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With the opening of the new Moraine Business and Conference Center for the fall 2009 semester, the Moraine Valley Community College Culinary Arts program will inherit learning space that houses four expansive, state-of-the-art demonstration kitchens. Add to that a new full-time baking/pastry instructor and more classes, and the college will be able to accommodate up to 250 future chefs.
The new kitchens cover 6,000 square feet of learning space that features top-of-the-line equipment, an area specifically designed to teach baking/pastry, and a projection system that allows students to see the instructor from their work stations throughout the kitchen.
Moraine Valley also has developed a new curriculum that allows for an increase in the number of classes it can offer to up to as many as nine classes each day. In addition to more classes being offered, students have more choices in the types of classes they can take, including ice creams and sorbets, chocolate work, and confections. A class also will focus on learning to prepare various ethnic cuisines.
The Culinary Arts Program is working toward earning accreditation from the American Culinary Federation and is planning on future projects such as planting an outdoor herb garden that will include apple and pear trees and building a greenhouse on campus that will allow for ingredient availability year-round.
The college offers an Associate of Applied Science degree or a certificate in Culinary Arts Management and a certificate in Baking/Pastry Arts. (A degree program in Baking/Pastry Arts is anticipated for the 2010-11 academic year.) Students also can receive a degree or certificate in Restaurant/Hotel Management, which combines culinary classes with business and management classes. All of the programs prepare students for entry level jobs as cooks in hotels, country clubs, restaurant kitchens, food service, or assisted living communities. Many students also take classes for continuing education, to maintain their food sanitation certification, or simply to hone their cooking skills at home.
“Some local chefs have enrolled in the program to get their degree,” said Michael O’Shea, instructor and program coordinator at Moraine Valley and a chef for more than 20 years. “One student has been a chef for 25 years, but wanted that piece of paper. It’s important for students to know that they won’t be ‘chefs’ when they graduate because that takes a lot more schooling and experience, but we are setting them on that career path if that’s their goal.”
For more information about the Culinary Arts program, call O’Shea at (708) 974-5597 or visit morainevalley.edu/Hospitality.
Registration for the fall 2009 semester is underway. In-district tuition is $87 per credit hour plus fees and books. Students can register at the Admissions Office, located in Building S on campus, 9000 W. College Pkwy., Palos Hills, or by calling (708) 974-2110 (TTY for the hearing impaired 708-974-9556). Previously enrolled students can register online at morainevalley.edu.
For news media inquiries, call Jessica Crotty, coordinator of College and Community Relations, at (708) 974-5281, or e-mail her at crotty@morainevalley.edu.
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Mike O’Shea, program coordinator and instructor of Moraine Valley Community College’s Culinary Arts program, stands in one of the four new demonstration kitchens in the college’s new Moraine Business and Conference Center.
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