Meghan Jackson is 21 years old and hails from Buchanan. This fall, she will take what she has learned in the culinary arts department at Westchester Community College in Valhalla and move to Austin, Texas, to leaven her pastry knowledge.
“From there, I”™d like to own my own pastry catering business and eventually grow into a small bakery,” Jackson said. “I definitely believe that what I learned here is going to help.”
Jackson will join 11 other students graduating next month from the college”™s Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management degree program, which is federally accredited. A third of the curriculum is culinary; a third is hospitality- and management-themed; and a third is the standard college core curriculum. Additionally, the students must work professionally outside school, logging 240 hours in restaurants or hotels in order to graduate.
Jackson and others have at their disposal a newly refurbished kitchen-classroom facility in the Student Center building on campus.
The building was expanded by approximately 9,000 square feet with a just-completed $19 million renovation and now features a cafeteria, coffee bar, classrooms, expanded student lounge space, offices, and the state-of-the-art Culinary Arts space. Other features include a meditation room and expanded special event space.
The new kitchen tools include a pair of $25,000 ovens that are programmed to flay, bake, roast and otherwise prepare some 280 specific recipes.
The program is 28 years old, according to Desi Colo”™n, one of two professors who run it, along with Daryl Nosek. They are assisted by adjuncts in teaching courses that include mixology, buffets and catering.
“Its popularity has grown recently,” Colo”™n said of the program, which now has 68 students enrolled. “We have a sophisticated curriculum and our students stand alone. When they graduate, they have a sense of professionalism, a sense of the urgency of the business, and they have a stake in perpetuating the industry by understanding this is a career, not just a job.”
As if on cue, a student appeared a bit flustered and out of breath. She was a minute late, but she”™d be on her mark quickly. “That”™s the sense of urgency I was talking about,” Colo”™n said. “It can be a real eye-opener when they start, before they understand the industry is about hard work and commitment.”
