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Ashley Taylor is director of the Lamar State College Port Arthur Culinary Arts and Hospitality program. (Photo by Gerry Dickert/LSCPA Public Information)
Everyone knows Southeast Texas is famous for its fantastic foods, from barbecue and boudin to crawfish boils and fajitas. Now the region will also be known for producing some of the state’s top chefs, reports Lamar State College Port Arthur (LSCPA).
LSCPA’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality program has been selected as the Best in Texas by Intelligent.com, a higher education resource website.
LSCPA’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality program is the newest offering at the college, providing a world-class education for those students who hope one day to own their own restaurant or to become an elite chef. The program offers classes in food preparation, sanitation and safety, baking, regional cuisine and hospitality supervision.
“This is a great compliment to our program and the hard work we’ve put into creating new career opportunities for Southeast Texans in the field of culinary arts,” said Ashley Taylor, director of the program. “This is one of those special programs where not only do you learn a great new skill, but you get to eat the final exam!”
Intelligent.com, a resource for online/on-campus program rankings and higher education planning, also included LSCPA to its list of the Best Colleges in Texas in 2022. The research identifies 50 top programs in the nation based on flexibility, faculty, course strength, cost and reputation.
The higher education-ranking website implemented a unique methodology that ranks each program on a scale from 0 to 100 across five categories. The scoring system compares each school according to program strength, student readiness, return on investment, cost and student engagement. Researchers compared 179 programs from 112 universities and colleges across the United States.
The LSCPA Culinary Arts and Hospitality program is housed in The Press Building, located in downtown Port Arthur. That building underwent a complete renovation, in part to give the LSCPA program a new home but also to provide other economic growth opportunities in the form of additional office space. The facility will offer 10 long-term office suites and five conference rooms in addition to the culinary arts training center.
The Press Building culinary arts section includes two master chef kitchens and two classrooms, as well as administrative offices and a fully operational bistro.
“With downtown Port Arthur seeing a renaissance through construction and investment, this is the perfect time for a new eatery,” Taylor said. “Students not only will provide the food being served in our bistro but they will also be able to experience the behind-the-scene operations of a restaurant.”
Learn more about the program by searching “culinary arts and hospitality” at lamarpa.edu.