Culinary students cooking up a future

BRISTOL, Va. – As the nine members of the third graduating class accepted their culinary arts degrees Saturday at Southeast Culinary and Hospitality College, founder Richard Erskine said the 5-year-old school is a success – and growing.

“Enrollment’s doing very well, and everything’s doing well,” said Erskine, whose students call him Chef Richard. “Our next graduating class will probably be at least double what it is now.”

On Monday, the new semester will start with more than 130 students, he said, a group that includes 35 freshmen pursuing an associates’ degree in culinary arts.

He said the college is not only making money, it’s getting ready to buy a nearby building and expand its campus, which is housed in the old post office on Piedmont Avenue. The purchase will help accommodate the school’s growth, he said, including the addition of a language program set to begin in January to train foreign students.

In the years since its founding, Erskine said, the school has jumped into the community, holding nutrition programs in schools and hosting events for underprivileged children.

In addition to the downtown expansion, its programs are growing in another way. Starting Sept. 1, the college is taking over food and beverage operations at the Glenrochie Country Club, where more classes will be taught.

Changing lives

“When I came in here, I still acted like a teenager,” said Molly Surber, a single mom who lives in Glade Spring, Va., and one of the nine students who accepted her degree Saturday. “Now, I’m leaving as an adult.”

For her and classmate Melissa Holland, a single mom from Bristol, Tenn., their education has led directly to full-time jobs. Both start work at the country club this week, with jobs both women say will put them on a track toward successful lives.

“It’s been two long, hard, trying years,” Surber said of earning her degree. “It’s hard to juggle a babysitter and your job and then school.”

She said she’s worked for the food service industry her entire life – but her dream is to gain experience in fine dining and eventually open her own “farm to table” restaurant focused on fresh, local ingredients.

Holland’s hope is simply for a good career, she said, so she doesn’t have to struggle so much.

“What’s exciting about this school is not just that we train chefs,” said Everett Honaker, dean of student services and faculty. “We change lives.”

But in a graduation speech to students Saturday, Honaker told them they had also helped to shape the college.

Just five years old, the college didn’t score well this month in college financial ratings from the U.S. Department of Education, but Erskine said the kind of things that affect the ratings, such as endowments and alumni giving, will come with time.

“If I’m on a list [of financially fragile colleges], it’s because we’re very new,” he said, explaining that as the school grows and improves, so will its financials.

But for the students who graduated Saturday, several with employment secured, the school is already a success.

Social mobility

The commencement speaker, Troutdale Kitchens President Ben Zandi, also talked about growth potential.

The owner of 12 restaurants in three states, Zandi began his first restaurant venture nearly a decade ago when he bought the Troutdale Dining Room on Sixth Street in Bristol, Tenn. Amid the recession, he plans to open three new locations by the end of this year and five next year.

So far this year, he’s opened two: The House on Main in Abingdon, Va., which he bought from its previous owners, and the Burger Bar, which he brought back to life on Piedmont Avenue.

“I think I’m truly the definition of the American Dream,” said Zandi, an Iranian-English immigrant who came to the United States at age 13 and began his hospitality career as a dishwasher in a San Francisco restaurant.

By the time he decided to begin his own restaurant business, the first-generation American had worked his way up to a job as a vice-president at Marriott, and was on track to move further up the executive ladder.

A decade later, he said he’d make the same decision 90 times over, because of the satisfaction it gives him to provide jobs and be a building block toward a sustainable local economy.

His focus is on sustainability and local foods, a movement he said is more than a fad.

“I think it’s not a trend; it is a culture,” Zandi said. “I just think Americans’ eating habits are changing.”

With 10 new locations opened in the past two years, he said he’s planning this year to open a Burger Bar location in Norton, Va., a Mediterranean restaurant in Abingdon, Va. and a boutique hotel and restaurant in Rogersville, Tenn.

“One day down the road I’d like to have a Troutdale Farm and grow our own ingredients,” he said, adding that he’d especially like to expand the community’s palate with fruits and vegetables largely unknown to this part of the world.

The recession, he said, doesn’t worry him.

“If you come in and you provide good quality and good service, the market is out there,” Zandi said.

Speaking to students at Saturday’s culinary school graduation, he said there are three major ingredients to success in the hospitality industry: passion, commitment and consistency.

Asked later about the secret to success, he said it’s simple: hard work.

His grandfather, who long ago decided to send him and other relatives to the United States for their education, called America the land of God, Zandi said. He just calls it the land of opportunity.

“I started from scratch, had a dream, I worked hard, sweat equity, and here we are today,” he said. “If I can do it, anybody can do it.”

dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701