Information about Gwinnett Tech’s Culinary programs: gwinnetttech.edu or 678-226-6616.
Gwinnett native Kerri Crean is doing her part to make the metro area a tastier place to live. The South Gwinnett High grad has been cooking as long as she can recall, and that passion took her to the prestigious Johnson and Wales University, where she honed her culinary skills. But after stints in the food service industry, including opening the now-closed Cordon Bleu campus in Tucker, she took on the challenge of building a culinary program at Gwinnett Technical College in Lawrenceville.
When she began 10 years ago, Crean had only six students. Today, she oversees more than 200 in the fully-accredited program that provides students with the technical and practical skills required to be successful in the food industry.
“My top job is making sure our students are prepared to enter the workforce,” said Crean. “And that means understanding the challenges as well as the payoff. They’re not necessarily going to make millions of dollars, but there is a certain instantaneous gratification from seeing that customer take a bite of your dish. It’s very rewarding.”
Crean also teaches that food is not just sustenance but is often deeply connected to emotions.
“Food is something you celebrate with,” she said. “That’s what makes it so personal. But it also means that you often work when everyone else is having a good time. If you’re in the restaurant or catering business, you’ll have to find another day to celebrate Mother’s Day, for instance, because you’ll be working.”
The ability to share those sorts of practical concepts in the classroom is what drove Crean into teaching.
“There are many obstacles facing our culinary industry, and as a manager, I often couldn’t solve those problems or prepare people to deal with them,” she said. “But in the classroom, I can.”
Crean has no doubt that the popularity of televised food programs has drawn more people into culinary programs. “When I went to school some 25 years ago, there were only three places to chose from,” she said. “Now there’s a plethora of places. But here we have the most affordable school and one of only 28 in the country that has an agreement with Johnson and Wales that after you finish two years here, you can go into their program as a junior.”
The Gwinnett Tech program provides opportunities for internships as well as plenty of hands-on training in its three kitchens. On most Wednesdays when school is in session, students serve lunch to the public and get to practice both cooking and front-of-house skills. A dinner featuring locally-sourced farm products is held monthly as another way to give students a chance to put their classroom knowledge to work. Those sorts of hands-on opportunities drew student Annastasia Noah, who quit a paralegal position to get into the kitchen.
“I like to cook and research food information, so this was a way to go beyond it being just a hobby,” she said. “Gwinnett Tech is close to my house, and when I learned what they had to offer, I decided to go there. I particularly like how we work in teams, with everyone taking turns at different positions. I’ve also learned that there are a lot of business aspects that don’t interest me. My goal is really just to cook in a restaurant setting, and I’m very lucky to be getting that training here where it’s so affordable.”
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