Spotlight on: Culinary Arts

Post by: Bob McIntosh

The culinary arts program at CRTC is designed to prepare student to enter the world of food service. This may be by working in the industry, finding an apprenticeship or pursuing a certificate or degree from a culinary college. Over the two years students study most aspects of running a restaurant including, cooking and baking methods, knife use, commercial equipment use and safety, dining room service, plating and garnish,etc. During these years student will operate our 50 seat cafe dining room and experience many types of service including casual and fine dining table service, buffet, catering, delivery, fast food and heat and eat.
The program has seen many changes over the last few years. Foremost, a renovation which started to open another space which eventually was outfitted as a separate bake shop, almost doubling the kitchen size. In addition most of the large kitchen equipment has been updated or added to and a large makeover of the dining room made a huge improvement. All of the updates have made it possible to branch out in new teaching areas and give the students more opportunities to learn what it’s like to run a restaurant operation.


Our curriculum is based on federal and state standards that mirror all of the accredited culinary colleges as well as national certification programs such as the American Culinary federation and National Restaurant Association Education Foundation. All aspects of cooking and baking are explored as foundation in the first year and then more in depth in the second. Management skills are also included when students learn to write menus, calculate food and labor cost, set up banquets and buffets and explore starting a business as a personal chef in our capstone project. Students also acquire job skills while participating in our SPUR conference process which is similar to a job review where students show evidence of their skills to prove they deserve the grades they apply for.

During their time here students are exposed to many work-based experiences and also have opportunities to pursue more on their own. Each year chefs from the major culinary schools, as well as the many wonderful local schools, demonstrate for us in our classroom, giving the students a great opportunity to learn about the schools one to one with a working instructor. In addition we are visited by many people who work in the non-traditional parts of the industry such as food and equipment sales, kitchen design and specialty businesses. We also have business partners that provide work opportunities in area restaurants and banquet facilities such as NH Lodging and Restaurant Association, the Marriott Grappone Center of Concord and the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua.

Students are also urged to participate in many other opportunities provided by the program. Career based clubs like Skills USA and the local American Culinary Federation chapter offer professional contacts and training as well as competitions and scholarships. We have been fortunate enough to have had many students compete at state level and win then be able to compete at the \national level, receiving scholarships as well as fantastic learning opportunities.

We also have articulation agreements and dual enrollment programs with colleges such as the Thompson School at UNH, Lakes Region Community College and the Culinary Institute of America, which allow students to earn college credit in their high school class. We also offer the opportunity to get nationally recognized industry certification through National Restaurant Association.

Some future projects I hope to get off the ground are in many areas. Our business partners are working with us to develop an internship program that will give the students hands on experience in area establishments. We are also trying to offer evening classes in our kitchen by the instructors at Lakes Region Community College and offer more dual enrollment credits as well.

Please feel free to stop by or come in for lunch some day and see what we’re cooking up for you.
Bon Apetit,
Chef Mac