Louisburg High School students learn about Culinary opportunities at VGCC
Students in a Louisburg High School cooking class learned about where they could take their skills in the future when they visited Vance-Granville Community College’s Culinary Technology program on March 18. The group of high school seniors from an “Advanced Foods II” class was accompanied by their teacher, Hattie Faulkner, school counselors Cherry Ayscue and Toria Greene and media specialist Becky Frisbie. Faulkner said that she has a former student, Merri Cone of Louisburg, currently enrolled in the VGCC program.
VGCC’s two-year degree program, based at the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford, prepares students for entry-level professional positions in restaurants, hotels, catering operations, health-care facilities, schools and other institutions. Chef Ross Ragonese, head of the VGCC Culinary program, told the students that the associate degree opens doors to many different careers in food service and hospitality. “It’s a fulfilling profession that pays well,” Ragonese said. “It requires you to be dedicated and to never stop learning.” Ragonese said that VGCC’s curriculum is modeled after some of the top culinary schools in the country, but is delivered in an affordable and accessible way. Ragonese reported that since he came to teach at VGCC in 2008, he has seen numerous graduates of his program become employed in area restaurants and in health-care facilities. Even in today’s economy, Ragonese said that there is constant, worldwide demand for quality culinary professionals.
Ragonese introduced two of his students, Kevin Zeher of Raleigh and Natalie Bailey of Oxford, to talk to the high schoolers and to answer questions. Zeher said that he enrolled in the Culinary program straight out of Millbrook High School, while Bailey graduated from J.F. Webb High School and spent several years in the workforce before coming back to school because of her love of cooking. Ragonese pointed out that his students have a wide range of ages and backgrounds.
To give the high school students an idea of what goes on in a typical Culinary class, Ragonese led them on a tour of the program’s well-equipped commercial kitchen, where they observed VGCC students hard at work, learning how to make Hollandaise sauce and several breakfast dishes. Then, the LHS group enjoyed a light brunch that the VGCC students had produced. The other VGCC Culinary instructor, Chef John Boretti, emphasized to the high schoolers that their food had been prepared entirely by first-year students who started in August 2010, and that he was impressed by their quick progress.
For more information about the Culinary program , call Chef Ross Ragonese at (919) 690-0312.
