Soon-to-be chefs enjoyed sampling and critiquing out-of-the-ordinary cuisine of experienced professionals Thursday at Sowela Technical Community College. It was one of the first open house events in the school’s new Culinary, Gaming and Hospitality Center, according to Joseph Lavergne, recruitment director.

Before the tasting, a third-semester culinary student and the VP of student government, led a tour of the $10.2 million, 28,000 square-foot center.

Midette Jones’ face lit up when she saw the baking lab with rows of gleaming stainless steel tables and every industrial sized gadget imaginable: ice cream and pasta maker, industrial mixer, proofer, dough sheeter, dough divider, chocolate temper and scales, just to name a few.

She is a cottage industry baker and didn’t learn how to cook until she took her first job in the restaurant industry.

“I went from hostess to waitress to bartender to the kitchen,” she said. “That’s when I fell in love with food.”

Midette already has one Sowela fundamentals culinary class under her belt, but plans to return for her associate’s degree.

“I want to learn the business end of it,” she said.

Charles and Khristina McMillian are middle school math teachers who like to cook and dream of opening a food truck – Mac’s Munchies – one of these days.

“My cousin’s wife loved the program,” Charles McMillian said, “and we’ve been here before. Every year we bring 8th graders to Sowela to show them how awesome it is.”

In addition to the baking lab, the hot lab, the commercial kitchen for The Landing and the Chancellor’s Room, storage, cleaning and washing areas, the tour also included two rooms that mimic hotel rooms. Those rooms are used for classes pertaining to the hotel or hospitality industry. A third, non-culinary room full of gaming tables is where students learn the fine points of card dealing and other casino games.

“We have two concentrations, culinary arts and baking and pastry arts, for students studying to earn their Associates of Applied Sciences degree,” said Marie Coleman, Dean of the School of Business and Applied Technology. “Hospitality management is a concentration under the business administration associate of applied science degree.”

Ana Denison is Business Development Manager at Sowela. She said the gaming program at the College is a seven-month certification offered through Sowela Workforce Solutions. The College also offers other, shorter sessions.

At the end of the tour, open house visitors were invited to decide which sample plate they liked best: Joshua Hutton’s grilled bison tenderloin with a roasted root vegetable medley, charred asparagus, chimichurri and a mole negro demi glace or Chef Dameon Fuselier’s charbroiled bison with a peach glaze, pommes Duchesse (buttery potato swirls) and sauteed al dente kale and spinach with Tasso and sesame.

Prospective students enjoyed the food of both chefs. The winners of the new Culinary, Hospitality and Gaming Center are the local restaurants, casinos, and hotels eager to pull from a larger pool of candidates to stay staffed up in the coming years.