MIAMI, June 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Celebrity Cruises’ award-winning culinary program is heating up this summer with the introduction of its newest ship, the 2,886-guest Celebrity Silhouette, which will feature the industry’s first interactive, open-air grilling restaurant, “The Lawn Club Grill.”

“People tend to associate grilling with the relaxing, carefree mood of summer – exactly what a Celebrity vacation is all about,” said Jacques Van Staden, Vice President, Culinary Operations. “What can be better than experiencing something that’s popular among so many cultures around the world, while relaxing near a lawn of growing grass, surrounded by an endless view of the sea?”

By combining a premium culinary experience with the sensation of relaxing on the top deck of a ship, surrounded by live grass and cool ocean breezes, Celebrity’s aim is to celebrate the passion people have for grilling, as they enjoy their precious vacation time.

The highlight of the dining experience at the 58-seat Lawn Club Grill will be the opportunity for guests to serve as their party’s “Grill Master,” by being paired with a Celebrity Cruises chef to assist in preparing the menu for their table over custom-built, ventilated grills. This unique, one-on-one interaction will give the Grill Master a one-of-a-kind, firsthand lesson in proper grilling techniques and other tricks of the grilling trade.  All guests will have the opportunity to choose from a gourmet salad bar, a la carte “build your own” pizzas and more than 12 grilled specialties. “Grill Masters” who wish to demonstrate their grilling prowess – or learn a few tips by being paired with a chef – will receive a complimentary apron as a memento.

“Our guests consistently tell us that fresh, exciting culinary experiences are essential to their enjoyment of their vacation, and we are always looking for new ways to deliver that to them,” said Van Staden. “Just as we introduced the ‘uniquely unordinary’ experience of using iPad-based menus to design individual culinary journeys featuring dishes presented in unexpected ways in Qsine on Celebrity Eclipse, we are introducing customized, open-air grills to the cruise vacation dining experience.”

The Lawn Club Grill – now available for online, pre-cruise bookings for ticketed guests – will be open from 5-10 pm nightly and from 12-2 pm on one “sea day” during each cruise. A reservation fee of $30 per person is required.

The latest in Celebrity’s award-winning Solstice class of ships, Celebrity Silhouette will offer several additional industry-first venues and experiences within The Lawn Club. These include relaxing, private, wi-fi-equipped cabanas called “The Alcoves”; “The Porch,” a breezy, casual dining spot offering sandwiches, coffees and captivating views of the sea and the ship’s lush lawn, and “The Art Studio,” where vacationers can bring out their inner artist. The ship also will present another entirely new venue, “The Hideaway,” an intimate, quiet space reminiscent of a childhood tree house.

Ticketed guests can book The Lawn Club Grill at www.celebritycruises.com.

Celebrity Cruises’ iconic “X” is the mark of the world’s top-rated premium cruise line, with spacious, stylish interiors; dining experiences elevated to an art form; personalized service, with a guest-to-staff ratio of nearly 2:1; unexpected, trendsetting onboard activities, all designed to provide an unmatchable experience for vacationers’ precious time. Celebrity sails to Alaska, Australia/New Zealand, Bermuda, California, Canada/New England, the Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii, the Pacific Coast, Panama Canal, South America, and year-round in the Galapagos Islands. Celebrity also offers immersive cruisetour experiences in Alaska, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Europe and South America. One of the fastest-growing major cruise lines, Celebrity’s fleet currently consists of nine ships, with two additional Solstice Class ships scheduled to join the fleet: Celebrity Silhouette in July 2011, and Celebrity Reflection in Fall 2012. For more information, call your travel agent, dial 1-800-437-3111 or visit www.celebritycruises.com.

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College is expensive everywhere. Culinary school is no different.

At top cooking schools, you will drop about $35,000 a year if accepted, and even smaller institutions seem to charge the proverbial arm-and-a-leg.

More and more, wannabe chefs seriously ponder the price of admission, and whether or not it will even help get a job.

First, take a deep breath and let’s start local.

