Mendocino College culinary school wants to produce next generation of restaurant workers

Tucked discreetly among low-slung buildings near Mendocino College’s agriculture department lies a state-of-the art kitchen where students whip up desserts and other delights to feed their quest for jobs in the food business.

Students in the college’s pastry and baking classes last week cracked eggs, lined pans and melted chocolate amid the whir of industrial-sized mixers while their chef-instructor peppered them with questions about measurement ratios, chemical reactions among ingredients and cooking history.

The program, with about 20 students, is small but ambitious, aimed at building a workforce for the restaurant industry, which is facing worker shortages.

Restaurants nationwide have reported they can’t find enough qualified chefs and other restaurant workers. Sonoma County’s restaurant sector has far outpaced the overall economy in job growth and now employs one of every 10 workers, according to state employment data.

In Sonoma County, competition for workers has compelled some restaurateurs to increase wages, which typically are quite low for the amount of work.

“I saw this coming for a while,” Nicholas Petti, one of the culinary program’s two chefs, said of the shortage. He also is the owner-chef of Mendo Bistro in Fort Bragg.

Petti’s background includes studying at the California Culinary Academy and more than 20 years as a chef and restaurant manager. He also has taught cooking courses at a Colorado resort and at his Fort Bragg eatery. He’s been with the college culinary program - launched with a 2006 grant from a Ukiah couple, Dennis and Madelyn Yeo - since 2011.

Petti enjoys spicing up his classroom kitchen with food trivia. As his students work on creating a chiffon cake from scratch, he tells them the airy desert, invented in 1927 by Harry Baker, gave rise to the ubiquitous boxed cake when Baker sold the recipe to General Mills after?20 years of keeping it secret.

The college’s program attracts students with various ambitions for the culinary world, from opening their own restaurants to cooking in someone else’s eatery. They can earn a certificate of achievement in culinary arts management in a year.

The 24-unit program includes required courses on culinary skills, food safety, dining room service and cost controls, along with electives such as fall vegetable gardening practices, seasonal vegetarian cuisine, food and wine pairings and baking.

Marilyn Kaye, 21, a math whiz who is usually the first to answer recipe ratio questions in Petti’s class, wants to be a business manager for a restaurant. She loves math, but finds most of its practical, work-related applications to be a bit too solitary and dull.

The food business “is exciting and always changing,” she explained as she mixed chocolate and cream for ganache.

William Cresswell, 19, of Willits would like to run his own restaurant or coffeehouse some day.

“I’ve always enjoyed food,” he said.

Maria Yanez, 19, of Lakeport, would like to be a chef. Evan Zeller, another student, is thinking of launching a food truck.

Tatiana Lechnowsky, 15, of Ukiah, who’s attending college courses as part of her homeschooling, said she’s examining career options that could support her as an artist - she draws with graphite and charcoal. She’s been baking since she was 8 years old, enjoys cooking and figures the combination just might work.

To make it in the restaurant business, people must have a strong desire to be part of that world, Petti said. It’s demanding work with long hours and often requires working when others are playing, like on holidays, he said.

“There are certainly better ways to make money,” Petti said.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter