Culinard News

Students from Culinard, the Culinary Institute of Virginia College in Jacksonville, Florida, recently participated in their first community event, The Taste of Chocolate Challenge. This annual event raises money for The Family Nurturing Center of Florida, which provides a safe and caring environment for children during difficult times such as divorce, custody battles, and domestic violence. The Center also provides educational programs for adults to help them learn better parenting skills.

Chef Instructor Phillip Brown prepared Chicken Mole, a spicy Mexican chocolate sauce, and polenta with the help of several students. Chef Antony Osborne, Dean of the Culinard location in Birmingham, Alabama, was visiting the campus and joined in for the event. A successful evening provided a real world experience for students and helped to foster new relationships in the community.

Culinard in Jacksonville sat its first class in January and is currently enrolling for the April class start. Culinard features a unique immersion program that has students in the state-of-the-art teaching kitchens on the first day of class and most graduate and begin their culinary careers within 36 weeks. The school has also just added a Pastry Arts program and is also enrolling for an April start.