Cura Hospitality is thrilled to announce the refresh of its innovative Culinary College! An industry game changer, we invest culinary resources and trending techniques to strengthen the skills of our cooks, as well as cross train your culinarians so that your dining team is versatile, vibrant, and performs at its best – all the time! Explore our comprehensive and self-paced culinary training and educational curriculum that creates a foundation for dining services excellence!
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 Culinary College was introduced in 2000 and produced many graduates who later continued their culinary education with accredited culinary schools and institutions.
The enhanced and reintroduced Culinary College 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 experience a sense of pride as they are making a greater contribution to their team and organization 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.
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 who has strong production and culinary skills, guides the learning process and oversees demonstrations that students are able 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 Cura Culinary College 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 Cura Culinary College 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.