Students cooking up culinary careers

SALT LAKE CITY — His specialty used to be mustard sandwiches, but Cody Jensen has come a long way since he was 5 years old.

Instead of a squirt of yellow mustard between two slices of white bread, the recent Davis Applied Technology College graduate and new hire at The Grand America Hotel is whipping up shrimp cocktails, exotic salads and fancy desserts as a line chef.

"I've been making food for people since I was a kid," he said.

Never before, however, has he helped to serve up to 400 people who were in town recently for the Outdoor Retailer Convention. It was a lot of work, but he said the adrenaline runs high when it gets busy in the kitchen.

"When we had our first big rush, I got pretty stressed out. My vision was blurry, and my heart was beating so fast, but it's what you have to go through to be the best," Jensen said, adding that he loves what he does and is even happier doing it at a Five-Diamond hotel that is 30 minutes from his Syracuse home.

The recent upswing in the popularity of foodie TV shows and movies has helped to boost interest in culinary schools around the country, with the number of cooking schools rising from 423 in 1996 to 949 in 2006. While the U.S. Department of Labor reports that the number of food-service jobs rose from 9.9 million in 2001 to 10.8 million in 2005 (and while they believe the occupation will continue to see steady growth through 2018), the job that looks so glamorous on television typically pays starting wages around $23,000 annually.

The same trend for growth is echoed at the Utah technology college in Kaysville. Eight years ago, each class at the DATC had about 15 students, and now enrollment for each section is more than 50. Chef and DATC instructor Penny Moline said people are always going to eat out, and the demand is growing for qualified individuals, at restaurants, at hospital and workplace cafeterias, private homes and other establishments where food is served.

Jensen was one of DATC culinary arts instructor Penny Moline's best students last year, receiving a resounding recommendation to work at one of the finest hotels in Salt Lake. Three former DATC students are now employed by the downtown establishment, although Moline said it is pretty typical to have students going to work at big places all over the country.

Along with about 80 other culinary arts students at the DATC, Jensen had plenty of experience in the facility's production-based kitchen, where students produce and provide food for visiting patrons every single day.