The Cura Culinary College (CCC) is an industry gamechanger that invests culinary resources and trending techniques to strengthen the skills of our cooks and cross trains your culinarians.
Unique Job Perk…The Cura Culinary College (CCC) is an industry gamechanger that invests culinary resources and trending techniques to strengthen the skills of our cooks and cross trains your culinarians…so that your dining team is versatile, vibrant, and performs at its best for your residents – all the time!
A Powerful Recruitment Tool...Not only do current cooks, chefs and dining services team members receive an opportunity to sharpen and elevate their culinary and service skills, the CCC helps Cura to attract and retain the best candidates for our clients – for the long term! We encourage continuous learning through the College, providing our employees with advanced training. This gives our clients a competitive advantage as they can tout highly qualified culinarians to their residents and patients who seek top-quality dining experiences!
Client Competitive Advantage…as administrators can tout a highly qualified culinary team who provide dining experiences. Upon completion of the College, graduates receive a certificate and a CCC badge they proudly wear on their uniform…a sense of pride for the residents and patients they serve! This communicates to our residents that they are being served by a professional culinarian and not just a cook.
We continue the learning process through a brand new, centralized culinary web site that is dedicated to everything “food” at Cura…creating a completely satisfying experience for our team members, and more importantly, for those we serve!
A “renewed” program for Cura, the CCC was first introduced in 2000, producing many graduates who later continued their culinary education with accredited culinary schools and institutions.
The enhanced and reintroduced CCC was refreshed by Cura Culinary Director Chef John Cramutola, along with Corporate Executive Chefs Lance Franklin and Jason Clark. While classes are not accredited, students will hone their culinary skills, gain lifelong learnings, and enjoy a sense of pride as they are enhancing dining experiences for residents and patients, while expanding their career opportunities.
According to Chef John, COVID changed the original trajectory which sent students offsite to train and learn everything from basic culinary skills to trending techniques. “In a post-covid world, operators are challenged to be without their culinary and food service staff. So, we bring the learning to them.”
The curriculum offers six learning sessions from an introduction to professional cooking. An advanced seventh session is dedicated to learning how to prepare modified diets and textured foods for residents with dysphagia and other swallowing challenges.
The CCC is a unique employee benefit where students conduct self-paced classes online at their senior living community or hospital. Designed to be completed in two-weeks, all classes are self-paced featuring a combination of online presentations, assignments and quizzes. A pre-selected preceptor, typically the onsite dining services director or general manager, guides the learning process and oversees demonstrations, such as knife skills, that students are able to perform during the work days regular production. “Hands-on learning examples such as knife skills can be performed while a preceptor oversees and signs off on their progress,” says Chef John, who adds that graduates receive a certificate and a CCC badge (pictured here) to wear on their uniform.
The learning process continues through a new centralized culinary website which is dedicated to everything “food” at Cura. Created as a robust one-stop culinary experience for Cura’s team members, the new intranet site creates an easy to navigate resource featuring quick links to CCC sessions, along with 30-90 second video clips that serve as visual references which are slated to be programmed over the summer.
The new site also houses Cura signature culinary programs, recipes of the month, culinary related safety and policies, culinary partnerships, and the most important, an open forum for our culinarians. “This is something I want to foster within our culinary community. We want our chefs to know each other, network and exchange ideas. We want to make sure we have a line to connect and communicate with them – and for them to know we are in this together, creating a completely satisfying experience for our team members and those we serve,” says Chef John.
The Cura Culinary College is already making an impact on Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America Operations (PMMA), a senior living community in Salina, KS. Christopher Cormier, who is a Cura support manager and a Cura Culinary College preceptor says, “What I like about the CCC lessons are that they have an abundance of information, but stay within the time parameters needed not to interrupt daily operations. Our healthcare locations have tight windows at times to get things done. These lessons, coupled with daily huddles and culinary production meetings, allow us to gauge staff knowledge and provide them with the tools to do their jobs more efficiently. I believe a top priority for leadership is to teach, develop and mentor our team forward. These lessons provide another tool to do that...”
Explore our comprehensive and self-paced CCC culinary training and educational curriculum that creates a foundation for dining services excellence!
CONTACT: Grace Zarnas-Hoyer, Public Relations and Communications Manager, ghoyer@curahospitality.com
