James Hagan
Published: February 18 2004
In the past 10 years, interest in food preparation and management in this country has exploded. “The Food Network,” has 24-hour programming of cooking, food-oriented shows such as “Emeril” and “Iron Chef” abound and TV shows such as NBC’s “The Restaurant,” show the inner workings of a New York eatery. It seems many people are now seeing the food industry in a more glamorous and serious light.
PJC has a program dedicated to producing the next generation’s Emerils and Iron Chefs.
The Culinary Management program is a hands-on work-oriented A.A.S. two-year program. The program doesn’t just teach students how to cook. Instead, it covers a wide variety of fields, including owning a catering company, restaurant management and food photography.
Chef Travis Herr, Instructor of Culinary Management at PJC, characterized it as more of a management business program rather than just a cooking program.
Some of the classes can be intense, both in time and in environment. Some classes, such as Advance Culinary Production, meet up to seven and one-half hours a class meeting. Many of the courses are taught in the department’s kitchen in building 5 on the Pensacola campus.
Herr called it the most work intensive program at the college.
“So much of the program is built around the classes and about the students learning for themselves and not just being taught,” Herr said.
According to Herr, it takes a special kind of student to be in the program. Interested students are required to meet with a counselor and Herr before they can sign up.
“I look for an individual who can withstand the environment. Sometimes that’ll require being on your feet for 10 hours or more a day. The person has to want to serve people and has to have the ability to be creative. It has to be their calling because every day is a challenge,” he said.
Herr said he has never denied a student entrance into the program; rather some have reconsidered after hearing the demands required.
One question Herr asks interested students is if they’re willing to move to different cities to for jobs.
“With the number of graduates pumped out, there are not enough jobs for them. And it’s good to move and expose yourself to different cuisines and customs of towns,” he said.
One student said that despite the tough work she enjoys the program in the culinary field. Every day brings something new and beneficial. I like the fact that most classes are pretty small. Everyone works together pretty well to help each other out,” said Shelsie Lawrence, a first-year culinary major.
Culinary graduates typically start off at $30,000 a year, said Herr. That’s above the normal average of $25,000 a year for two-year vocational degree graduates, according to a 2002 Department of Education report on college graduates.
Herr has more than 30 years of experience in culinary fields. He has owned and managed restaurants throughout Florida and was the head of the culinary program at Gulf Coast Community College for 15 years.
He came to PJC to take over the culinary program a year-and-a half ago. One of the first things he did was increase the number of lunches and dinners students prepared for the community.
Students now prepare five lunches and two dinners in the fall and two lunches and a dinner in the spring, up from three lunches and one dinner in the fall and one lunch and one dinner in the spring under the old system.
“They needed more real-life experience,” he said. “We turned the program into a bit more of a professional program. It’s a bit more advanced.”
Students have benefited from the changes. PJC placed third in its first year in the St. Augustine Competition, a competition of schools from Florida and Georgia. Students had 75 minutes to prepare a three-course meal using ingredients specified by the judges.
Currently, there are 80 students in the program. Herr said 100 students are about all the program can hold. Unless more class and kitchen space is made available in the next few years it’s likely that a cap will have to be put on the number of students allowed in the major. None of the students are paid as student-assistants. All the work they do for luncheons and dinners is considered part of their course work.
The program is certified by the American Culinary Federation, the leading association of culinary professionals.
According to Herr, the certification adds more cachet and helps legitimize the program to people in food fields. He said this helps students when they eventually go into the work force.
“The American Culinary Federation keeps programs from getting lazy,” he said. “Students who graduate from certified programs themselves become certified quicker when they go out into the work field.
Herr anticipates the program and the interest in food preparation and management will grow in the years to come.
“The Food Network and things like that have done a lot for visibility. What we eat on a daily basis after a while becomes stale. People start looking for something different, more exotic,” he said.
For more information log on to www.itech.pjc.edu/therr.