and the enrollment in higher education culinary and hospitality schools, inside and outside of Georgia. If you are in support of grandfathering in these programs, please let your representatives know.
Gary Coltek owns Buckhead Wedding Cakes and has served as executive chef, executive pastry chef, food and beverage director and general manager for companies including Ritz-Carlton, Hilton International and Four Seasons hotels and the Plaza in New York.
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