As you may have seen by the number of billboards on major freeways around St. Louis, there are a growing number of culinary schools offering decent educations.

L’Ecole Culinaire, for example, is a fairly new institution, offering a 10-month program that will give you solid basic skills to prepare you for post-grad work. It also promises job placement when you’re done.

Last time I checked, however, L’Ecole Culinaire was asking about $40,000 for those 10 months. The perception I’ve read online from attendees or potential students about this school ranges from “totally worth the cost” to “this place just wants your money.”

They are a for-profit entity, thus the perception that “this place just wants your money.”

Students have said they felt rushed through the program, while others have cheered the fact that they can get out into the industry and gain experience within 10 months.

Now, Le Cordon Bleu has a good reputation and a campus branch in St. Louis, offering a more reasonably priced certificate program at $17,550.

The options at Le Cordon Bleu are a degree in culinary arts, baking and pastry, or hospitality management. The program is accredited and widely recognized by restaurant or other food institution employers.

The Culinary Institute of St. Louis at Hickey College is accredited and offers a 20-month culinary arts associate degree.

The price? They won’t say. But they did say they offer free, individualized financial aid assistance.

Any of these schools should be contacted for more information. 

But I believe the best bet out of all the culinary programs in St. Louis—in my humble opinion—can be found at the Forest Park branch of St. Louis Community College.

The complete program is 69 credits, and it’s only $83 per credit for residents. That makes a grand total of just about $6,000 (does not include individual class fees that may apply.)

In today’s world, that’s like going to school for free—and they also offer financial aid.

The Forest Park branch is a very well-balanced curriculum, offering classes above and beyond the norm, like Ice Carving and Culinary Competition Skills.

The rate of students who find jobs upon graduating is extremely high. If you opt to continue your education beyond community college, credits from Forest Park are transferable to many other schools.

The primary reason that I like the Forest Park program is that you have an opportunity to test the water, the food industry waters, so to speak, while getting guidance and individual attention—all without ending up in a world of debt.

Whichever school you choose, take your time and do the research in the decision-making process, and find the right match for you.

Next week, back into the Chef’s kitchen. Last week, Insider Secrets of Haute Cooking Schools.

One of the best culinary arts programs in the country is about to get better. Johnson County Community College will soon construct a new Hospitality and Culinary Arts building. 

The college program graduates more apprentice sous-chefs than any other program in the country, but students and staff have out grown the facilities. 

In 2010 the Board of Trustees challenged the Johnson County Community College Foundation to raise $3 million in 18 months to support construction costs.  That challenge was met.

“What we’re really after is increasing the curriculum and adding quality that we can’t do right now,” said Lindy Robinson, JCCC Dean of the Business Division.

The trustees have added another $7 million to the project.  The new building will be located on the west side of campus.  Ground breaking is expected in April of 2012.

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Janet Podolak/JPodolak@News-Herald.com

Cody Gunton of Mentor holds trays of lobster about to be assembled into the dishes prepared by Chef Lydia Shire for Five-Star Sensation.

Janet Podolak/JPodolak@News-Herald.com

Some of the 2,000 ticket holders for Five Star Sensation are welcomed to the food and wine extravaganza by giant puppets and glasses of bubbly.

By Janet Podolak
JPodolak@News-Herald.com

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Janet Podolak/JPodolak@News-Herald.com

Chefs Matt Bencivenga, Lydia Shire and Wolfgang Puck taste some of the dishes about to be offered to the 2,000 ticket holders at Five Star Sensation.

Five Star Sensation — the every-other-year food extravaganza organized by University Hospitals — appears to have met its $1.5 million fundraising goal this year, despite an economy that has not been kind to pocketbooks.

Staged on Saturday evening by superstar chef Wolfgang Puck and three dozen culinary luminaries from throughout the country, their food brought more than 2,000 ticket holders to taste and sip beneath large white tents erected at Cuyahoga Community College’s Eastern Campus in Highland Heights.

