HCC breaks ground on new Culinary Arts Center
Apr 10, 2018
With shovels in hand, Houston Community College Chancellor Cesar Maldonado, HCC Trustees Carolyn Evans-Shabazz and Adriana Tamez, award-winning chef and HCC alumnus Hugo Ortega and others helped break ground on a new center to house the college's popular Culinary Arts Program. The facility, which will cost about $30 million, is being built at HCC's Central College Campus in Midtown Houston and will include a cooking and baking lab, a dining room and bar, a dish room, computer labs, classrooms, a student lounge, locker rooms, offices, conference rooms and a reception area.
"Many of the chefs in Houston's more than 10,000 restaurants are graduates of HCC's Culinary Arts Program," said Maldonado. "We are training the workforce that has put Houston on the map as a destination for foodies. I am certain there's another Hugo Ortega out there and HCC is committed to providing a state-of-the-art facility at which they are able to learn and hone their craft."
HCC's Culinary Arts Program was established in 1982 and now welcomes over a hundred new students each year. Students receive the necessary theoretical knowledge and technical skills to become competent in food preparation, fundamental cooking and baking methods, regional and international cuisine, cold kitchen preparation, and a la carte kitchen operations and cooking. There is also training in healthy cooking and nutrition, food safety and sanitation, food service operations, food and beverage cost control and the professional and management skills required for operating a successful workplace.
"The Culinary Arts Program is one of our most popular programs," said HCC Board Chair Carolyn Evans-Shabazz. " With this new center and its modern equipment, an already outstanding program will be even better for the students pursuing degrees there."
"When this building is finished, the Culinary Arts Program will be returning home to our Central Campus where the program started more than 35 years ago," said Tamez, whose District III includes the new building. "HCC continues to improve to meet the demands of a 21st Century workforce. As we grow, we are taking extra care to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars entrusted to us."
The new Culinary Arts Center is being constructed on parking lot 10 at HCC Central Campus, right next to the college's five-story parking garage near Alabama, La Branch, Winbern and Austin streets. The building will be two stories tall and will comprise 38,000-square-feet. Construction is expected to take about two years.
The new facility was part of the $425 million Groundbreaker Bond Program approved by Houston voters in 2012.
Photos are available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hccphotos/albums/72157693711211271.