Renovated Hospitality Management Building Ready to Welcome Students

Fully equipped commercial cooking kitchens, an area dedicated to baking and a large, inviting dining room are all part of the changes that will greet Mission College hospitality management students as they begin the spring semester.

Funded through $8.8 million from Measure H, the renovation of the Hospitality Management Building is set to be complete later this month. The extensive project updated the entire facility, originally built in the early 1980s, and brought it up to modern standards, complete with expanded storage, new cooking work stations and multimedia technology integrated throughout.

“With adequate support and funding from the college, the completion of this project will position the program to be the premier destination for hospitality education and training in Silicon Valley and the greater Bay Area,” said Haze Dennis, department chair of hospitality management. “The scope of the service we will be able to provide to the college and the community can increase exponentially. As the service expands, so expand the opportunities for students to gain invaluable hands-on experience.”

One of the most noticeable changes will be the renovated dining space, where the hospitality management program holds its popular lunch program, which features lunch served, planned and prepared by students on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The room can now accommodate 250 people, an increase of about 100 people that makes hosting outside events and meetings more feasible, Dennis said. The dining room also boasts a dynamic demonstration kitchen, a more visible, attractive entryway from the parking lot and a redesigned patio area.

Behind the scenes, students will first learn the ropes in the basic food lab, redesigned to better reflect its use as instructional space. In addition to modern cooking equipment and workspaces, the lab now includes built-in audio-visual technology, including a monitor to project instructors’ food demonstrations.

The program’s operations lab, used for food classes that serve the public, was also updated with top-of-the-line equipment, a new dish room and a pantry area.

The renovation also added a lab dedicated to baking, which was previously handled within the operations lab. The new space will not only allow the program to increase the scope of its current operations classes, but it will also pave the way for an expanded curriculum, Dennis said. A baking and pastry arts certificate could be a possibility as could more community-based baking classes.

“The hospitality management program is one of the flagship programs within the college,” said Norma Ambriz-Galaviz, vice president of instruction. “Having a modern, up-to-date facility is going to further attract students.”