In the 24 years the Sensation has taken place, more than $11 million has been raised for the UH Seidman Cancer Center and its cancer research, community cancer screenings, cancer information services and many public education programs.

Although 35 chefs, including Puck, and culinary notables such as Lydia Shire, Sam Choy, Mark Peel, Paul Prudhomme, and Nancy Silverton, were the ones attracting attention for their creations, the event could not have been a success without hundreds of volunteers working behind the scenes.

Many of them worked Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning at the Cleveland Stadium’s kitchens, slicing, dicing, measuring and preparing the ingredients the chefs would use in the foods they prepared.

By midday Saturday the prepared food was being delivered to the site of the Sensation’s large tents, where it would go into refrigerators for its final preparation and assembly. Some volunteers also were able to assist the star chefs at the event.

“Most of the ingredients were sourced locally,” said Barbara Snow of Mentor, one of three volunteers who coordinated the other volunteers in the kitchens.

When Puck presided at the first Five Star Sensation in 1987, it took place in an open air pavilion in Cleveland’s Flats.

Back then more chefs brought provisions with them from California and other states.

“But Cleveland is now a real global community,” Puck said. “We can get anything here. I enjoy coming every time.

“And this year they took me to see the new Seidman Cancer Center. It’s made me so proud to know we’ve been a part of establishing such a cutting edge cancer center.”

Even though the country’s most notable chefs come to Five Star at their own expense, Puck said it’s not hard to recruit them because the event has garnered such a fine reputation nationally.

“And the chefs all know that Cleveland people really appreciate their work,” he said.

Recent Mentor High graduate Cody Gunton, who was assigned to work with Lydia Shire, is passionate about becoming a chef. He’s completed two years of culinary training at Shore Cultural Center in Euclid and is heading to Hocking College for its culinary arts program in September.

He tried to volunteer for Five Star Sensation two years ago, but wasn’t 18 so he was not permitted.

It was clear that Five Star diners appreciated Lydia Shire’s offerings on Saturday, because they lined up three deep at her booth. Shire, of Boston, was named one of America’s Top Five Chefs by the James Beard Foundation.

During her 40-plus years as a chef, Shire has developed several culinary destinations, many of them in her Boston hometown. Her Scampo in Boston defies tradition with its Italian-inspired cuisine

“Cody is doing good work,” Shire said about her Mentor helper. “He pays attention and has a good grasp of technique.”

Gunto said cooking is for him a way to express himself.

“I enjoy the hustle bustle of the food industry, and am so appreciative of the opportunity to be working at Five Star. I really like Italian food best since it relies so much on fresh ingredients,” he said.

For volunteer Robert Ciarilillo, working at Five Star Sensation was his way to give back to University Hospitals.

“UH has been a huge part of my cancer journey, which began in 2004 with gastric lymphoma,” said Ciarilillo, of Painesville Township. After extensive treatment, his lymphoma was in remission in 2009 and he wanted to volunteer to work at that year’s Five Star Sensation.

“But then I’d been diagnosed with a brain tumor, so I couldn’t do it.”

He had a bone marrow transplant, which has put him into remission again.

His hours in the stadium’s kitchen doing prep work went by quickly, he said.

“They were so well organized,” Ciarilillo said. “I chopped celery and diced carrots, peeled potatoes and made a barbecue sauce from scratch. I pulled tails from huge shrimp as big as my hand and shucked corn and pulled the silk off. Then we roasted the corn and once the ears were cooled, we took off the kernels with a knife.”

Food professionals, such as Gina DeRose of Euclid, were teamed up with smaller groups of food preparation volunteers to show them the proper technique.

“These chefs we’re prepping for are perfectionists, and they insist that things be done right.”

For example, the dicing of carrots and celery may seem like a simple, unimportant thing to one not trained in food technique. But the diced pieces must be the same size or they will not cook at the same rate and the finished dish will be affected.

“Volunteering for Five Star is almost like a reunion,” DeRose said. “Many of us know each other and all of us love to learn from the chefs.”

