This spring, Beausoleil Executive Chef Nathan Gresham served as a judge at the Louisiana Culinary Institute’s annual Race to Cannes competition, an internal faceoff among students vying for a chance to cook during the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival. The students were aware of Gresham’s reputation as a talented farm-to-table chef in Baton Rouge with a devoted following of regular customers. They listened to him intently.
“I think you might have played it a little safe with this dish,” Gresham calmly told one student. To another, he said, “I think this has real possibilities.”
Gresham’s comments carried serious weight, not just because he is one of Baton Rouge’s most successful new chefs, but because he is also a graduate of the 10-year-old Louisiana Culinary Institute, a private culinary school that has more than doubled in physical size in the last four years alone. The expansive Airline Highway campus now has the state’s only separate baking and pastry program and is about to introduce a new bachelor’s degree curriculum. The school’s number of chef instructors has increased from four to 12 since 2008, while class size has been capped at about 30 students per class.
“It’s important to us to keep class size down so that we have the right teacher-to-student ratios,” says Public Affairs Director Charlie Ruffolo. “We also want to be sure we’re recruiting the right types of students. We’d rather have 25 great students than 30 mediocre ones.”
The current landscape of culinary programs in Louisiana includes the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University and culinary arts programs at technical and community colleges such as Delgado Community College in New Orleans and the Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge. LCI doesn’t see these public institutions’ programs as direct competition, says Ruffolo. Instead, the school’s vision is to provide a less expensive alternative to private heavy hitters like Le Cordon Bleu and the Culinary Institute of America. Current tuition at LCI is $32,000 for a two-year program of study condensed into 16 months, about half the price of studying at CIA.
LCI is the privately funded brainchild of retired entrepreneur Keith Rush, whose brother had attended the failing Culinary Arts Institute of Louisiana, an unrelated entity that lost its accreditation around 2002. Rush opened a new business in its place and formed a plan to create a high-end school that would produce excellent chefs with plenty of access to resources, says Ruffolo.
“The goal has always been to make the school the best place we possibly can,” he says. “We never want to be in a situation where a student has to wait for a piece of equipment.”
Rush would not disclose his investment in the business, but it enabled the school to move from its original location on Essen Lane to a ground-up modern facility on Airline Highway in 2008.
The school recently completed an expansion, bringing the total square footage to 52,000. The latest addition allowed LCI to add a baking and pastry program, which Ruffolo believes will be in high demand. Three classes with no more than 30 students each enroll in the traditional culinary program each year, while two classes with 16 students each enroll in the pastry program.
LCI’s current job placement rate is about 88%, which Ruffolo believes will continue to increase as the school forges more relationships with successful restaurants and established chefs, under whom LCI chefs can apprentice. In the last few years, LCI has sent students to work part-time at Commander’s Palace, at restaurants within the John Besh group in New Orleans, and other established eateries. Commander’s Executive Chef Tory McPhail has visited the school several times to guest lecture.
LCI has trained a growing number of notable graduates, an important distinction among culinary institutions. Since 2010, five alums were named “Chefs to Watch” by Louisiana Cookin’ magazine, which doles out annual accolades to Louisiana talent.
They have included Gresham; former Stroubes Executive Chef Justin Ferguson, the current executive chef at Superior Seafood in New Orleans; Colt Patin, former executive chef of Crawfish Town and a current LCI chef instructor; and Zac Waters, executive chef and owner of Zachary’s in Mandeville. LCI graduate and Le Creole Executive Chef Ryan Andre will be featured later this summer in the magazine’s 2012 lineup.
While enrollment in culinary schools has never been higher across the United States, there has been ongoing debate about the value of a pricey degree in a field that usually yields low wages in the first years of work.
To help meet future labor market forecasts, the Louisiana Restaurant Association has helped install ProStart programs in high schools, including Dutchtown, Woodlawn and others. They enable students to begin accumulating skills and to compete for LRA scholarships to culinary schools like LCI.
Ruffolo agrees that the tuition-wage debate is a real issue, but adds that LCI has tightened its recruitment process to ensure students have the chops to succeed in a tough marketplace. They must commit to the school’s 90% attendance rate and work at a hotel or restaurant while in school.
“It is essential that our students work so that they can accumulate that experience,” Ruffolo says. “It allows them to compete.”
