Twenty Seven Years at JWU Burners

Johnson & Wales was running cooking classes for the military on a Navy base in Norfolk, Va., when Associate Instructor Susan Yelliott-Batten CEC, CCE, FMP. was hired to teach full time for a program about to go public. “[Former Norfolk Campus President] Debi Gray and I started looking for facilities, realtors, did all the subcontracting, interviewed contractors, plumbers, electricians — all of that,” Batten recalls 27 years later.

Over time she taught on aircraft carriers, worked with admirals’ staffs, toured ships and trained top Air Force, Coast Guard and Navy cooks from around the world. Batten helped start a chapter of the American Culinary Federation in Norfolk. She was also a mentorship coordinator, training high school teachers for the Careers Through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), a scholarship program for at-risk youth. In between, she taught at JWU’s program in Vail, Colo

When the Norfolk Campus closed, she and husband, Ed Batten, also a JWU culinary instructor, moved to the Charlotte Campus. Batten is quick with a long list of changes over time: More women instructors — she was once one of two — and more female students reflect the field nationally. “A gazillion” curriculum shifts, including the addition of nutrition, have set the pace for national trends, she notes.

Batten has taught everything in the curriculum but advanced pastry, and now focuses on nutrition and sensory analysis. “It’s really fun to see people’s eyes open when they say, ‘I didn’t know that healthy food could be this good,’” she says.

The Food Network and other networks’ food-related shows have had a huge impact on students. “Before, it was PBS, Julia Child and Martin Yan. They were great, but there weren’t a lot of other role models. All the new chefs on TV have unleashed a torrent of people who have an interest in good food. I hope many will become the chefs, writers and managers in our industry. It’s an exciting future for us all.”

Meeting the Challenge of Change
“I have a class that I think you’ll be good at, but I need you to tell me you’re going to put together a class that’s going to knock the socks off of these students,” Mark Testa, then director of the hospitality program at the North Miami Campus, told Alan Seidman in 1998 when he was hired to teach as an adjunct.

Seidman met the mandate and was soon given a second course. Nine years later he became the college chair. “I was in the right place at the right time.”

JWU’s first full-service regional campus was less than a decade old and poised for growth when Seidman joined the faculty. Since then, technology and social networks have changed the face of the industry, the planet and students as well. “Twelve years ago, not everybody had a cell phone. Now they not only have a cell phone, it’s attached to their heads,” he laughs. “We have to understand that this is a part of life for students. Our challenge is to really engage them and keep doing that five or 10 years from now.”

Technology’s influence on their career prospects has been more subtle. “It hasn’t taken away as many jobs as it might have in other industries,” he says. There’s still a need for the restaurant, hotel and events managers. Travel-tourism has been affected, but “there it’s taken away some jobs, but created others.”

Lodged in the midst of a tourist mecca, Seidman’s program is now a respected talent pool. “Our brand name is very strong down here,” he notes. “Our hotels, restaurants, cruise lines, sport teams and event companies all know us and most enjoy partnering with us” to provide internships and employment for graduates that knock their socks off.

Image top: Associate Professor Susan Batten, a culinary instructor with JWU for 27 years, trains Mecklenburg County child care providers in the art of creating healthy lunch options.

Image bottom: Alan Seidman, chair of The Hospitality College in North Miami, has been with JWU for 12 years.