ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608070020
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: RUTH S. INTRESS RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
JOHNSON & WALES, in Norfolk, offers an associate degree in the culinary arts for would-be chefs.
Armed with a fork, Chef Art Elvins poked, sniffed and nibbled the trout amandine, herb pasta, roast leg of lamb and potatoes boulangere.
One dish was pronounced overly browned and another too thick, though such flaws would have been missed by many a contented diner. But at the climax of a day that had begun nine hours earlier with a lecture on the principles of poaching, it's not easy to satisfy Elvins' critical palate.
Still, he said of his newest class of would-be chefs, ``they did a lot better in the lab today. They paid more attention to details.''
So goes another day at Johnson & Wales University, the only college in Virginia where a fixation on food is the surest way to an A.
In the state's higher education mix, Johnson & Wales is the ingredient that's hard to peg but adds zest. It's a school where the main sporting event is a cook-off, where the wine and beer club is an academic group, and where faculty actually accept the proverbial excuse that ``the dog ate my homework.''
Yet while J&W has a light side, the study of culinary arts is serious business. With tuition and fees approaching $12,000 a year, Johnson & Wales programs are designed for career-minded chefs-in-training - not weekend cooks hoping to conquer meringue.
Such recreational cooking classes are offered to supplement the $6.6 million annual cost of operating a school with seven industrial-grade kitchens and a yearly grocery list that tops five tons of flour and 16 sides of beef - which students must learn to butcher.
Also whirred, stirred and whipped from September to May are 2,360 quarts of heavy cream, 3,240 pounds of butter and 51,840 eggs. The count on truffles is too large and decadent for storeroom director Skip Ailstock, a J&W grad, to reveal.
While cuisine is the campus passion, Johnson & Wales' mission - in Norfolk and at its five other campuses nationally - is training students for jobs in the food service and hospitality industries.
That ever-present emphasis on work prompts some in academic circles to view Johnson & Wales as a souped-up trade school, particularly since two-year associate degrees are the highest awarded at the Norfolk campus.
J&W officials emphasize that the 550 students in Norfolk can continue their studies toward a bachelor's at J&W's main campus in Providence, R.I., which offers four-year degrees in more than 30 fields ranging from restaurant and hotel management to health-care administration and electronics engineering. The nonprofit school, via its 7,000-student Providence campus, is accredited by the same group as Harvard.
Over the past 25 years, J&W has placed graduates in some of the nation's best restaurants, including such Virginia stalwarts as the Williamsburg Inn, the Commonwealth Club and the Inn at Little Washington.
``We have a standard and a no-nonsense approach to making students good employees,'' said President Debi Gray, who heads J&W's culinary campuses in Norfolk and Vail, Colo. ``Industry knows us and recognizes us.''
Founded as a tiny secretarial school by two teachers in 1914, Johnson & Wales takes its job-oriented philosophy into the classroom.
All Johnson & Wales students must complete an 11-week internship. Most students in Norfolk will do so at one of the university's 11 hotels and restaurants in Rhode Island. The best compete for positions at renowned resorts and restaurants.
Succeeding at Johnson & Wales requires strict adherence to the school's attendance rules and dress code. Students must wear a white jacket and black checked pants at all times. Jewelry, perfume, sideburns and dreadlocks are prohibited. Toques, those foot-high chef's hats, are optional during lectures.
Dress code violations mean dismissal from class, and more than two absences result in a failed grade.
J&W's academic schedule is equally regimented. Classes run six hours a day Monday through Thursday - with students encouraged to work weekends at area restaurants, as most do to help pay tuition.
Evenings and weekends are reserved for specialized courses, some of which J&W designed for Navy cooks as part of a government contract.
``Everything is focused on one thing here. I like that,'' said Harry Hieke III, a 23-year-old from Kill Devil Hills, N.C., who will be entering J&W this fall. ``It's a focused goal. At a lot of colleges, you go to school for four years and still don't know where you're heading.''
That practical focus, said Gray, is what prompted the Navy to urge Johnson & Wales to launch a Norfolk branch similar to its school in Charleston, S.C., where the Navy also sends personnel.
When the Norfolk school opened in 1981, enrollment was limited to the military. But with the growth of Hampton Roads as a business and tourism center, Gray saw expansion opportunities and opened the school to the public in 1985.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP After working in the classroom and kitchen, studentsby CNBat Johnson & Wales University in Norfolk get to sample their lab
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