WCC Is Cookin'

Michigan may be hard hit with the current spate of economic stumbles (and outright face-plants), but lay-offs and buy-outs have a strange side effect, at least in Ann Arbor - they are prompting a lot of locals to go back to school – and the kitchen. While this bodes well for the Ann Arbor foodie cult, it’s also a sign that at least one industry is experiencing serious growth.

According to Head Chef and Culinary Instructor Paul McPherson of Washtenaw Community College’s Culinary and Hospitality Management Program, enrollment is up 8 to 10%.  In fact, this semester has seen the highest enrollment ever - over 200 part and full time attendees.  Last year was no slump year either: in 2008 between 25 and 35 students graduated with associates degrees, and about 15 were awarded certifications in each of three fields: baking and pastry, culinary, and hospitality management.

Can the local market support all this new and enhanced talent so it doesn't move away?  The answer is 'Yes' says McPherson, at least for now. The culinary and hospitality job market is alive and well in Washtenaw County. 

McPherson estimates that about three quarters of his students are already employed in the culinary and hospitality industries, doing everything from waiting tables and managing costs, to baking pastries and catering weddings. He also has students employed in related fields: Dieticians, teachers of cost control, food service managers and health department employees have all come through the program in recent months.

"From what we can see," he says, "The food industry is still growing, particularly in Ann Arbor, which is a mecca for hotels, hospitals and restaurants. We're not in decline like the rest of Michigan, and there are still lots of jobs." McPherson concedes that the jobs might be low-paying to begin with, but he tells his students that they have to begin low to work their way up. "The only reason a culinary grad isn't working is because he or she doesn't want to work." 

Indeed, the Culinary and Hospitality Management Program not only accommodates students with outside jobs, it encourages them. One class, called a co-op, requires students have an outside job. This kind of on-the-job training is intended to enable WCC graduates to hit the ground running, either with jobs in hand or the skill set and experience to land a job quickly. And it’s working. With an advisory board of 20-25 industry professionals and deep roots in the community, the department is constantly receiving requests for candidates to work in local operations.

The Student Experience 

Sonia Urbaniak expects to complete her Associates Degree in Culinary Arts by the end of this year, and currently works in the Gandy Dancer's pastry kitchen. How did she land such a sweet job at one of Ann Arbor's favorite restaurants? The Gandy Dancer's pastry chef was one of Urbaniak's teachers, and is just one of many chefs who actively seek out employees at WCC.

"My hope is to one day be an executive chef.  I always thought I'd have my own restaurant, but I learned from the program that I'm actually not as fond of the front of the house and management aspects as I am of designing meals."

Program graduate Diane Newell had no trouble finding work either, landing a job at a Michigan yacht club instantly. Only two years later she snared the coveted title of Head Chef at the same location. She attributes her success to her culinary education, and the readiness of instructors to help or explain. Newell estimates her culinary education, which took three years, cost between 15 and 18 thousand dollars.

"It was a great investment," she says. "The program gave me all the tools to go out there and work in the field and know the right things to do. It taught me the science of why different foods are prepared the way they are."

In Class Training – Garrett's Restaurant 

The culinary arts program offers both lab classes as well as more traditional instruction: a classroom setting with rows of desks and a blackboard, complete with professor, lecture, and diligent note-taking. There are nearly thirty different classes, named with varying degrees of intrigue: Sanitation, nutrition, cost control, organization management, hospitality management, etc. 

And then there’s Garrett’s. 

If there is one thing students gush about when it comes to the culinary and hospitality program, it is the presence of Garrett's restaurant on campus. Urbaniak points out that it is an operating restaurant supported by a real commercial kitchen. Garrett's is a strictly lunch joint serving Monday through Thursday from 11:30 – 12:45.

"In this program you have real customers, and you get an idea of what it actually means to be in the food business. If you make a mistake, though, it's not quite as bad as it would be if you weren't at a school restaurant," she says. 

Garrett's is a restaurant supported by bustling "lab classes" set in the adjacent commercial kitchen and supervised by one professor and one lab assistant, or graduate. Imagine a large, gleaming galley in which a lot of people -- too many -- dressed as chefs attempt to achieve culinary flights like Carbonnade of Beef Flamande and Old Bay Crabcakes with roasted red pepper aioli in a too tight space. Hot foods are passed back and forth, knives flash, pots boil, sauces simmer. It's not hard to imagine how this type of environment when translated to the "real world" might produce the legendary stress reported by chefs and their significant others the world over. 

