Contact: Alex Lyda
214-378-1819;
alyda@dcccd.edu
For immediate release — Dec. 17, 2019
(DALLAS) — The new year ahead means expansion and a new name for one of Dallas County Community College District’s signature programs: The Food & Hospitality Institute at El Centro is becoming the Culinary, Pastry and Hospitality (CPH) program.
The new name reflects the program’s now occupying the spaces of the former Le Cordon Bleu facility in North Dallas, which the district recently acquired so that CPH can expand its continuing education course offerings and grow industry partnerships with the benefit of new convening areas to interact with industry leaders.
“Dallas’ unprecedented growth into a world-class scene for cuisine has been made possible by an increasingly well-trained workforce,” said Steve DeShazo, senior director of the new Culinary, Pastry and Hospitality program. “In order to keep Dallas on top, we need to make big changes that encompass growth. Our expansion into this world-class culinary training facility will guarantee support for the continued growth of Dallas culinary culture.”
The physical expansion quadruples the existing square footage of the facilities from 12,000 to 50,000 square feet — with an additional 10 kitchens in the new location, a fully operational restaurant, event space, six classrooms and a full administration suite where other community culinary and hospitality workforce development activities will be co-located.
To kick off the changes, El Centro is starting the new year with a series of celebrity chef “experiences” in January. These four-hour events, with Dallas’ very own chefs John Tesar, Junior Borges and Dean Fearing, among others, will offer curious community goers the opportunity to learn cooking and recipe secrets from master craftsmen, as well as engage in a question-and-answer session in the fourth hour.
Tickets for these experiences are available now at elcentrocollege.edu/chefseries.
In addition to representing the expansion, part of the reason for the name change is that — in an increasingly competitive culinary and hospitality marketplace — the program needs to be among the top search results among people who may not know about El Centro’s program and need to find information online quickly.
“El Centro’s program remains a place of practical learning, where students train alongside experienced faculty professionals to develop dynamic skills and build strong industry connections,” DeShazo said. “Dallas is fortunate because we can do this at a fraction of the cost of for-profit culinary schools, making El Centro a mecca for students who want to gain critical skills and remain in Dallas or explore the world beyond.”
To learn more about the chef experiences and other exciting news, please visit
elcentrocollege.edu/chefseries,
elcentrocollege.edu/culinary and
elcentrocollege.edu/culinarynorth.
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The Culinary, Pastry and Hospitality (CPH) program, whose main location is downtown at El Centro College, provides hands-on training with experienced professionals that gives students the expertise to help them land the job they want — and set them apart from the competition. The new El Centro College North Campus follows a cohort program. A powerful combination of classroom theory and workplace practice serves to embed strong technical skills in CPH students. For more information on the Culinary, Pastry and Hospitality program, visit
elcentrocollege.edu/culinary. You may also contact Senior Director Steve DeShazo at
sdeshazo@dcccd.edu to learn more.