Detroit’s New Culinary Institute Is Part Apprenticeship, Part Online Education
The Detroit Institute of Gastronomy is a culinary apprenticeship program and online class approach aimed to solve Detroit’s need for a trained culinary workforce.
Detroit’s restaurant explosion during the past 10 years brought with it a demand for a trained workforce in the culinary arts that Detroit has struggled to satisfy.
The Detroit Institute of Gastronomy is a new organization aiming to provide a quality education for students with little or no experience in professional kitchens. Chefs Jeremy Abbey and John Piazza took their combined 50 years of experience in the culinary world to help train the next generation of chefs and restauranteurs.
The institute’s goal is to provide their students with “hands on” experience, as apprentices, working in restaurant kitchens with their mentors while taking classes online.
“The culinary apprenticeship model has never really caught fire,” says Abbey. “We offer the instructional piece online, so our students are working with a mentor in the industry. And then they’re going to school online.”
Included in its educational program the institute offers globally recognized kitchen certifications from the American Culinary Federation. To increase the value, credibility and recognition of ACF Certification, the final certification in the program, the Certified Sous Chef®, is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA).
Successful completion of these skill level appropriate exams results in the student earning these USDOL recognized stackable credentials. A student earns the ability to test for certification after the successful completion of the education and on the job learning and passing the exams.
