The culinary arts program at St. Louis
Community College has been here for over
50 years. It was started by Jack Miller,
and we are a wonderful combination of
both hands-on culinary technical skills
and broad-based hospitality management.
The program is important because it is the
single longest-standing source of
quality hospitality employees and chefs
in the St. Louis region, and it has been
for over 50 years.
I love the program because I'm learning, not only about, like, American cuisine, but also,
like, regional and around the world. I've been cooking since I was 14.
This is just kinda what I wanted to do, and I knew that this was the best program for it.
The flexibility is great. There's multiple classes, like morning, noon, and night.
So if you work during the day, you can still get your education and go to night classes.
Everybody comes here. We
serve everybody from the high school
student doing dual enrollment to the
people that have had full careers and
have now retired; everybody contributes
and makes this a vital and vibrant program.
STLCC's program is unique against any
of the others in the area because of
three main things. One, we have the
longevity of the program. We have the
balance between both hands-on technical
skill and the management side, and then
we have a strong community base so our
students are easily employed, and they
are regularly sought out throughout the
region by employers.
Just knowing that for the price difference between here and other places, and you're getting a better education?
It's such an easy decision.
Anyone can do it. If you think about, if you think that you can do it, you definitely can. It just takes practice.
We try to imitate what you would find in
the workforce. Which is you may have to
do paperwork, food ordering, budgeting, and
then go into the kitchen to prepare for
service, and then engage and do service.
So, we offer the student that full range.
They see everything from how you set a
kitchen up to how you break equipment
down, and yes, even clean at the end of
the day.
