The College of Southern Nevada’s award-winning Culinary Arts program is in its 27th year, and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Chef Tom Rosenberger, chairman of the hospitality-management program at CSN, founded the culinary program in 1989 after working in private industry. It had only a couple dozen students, but it sure has changed.
CSN’s Culinary Arts program, one of the college’s crown jewels, sends many of its graduates to the Las Vegas Strip and beyond.
Now, the program has near 800 students. All its classes are full, and it may grow more in the future. Le Cordon Bleu, a private, for-profit program, announced this month that it’s shutting down all its culinary programs.
Rosenberger said CSN is ready to handle more students if necessary. “Obviously, we’re prepping our staff and our facility for an increased load,” he said.
CSN’s Culinary Arts program, which is already widely considered top-notch, sends many of its graduates to the Las Vegas Strip and beyond.
Culinary students often volunteer in the community. Here, a group of students prepares breakfast for at-risk schoolchildren.
“It’s always fun to go out and see our students after they’ve gotten to that level,” said Rosenberger, who’s known around campus simply as Chef Tom.
Chef Tom actually started as a student at CSN way back in the beginning, in 1971, when we had only a couple hundred students total. Today, we’re at more than 35,000, making us the largest higher education institution in Nevada.
The culinary program is one of our crown jewels.
It’s a fraction of the cost of some of the private schools, students can earn certificates of achievement or associates degrees, and it operates day and night, seven days a week.
Culinary student Lyndal Shirley, who works as a nurse but is looking for a career change, said coming back to school has been great for him.
“I always thought I was a good cook until I came back to school and found out how much I don’t know,” he said with a laugh. “It’s a really great place to come if you want to learn the business from the best.”