Story by Claudia Flores & photos by EPCC Culinary Staff
With more than 15 years as part of El Paso Community College’s (EPCC) programs of study, the culinary arts associate program continues to prepare students for entry-level positions and beyond in the food industry.
The program that was originally part of the hospitality and travel development at EPCC, became its own discipline in the late 90s, according to EPCC’s website.
Located on 9050 Viscount Blvd., Building B, EPCC offers three different associate degrees and certificates of completion in the areas of culinary arts, pastry and restaurant management.
“When I started [in the program] it was a food service degree, but then we changed it to culinary arts and related sciences,” said Daniel Guerra, instructor and coordinator of the culinary arts program. “Then about 10 years ago we moved here, and we started expanding into our programs.”
Today, with more than 200 students enrolled, the culinary arts program continues to expand its reach with partnerships to help students get different opportunities within and beyond the El Paso area.
One of their partnerships is with the school districts of El Paso, this partnership offers high school students who wish to pursue a career in the food industry the opportunity to take class credit and save up money while in high school.
“Some have dual credit and the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) has four classes students can get credited,” Guerra said. “So, you’re looking at almost $2,000 in tuition and all that stuff associated with taking the class. At the end of the day our programs are about $7,000 for the two years and the one-year associate certificate is looking at about $4,000.”
An important part of the program is their partnership with Sysco, this partnership brings into the program the food for students to continue their practices.
Compared to mayor culinary schools, EPCC spends close to $100,000 in food every year while prestigious schools spend close to one million dollars, however, the program the program is design to prepare students in all major areas to compete at in the industry.
“The benefit that those proprietary schools have so much money is they have better partnerships and better deals with food vendors,” Guerra said. “Sysco has offered to be our sole vendor and they said they could give us rebates and do all these other things for us, but because we are in the state of Texas, we are not allowed to have a sole vendor, so we have to continue to be competitive in our purchasing process.”
Even when the program does not spend money on luxurious foods such as lobster, according to Guerra, it’s all about learning how to master the basics.
“Let’s be realistic, if you overcook a lobster, they are not going to tell you it’s bad, but if you overcook or undercook a chicken, you’re going to have a big issue,” Guerra said. “Students work a lot with chicken and if they master how to cook chicken it’s kind of easy to turn around and use those same principles in cooking a piece of lobster or tenderloin. This is a harder medium for them to work in, but they’re going to learn more this way.”
Aside from working in the industrial kitchens in campus, the THIRTEEN09, an a la carte restaurant located inside the B Building, gives students the opportunity to put to the task what they learn in the classroom.
According to Guerra students have different events that helps them learn more about what the industry really is about, one of them is their call service-learning functions, where students serve the guests and prepare the food.
“They have to do 10 hours per eight weeks of service line. They prepare the food and serve the guests within two hours, and the rest of the time they spend time on cleaning up the kitchen and the dishes and that’s the reality of what this industry is,” Guerra said.
To learn more about the EPCC culinary arts program visit epcc.edu/academics/culinaryarts