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Jeffrey S. Solochek, Times Staff Writer

In Print: Sunday, June 26, 2011

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LAND O’LAKES — Pasco School Board members had hoped to raise $1 million or more from community and business leaders to help pay for a new culinary arts academy at Land O’Lakes High School.

The $6 million buildings are under construction with a planned August debut. But donations have only trickled in, less than $100,000 in all.

The biggest contributors, officials say, are from the district’s own Food and Nutrition Services department and from Durable North America, a firm run by Denis Griesmer, who helped coordinate the new program.

More common have been the rejections. Most recently, Publix Super Markets Charities turned down the district’s request for $200,000 that was to go toward kitchen equipment.

“It will be up and running in August,” Rob Aguis, district director of career education, said of the academy. “What we may not have is all the equipment we had thought we would have. … I think we’re going to get community buy-in, as far as partnerships are concerned. It just isn’t investment.”

That lack of financial support appears to be keeping other dollars from flowing in.

It certainly played a role in Publix’s decision, which came after nearly a year of effort from Pasco school officials.

“There didn’t appear to be a lot of support from the community,” said Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten. “That is one of the things they look for” at the Publix foundation.

The foundation did donate to the culinary arts academy at Tarpon Springs High School, by contrast, because it had “great community support,” Patten said.

“It holds more kids,” she said. “And it was less money.”

Tarpon High’s Jacobson Culinary Arts Academy boasts a wide range of sponsors, from local real estate firms to national restaurant chains. The contributions came as the result of much hard work, assistant principal Emmanuel J. Gombos said.

“It’s about building relationships,” said Gombos, who explained that the school’s financial backing began with alumni and grew from there.

The local education foundation played a key role, using its business connections to bring in supporters, he said. Parents and students also gave time and money to the cause.

“We started this quite a few years ago. The economy has changed,” said Gombos, who has given advice to Pasco school officials on this topic. “I’m sure it’s not as easy for them, not that it was easy for us.”

Yet community backing is critical for the program’s success, said Pasco School Board chairwoman Joanne Hurley, who was among those insisting that the district seek private partnerships for the culinary arts academy.

“It was always one of our goals to offset some of our costs by having some business partners,” Hurley said, expressing disappointment with the poor results so far. “We had always had a vision for our culinary arts program to be responsive to the community.”

Former board member Kathryn Starkey said she had hoped the district would bring in at least half the building cost — $3 million — in contributions for the culinary institute, which was not her first choice for a new career academy. Starkey preferred putting the district’s scant money into science and technology careers, and acquiesced to the culinary mainly because it could take advantage of federally backed loans that required a shovel-ready project.

The district had only one on line, the culinary academy.

“I would still like to see them go and get that (private) money,” Starkey said, suggesting it would allay her concerns over having supported the project in the first place. “They never talked about getting only $100,000.”

At least one board member was not surprised that the donations haven’t materialized.

Steve Luikart suggested that the district didn’t do its homework in planning to build the academy in Land O’Lakes, without easy access for students in other schools, and away from areas where more restaurants and hotels are located.

“I said this in my campaign: ‘Don’t build it and hope they come,’ ” Luikart said, calling it “far beyond dreaming” to expect Publix to send $200,000 in support. “I think that’s what happened in this situation.”

Aguis said he tried.

But he discovered that drumming up donations isn’t something that can be done between other responsibilities: “Doing it part time just didn’t provide the time you need.”

As a result, the district hasn’t come close to its outside contribution goals for the culinary arts academy.

Despite all that, the program already has enrolled about 100 students, including 48 incoming freshmen, Land O’Lakes High assistant principal Rick Batchelor said. Of those freshmen, 18 come from outside the school’s attendance zone.

“We’re trying to make it a soft opening this year,” Batchelor said. “We’ll build it from there.”

By 2012-13, the school hopes to draw 100-125 new freshmen annually to the culinary arts program, which would make it Pasco County’s largest career academy within three years.

Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at solochek@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4614. For more education news, visit the Gradebook at www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook.

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