Seattle Culinary Academy at Seattle Central College

To start, Seattle Culinary Academy is part of Seattle Central College, and the college is under-funded, so there are many issues that stem from lack of funding, even to do basic repairs (most of the sinks are blocked because they don't drain properly or leak onto the floor, the rooms don't have proper A/C so it can be horribly hot in the spring and summer, and the chocolate in the chocolate room blooms from heat abuse. There are many other issues that stem from this lack of funding, but despite this the college does an amazing job with what they have, and the instructors are, by and large, great. The interim dean, Aimee, who has been with the college for many years, is a godsend. My experience with SCA is primarily with the baking program, so my comments mostly relate to that, though I did work with many of the culinary instructors as well in classes they taught. In particular, I want to laud Kären Jurgensen, who is a Chef Instructor and who created the thoughtful and comprehensive sustainability curriculum and teaches classes in that program. The baking program is very well thought-out and thorough, though many things were cut from the program as it was condensed from five quarters to four, again because of lack of funding. The program is formally called "Specialty Desserts & Breads," which is a terrible name that doesn't do justice to its broad and inclusive curriculum. The main fault of the instructors is poor communication outside of class (the exception to this is the Q1 instructor, Dan Mikosz, who has great communication in and out of class and goes so far above and beyond, it's extraordinary). Almost every instructor I worked with got some things wrong, especially when it comes to food science, but having said that, I found the level of knowledge, passion, and teaching skills much better than many of the instructors at the Culinary Institute of America, where I did my culinary training. I want to especially call out Christopher Harris who has an incredible depth of knowledge in many areas, is extremely thoughtful in his teaching, and is great with the students. Some instructors at SCA are better organized than others, and the lack of organization and lack of prepared materials really impacted the learning process in some classes. I did not work with any instructors that I felt did not care about the students. They all have a lot of knowledge in their areas of specialty and I learned a lot from almost all of them, but there is definitely room for improvement, and a lot could be done pretty simply without a lot of effort. One big problem SCA has is the truly horrific system they use for communication with students (Canvas). Its interface is terrible, it is riddled with problems, and the school's IT department is not responsive and not very helpful. Despite the criticism I have and things I'd like to see improved, this is a truly wonderful program run by a really great group of people, and anyone who goes through this program and takes it seriously will learn a great deal and have a really positive experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to work in food.

Amazing!! What an amazing experience having fresh guac made table side, with the best service and food from students at Seattle Central. I’d probably pay 3x as much at other restaurants in Seattle for the same menu. Let the pictures wow you (but the food more so. You must go).

Just had a delicious two-course lunch. Fine dining fare for amazing price!