MATC to build $15.6M culinary training center

Culinary student Ashim Malla (left) and instructor Joseph Gaglio look at chicken that was just taken out of the oven Friday during an international cuisine class in the Gourmet Lab at Madison Area Technical College in Madison. MATC is adding a $15.6 million culinary training center at its campus in Truax to serve students seeking degrees and food lovers who want to improve their cooking skills. (AP Photo/Wisconsin State Journal, Amber Arnold)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Madison Area Technical College is adding a $15.6 million culinary training center at its campus in Truax to serve students seeking degrees and food lovers who want to improve their cooking skills.

Leftover money from the school’s $133.7 million referendum, which passed in 2010, will be used to pay for the new, two-story building, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Additions will be made to existing facilities to expand the culinary space at the Truax campus from 8,500 square feet to nearly 22,000 square feet.

“Right now we can’t accommodate continuing education students in our kitchen,” said Bryan Woodhouse, dean of the school of business and applied arts. “We wanted to have a full array of offerings to serve all the people we aspire to serve.”

The new space will allow the current program to double its offerings to first-year students, as well as create a new program for high-school students. It will include kitchen labs, storage, a gourmet dining room, a small retail store and a demonstration kitchen that allows people to watch the students work.

“I think transparency is actually a great thing,” said Paul Short, culinary arts program director. “It obviously promotes our program but it also takes our students and puts them on that pedestal that they’re going to have to work neat and work clean.”

The school is also planning eight renovation projects within its $27.6 million development expansion. Barber and baker training spaces, dining halls, student career services, student life, career services and a student lounge will also receive upgrades.

The barber and cosmetology program, which operates at two sites, will be consolidated at Truax through its new training space.

Each of the renovation projects is expected to cost about $1.5 million. They will be financed through a mix of borrowing and private gifts, according to Tim Casper, senior executive and special assistant to MATC president Jack Daniels.

MATC has five main locations throughout the Madison area.

Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.madison.com/wsj