Imagine, Johnson & Wales’ culinary arts program — the one most synonymous with its name today — almost didn’t happen. When Morris Gaebe ’98 Hon., now chancellor and chairman of the board emeritus, brought his burning belief in the program to the board of directors, they doused it, asking why he’d want to teach cooks, when they had such a nice little business school. But the next year, armed with help from David Friedman ’75 Hon., who owned a restaurant supply company and just happened to have a warehouse full of kitchen equipment left over from the 1964 World’s Fair, Gaebe’s dream was realized.

On Oct. 15, 1973, 141 students reported for orientation at what was called the School of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales College, the first such school in the nation affiliated with a private, four-year institution. Led by Belgium native Franz K. Lemoine, it offered a two-year associate in science degree focused on food preparation and service, with the objective of training students to become professional chefs. Two decades later, it would become the first in the country to award bachelor of science degrees in culinary arts and baking and pastry.

One of its earliest enrollees was Peter Cooper ’77, who today is JWU’s executive director for culinary procurement. He first came to Johnson & Wales to apply for a teaching position, having already completed an apprenticeship. “Socrates Inonog, the assistant dean, started shooting out terms,” he remembers. “And although I had the skills to do what needed to be done, I didn’t really have the formal terminology it would take to teach.” So they struck a gentlemen’s agreement, and Cooper became the first Advanced Standing student (an accelerated program still offered for those with proven experience). The curriculum had similarities to today’s. “There was always a storeroom class,” he recalls. “But storeroom now is much more intensive, there’s much more information given.” He also remembers sauce kitchen, garde manger and oriental kitchen. “They were a lot more focused on recipes.”

Karl Guggenmos ’93, ’02 MBA, university dean of culinary education, concurs, “We’ve changed from a menu-driven to an measurable and transferable skills,” he says. Through the years, in response to industry feedback, for example, Quantity Foods morphed into Fundamentals of Food Service Production, teaching the techniques of baking, sautéing and shallow frying.

Culinary students can also concentrate in specific areas — sommelier, baking and pastry, wellness and sustainability, to name a few. “Students seem to be more in control of their destiny with all these choices,” says Tammy Jaxtheimer, former Norfolk director of admissions.

Experiential learning and study abroad have mushroomed with options in Thailand, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and possibly Peru. In addition, an advanced culinary program in Singapore has allowed 80 JWU instructors to teach there for four weeks while immersing themselves in Asian cooking.

“Over the years, our faculty evolved from chefs to educators,” says Guggenmos. Various programs continue providing specific pedagogical training for culinary instructors, who today include everything from artists to scientists. Guggenmos, himself, exemplifies the standard of advanced academic degrees earned by faculty. A master chef from Germany, he also possesses an M.B.A. from JWU.

Cooper believes that, in step with a changing world, JWU has become a kinder, gentler place. “The faculty has always been fantastic, but I don’t think the rein on them was as tight. It was a different era 30-plus years ago and what was appropriate to say back then, you’d probably get fired for now.” He recalls a phenomenal pastry instructor who’d chomp on a cigar once students left. “I don’t think that would go over well in this day and age,” he chuckles. “Their personalities left an impression on us, but they really passed on an incredible, indelible skill level.”

As industry’s bar has risen, the university’s student selectivity has increased along with academic rigor in all classes. In the associate program, one-third of the classes are academic. “This combination is one of our biggest differentiators,” says Peter Lehmuller, associate dean of academic affairs at the Charlotte Campus. “By synthesizing culinary skills with a strong foundation in liberal arts and business, we better prepare students for long-term success and satisfaction. It opens up career opportunities that might otherwise not be available to someone from a strictly technical training program.” And Guggenmos notes that between 60 and 70 percent of associate degree holders now continue toward their bachelor’s.

Lehmuller cites exciting cross-disciplinary conversations among science, sanitation and nutrition instructors about courses and classroom issues, and lab instructors bouncing ideas for written assignments off of English faculty. “This leads to a greater appreciation and understanding of what each does and how to assist students to see the program as a unified whole.” Seamless communication among all campuses has increased dramatically.

The multicampus system exists because of the culinary arts. Military chef training begun in the 1980s in Charleston and Norfolk grew into campuses which consolidated into the Charlotte Campus in 2004. And a program in Vail, Colo. vividly remembered for students in chef ’s whites riding chair lifts to class, predated the Denver Campus.

“Facilities have gone from adequate to state-of-the-art,” adds Guggenmos. Indeed, systemwide, there are more than 100 labs, including technologically advanced wine and beverage, chocolate, meat cutting labs and more. The $38 million, 82,000-square-foot Center for Culinary Excellence will open in Providence soon, setting universal standards for food storage, preparation and handling. Designed with faculty input to meet rapid-fire industry changes, it marks yet another first for Johnson & Wales University: the first culinary lab facility in the U.S. built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards — as green as you can get.

No longer simply responding to industry, but forging alliances with it, JWU is still transforming the culinary world.