Culinary Arts

Academic Program

The Culinary Arts program is an excellent place to expand your interest and knowledge in the culinary arts. Chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers prepare, season, and cook a wide variety of foods from soups and appetizers to entrees and desserts in the college kitchens.

The program, in cooperation with our academic partners, offers students a variety of foods and culinary classes that lead the student from an introduction to food through more advanced studies in professional cooking, dietetics, and baking. Area chefs are involved in teaching a variety of our foods and culinary courses.

Faculty

Chef Robert Stricklin
Culinary Arts

Assistant Professor of Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM)
rstricklin@cofo.edu

Work Program Opportunities

The College Work Education program offers many opportunities to develop cooking and culinary skills with positions in the Dobyn’s Dining kitchen and the College Cafeteria kitchens. Food preparation learning opportunities include everything from cooking vegetables in quantity for a banquet to preparing the entrée for an exclusive fine dining restaurant experience.

The Keeter Center

This landmark facility opened in September, 2004, and features fine dining, lodging, meeting and conference facilities, a bakery, and a gift shop. Students in the HRM program work and study in a beautiful facility with memorable architecture and interiors. The Keeter Center is home to the Hotel and Restaurant Management program and classrooms.

The Keeter Center is an active community center hosting a variety of public, social and business events as well as being the hub of a busy campus calendar of activities. The 275-seat Dobyn’s Dining Room is open for lunch and dinner, and features a spectacular Sunday brunch. Thirty well-appointed rooms and suites offer campus and Branson skyline views.

Conference facilities include a 350-seat auditorium, the 4,000-square foot Silver Dollar City Parlor, plus a variety of smaller meeting spaces. The bakery offers scratch-prepared baked goods daily with ice cream and deluxe coffee service.

The building is also home to The Keeter Center for Character Education. Numerous campus programs, such as the Community Convocation Series, Citizenship Forum, Character Forum, and the Work Ethic Forum are sponsored by The Center.