"There are definitely more people in the lab class kitchen than there would be normally in a kitchen," says Urbaniak. She and her fellow students – all second year – meet in the kitchen at about 7 a.m., wearing the iconic chef hats and high-collar coats. They enjoy a brief lecture on the food of the day before launching into "prep." They go until about 11 a.m., when the first year class takes over to finish up and serve the food their seniors have started.  At the same time, there is a front of the house class -- the students making sure the restaurant is running smoothly and that food gets to the table. Put it all together, and you have a gourmet meal for about eight bucks.

"It’s the best deal in town," says Chef McPherson.

If you can find parking. According to students, the WCC parking lot is at capacity every day.  Finding the space to accommodate a lunch crowd is difficult at best and probably limits business. Garrett's serves about 50 guests a day – but the space could seat many more. But there might be a solution on the horizon. The Washtenaw Country Club's recent offer to give itself to the college might provide the kind of space that would let Garrett's and its students thrive.

"It would definitely allow the restaurant and our food to be available to the larger public," says Urbaniak. 

The Popularity of Culinary Arts on TV…

Although recent attendance to the culinary arts has certainly swelled, the prevalence of fine foodie training has long been a feature of our region. Southeast Michigan supports a number of successful culinary schools – another one just opened in Novi -- including five run by community colleges.   

If many students have returned to school because of lay-offs and buy-outs, what has induced so many of them to the culinary industry specifically?  Can we attribute any of it to the endless list of popular foodie shows like Bravo's Top Chef, The Food Network's Iron Chef, Fox's Hell's Kitchen, or oddly compelling personalities like Rachel Ray and Emeril Lagasse?

"These shows do attract people to the industry, and I think it helps but also hurts because expectations become unrealistic," says Chef McPherson. "The media has fallen in love with these cooking shows like Iron Chef.  I often have to tell my students that the industry is not like that.  I try to get them down to earth."  

Newell says she's seen the perception of the culinary arts change with the influx of food shows. 

"I feel that we can thank the celebrity chefs for elevating the profession in the eyes of the public," she says. "At one time when someone was hired into a kitchen, it was looked upon as a lowly job.  I feel that in a way the shows have elevated the profession. It is after all a form of art and craftsmanship." 

Is the squeeze on the way for Washtenaw County restaurants?

A recent workforce study of Washtenaw County noted accommodation and food services as of the county's dominant industries, while the county as a whole has been bearing up better than its neighbors. According to numbers published by Ann Arbor Spark from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washtenaw County’s 2008 unemployment rate was 6.0%, lower than the U.S. number of 7.2% and lower still than Michigan's dismal 10.6%. But unemployment everywhere is gradually rising, and even our most dominant industries may soon feel the pinch. 

Sava Lelcaj, owner of Sava's State Street Café, reports that her business sales are down about 25% at her Ann Arbor location. Meanwhile she says, job applications are up, especially among students who need supplemental income. 

"Ann Arbor's proximity to the University and hospital insulates business owners from other, more devastating declines in business that have visibly impacted other areas in the state," she says.   

Community Colleges Thrives In Current Market

This year's annual fundraising dinner, the Brazilian Mardi Gras, raised record-breaking funds for the culinary program, says Chef McPherson. Hosted by students coached by local high-end chefs, the dinner scored an astounding $125,000 from donors.

"Education at the community college level is not hurting at all," says McPherson of the triumph. "It's a complete flip side – because everyone who is out of work is coming back to school, and that helps us."  

On the menu for donors were a Brazilian wedge salad with citrus vinaigrette dressing,

Rio Branco short ribs, spiced-cured Brazilian chicken, vegetable Napoleon, Brazilian pork roast with a lime-orange seasoned rub and seafood boulettes. The only thing feeling a pinch at this event might have been the waistlines of its attendees, who praised the event to McPherson and his colleagues as one of the most enjoyable in years. 

"It's inspiring to meet all the chefs they bring in for this event, some of whom even started at WCC," says Urbaniak, who helped cook for the guests. "You kind of realize: I can reach that. I can be there in 5, 10 or 20 years. WCC's culinary program puts that within reach."