Culinary arts at DACC

Chef Tom Drake, Culinary Arts instructor at Doña Ana Community College, has been nominated as New Mexico Chef of the Year.

The New Mexico Restaurant Association will announce the winner in late September.

Meanwhile, this semester Drake will be teaching sausage and cheese making and a class in nontraditional holiday cuisine. Doña Ana Community College students return to campus on August 20, alongside New Mexico State University students.

Drake said the Culinary Arts program at DACC has expanded from eight students when he started in 2015 to 48 now with a waiting list. Drake said because of the increased competitiveness of the program, administrators are trying to open a third section to allow more students.

Mario Beltran, a DACC student who finished the chef program, said the program was very fun and very formative. He said the biggest learning curve for him was the intensity.

The Anthony, NM native, said he studied culinary arts in high school and coming to DACC to learn culinary skills meant much more actual kitchen experience and much more hands on work.

“The chefs there were great, the program was great. I learned a lot. It was a great experience and I loved it,” Beltran said.

Drake said people with an interest in culinary arts consider DACC’s program because of the “breadth of the great teachers and instructors.” He said one thing he enjoys is seeing how much students grow from the beginning with only local knowledge of food into working at places such as large country clubs or Walt Disney World.

“We try to instill that every culture has two things in common: food and music. They get to travel the world in class, go on a culinary journey,” he said.

Drake said that on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the spring semester, the students operate an on-campus restaurant and create a three-course meal. The work includes developing a menu, ordering the products, running the kitchen and cooking the meal and serving it.

Drake said 80% of the student restaurant clientele are people who live near campus in the East Mesa area.

Drake said that when he meets students, he takes off his chef hat “and I put on my dad hat.

“When I graduated 40 years ago, I had over $40,000 in student loans,” he said, citing the state’s Opportunity Scholarship and other state funding that enables New Mexico students to go to college for free.

Beltran praised Drake as a teacher. He said Drake is “very high energy.

“He’ll make sure you do it right,” he said.