It has been a brutal section for Los Angeles restaurants. Since 2023, hundreds of notable points have been closed in the midst of growing costs of food and labor, and a weakening economy.
More recently, the local scene has also been dragged by the January forest fires, which set on several restaurants, caused some to close temporarily and move to the workers. Then, this summer, federal immigration application raids led many undocumented workers to leave their positions for fear of arrest.
It is an environment to launch a race in the restaurant industry. But the culinary program of the Los Angeles Commercial University has a different history: registration grew by 13% the last academic year, and has increased almost 30% since 2019.
Jerry Vachon, president of the Tech Tech culinary program, examines the grapes in the school garden.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
The growth of the program occurs when culinary schools have also closed in the last decade: Le Cordon Bleu closed their universities throughout the country, including a Pasadena branch, in 2017; and a handful of other notables closed in 2020 in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The recent culinary graduates of commercial technology, and the instructors who taught them, said that they are not surprised by the success of the school, explaining that the program has an attraction, in part, because it teaches useful and real world skills in a new and modern building.
“Going to school is very important: I tell you the young chefs we have,” said Tech-Tech Katya Shastova's graduate, Vin Folk's chef companion, a well-revised beautiful Beach restaurant Beach that opened last year. “Some people think you can learn in the kitchen. Yes, you can. But when you enter a kitchen with techniques that are already integrated into you … it puts you at a different level.”
Robert Wemischner has been an instructor for a long time at the Trade-Tech culinary school.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Life instructor Robert Wemischner said the program emphasizes “students a vision of the real life of work they will do in the field.”
“Even at a time when the landscape is bleak, or rather uncertain … students want to find a career, follow a passion,” he said. “And they find teachers who feed that.”
There are also other factors. The president of the department, Jerry Vibon, said the program can benefit from a coup after COVID-19, since people rethink their careers. The initiative of the promise of Los Angeles College, launched approximately a decade ago by the Unified School District of Los Angeles and the District of Community Colleges of Los Angeles, has also helped. It provides two years of enrollment to graduate from high school students in the nine schools of the University District, including.
Vachon projects future growth for the culinary school, which offers certificates and associate titles, through the creation of new study topics. Trading-Tech will begin to grant a certificate in the kitchen based on plants from this fall. The program also aims to provide certificates in food trucks and mobile expectations by 2026. Both increasingly popular areas have lower entry barriers than restaurants.
Why do students register
The culinary arts building of approximately $ 50 million, which opened in the summer of 2021, is an exhibition installation that transformed the program, said Vachon. On a recent tour, he showed a garden used by a new class in green technology, and a cavernous room that included 12 mini kitchens and was supplied with brilliant stainless steel appliances.
Many students, he said, “I have not really experienced” using the type of high -end equipment offered by school.
The great main kitchen of the building accommodates multiple classes, including the production of production and butcher shop. Vachon, who for a long time taught a class on Charcuterie: “We make patches, terrine,” he said, he was particularly proud of dry -aged refrigerators, where Salami hung. It is close to the Campus cafeteria, whose offerings are prepared and sold by the students.
Raúl González turned from mathematics to the Culinary La-Tech program of Tech three years ago. He received his associate title in culinary arts this spring.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
The students who recently completed the program said the facilities had captivated them. Raúl González, 26, said I was studying mathematics in Tra-Tech, but left after an epiphany during a calculation exam: “I don't want to do this for the rest of my life.” He pivot the culinary school three years ago and received his associate title in culinary arts this spring.
“I always had passion for the kitchen. He finally clicks to me,” said González, who is now working to obtain the titles of his associates in the management of baked and restaurants, and works in the school cafeteria during the summer. He hopes to open a restaurant in Guatemala, where his parents are.
Sandy Hernández, 19, said that baking had been a hobby in high school, but wanted to develop her skills. He enrolled in the school baking program in 2023. Hernández, who obtained his certificate this spring, has already found a job preparing custard and other items for coffee and catering.
For many students, it is useful for the program to be relatively affordable: Vachon said students can obtain their certificate or title for approximately $ 3,500 to $ 5,000, depending on the route they choose. In comparison, it costs $ 22,105 per semester to attend the advanced position of the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, California.
What the graduates say
The graduates of the Trade-Tech culinary program said they prepared them well for their careers.
Ricardo Mora, 34, left a job in sales approximately a decade ago and enrolled in commercial technology with the aim of becoming a pastry chef. He obtained certificates from baked and culinary programs in 2017 and 2018, and worked for about three years as a pastry chef, with a period at the SLS hotel in Beverly Hills.
Sandy Hernández recently graduated from Trad-Tech culinary school. She has already found a job preparing custard and other items for coffee and supplier.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Eventually, however, he got tired of that and turned to food photography in 2020. What he learned in Tradech has helped him in this new company.
“I spent years working with food, knowing how food should be presented to people,” said Mora, who is from South Gate. “I can help [clients] Make sure the food looks perfect for a photo. “
Another graduate, Eric Warren, 72, also used his commercial technology experience to launch a culinary career in the late 50s. After graduating in 2011, he debuted to Ooo-We! Salsa, a “sweet, spicy and shameless glaze” that, according to him, combines well with everything from eggs to pork loin. Its path has been unique, but believes that the culinary program is versatile graduates.
“You can start turning hamburgers, but you can end up being a caviar specialist,” Warren said. “Everyone has to eat.”
Jerry Vachon, president of the Trade-Tech culinary program, also teaches there.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Shastova, 34, Vin Folk's chef, which Times said last month was “the most exciting restaurant that would open in South Bay in recent memory,” is among the most visible recent graduates of that program.
A Russian immigrant, Shastova arrived in the United States in 2011 and settled in New York before moving to Los Angeles. When reflecting on his next movement, he thought about his mother's bakery at home.
“I thought I already knew how to do that,” he said with a smile. “Then I found commercial technology.”
He graduated with a certificate in culinary studies in 2017.
In an additional testimony of the value of a culinary education of commercial technology, two other graduates with whom Shastova attended school found jobs in a well -reputed Los Angeles area restaurant.
They are cooks online in Vin Folk.
