The business of travel and tourism: Hospitality and Culinary Arts

In this episode, we will find out the details of the Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management program and the Culinary Arts program. 

 

Achieve More with Athens Tech, the official podcast of Athens Technical College.

A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia. Equal Opportunity Institution.

 

S1: Welcome to achieve more with Athens Tech, the official podcast of Athens Technical College. This is where you'll discover how the programs and Athens tech can connect you with in-demand and high paying careers. Today, we're going to look at hotel, restaurant and tourism management and culinary arts.
S2: If you don't know what you want to do with your life but you love people, hospitality is for you.
S3: If you work for the right place, work for the right people, you will make you make a lot of money.
S4: You can always get a job anywhere as a cook or even a head chef, or even create your own bakery or your own restaurant. And so it will never hurt you to have that experience.
S1: People will forget what you said, forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou. In today's episode, we're going to talk to a graduate of the hotel, restaurant and tourism management program.
S3: My name's Aaron Mubarak. I am currently assistant manager of food and beverage operations at the Ritz-Carlton, Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia.
S1: We'll talk to a culinary arts student.
S4: I'm Morgan Pulse. I'm a mother of two. I've been married for. We'll see. We're going on seven years now. I'm currently going to Athens, Turkey. I started out as an accounting major. I've finished all my Céline classes and then switched over to the Culinary and Baking Program, and I am currently in that at the moment. And I'm possibly throwing the idea round of graduating this year with the accounting and then coming back to finish up the culinary and then eventually starting my own bakery.
S1: And we'll hear a story of triumph, of overcoming adversity to achieve a lot more.
S2: I come from a background where I grew up on the west side of Chicago, and so I didn't know if I would make it. And when I say I'd make make it. It was pretty violent back then in the eighties.
S1: Batman is very important to these programs. I'll let him introduce himself.
S2: My name is Dr. Alfonzo Boyd. I'm the program chair for Culinary Arts, as well as hotel, restaurant and tourism management. And if you put both of those together, I cover anything in hospitality, so that could be anywhere from owning your own business. You could own your own travel agency, your own restaurant. You can work in these empty seat entities. It could be hotels, convention and visitors bureaus as well as event planning. So anything dealing with putting on events for the general public, I, I would say that we're covered, you know, so anything that's disposable income that people love to do so and sometimes people forget what those are, even sports arenas like, it's endless because people love having a good time, right? So when we cover all those, there is I come from a background where I grew up on the west side of Chicago, and so I didn't know if I would make it. And when I say I'd make make it, it was pretty violent back then in the eighties. So for a young black person to like graduate from sixth grade, eighth grade or high school was was pretty slim because crime was just so bad. It was is more than likely you were going to join a gang or end up dead somewhere. And so for me to make it out of that and achieve everything I've done in my life, I look for more individuals like me or anyone who just wants to do more with their lives. And I get a lot of students who are just like by time they come to me, they're just kind of like lost and beaten down. And I encourage them that they can achieve more. You can earn your degree. You can have a

Episode Transcript

S1 (00:00):
Welcome to achieve more with Athens Tech, the official podcast
of Athens Technical College. This is where you'll discover how
the programs and Athens tech can connect you with in-demand
and high paying careers. Today, we're going to look at hotel,
restaurant and tourism management and culinary arts.

S2 (00:19):
If you don't know what you want to do with
your life but you love people, hospitality is for you.

S3 (00:25):
If you work for the right place, work for the
right people, you will make you make a lot of money.

S4 (00:29):
You can always get a job anywhere as a cook
or even a head chef, or even create your own
bakery or your own restaurant. And so it will never
hurt you to have that experience.

S1 (00:43):
People will forget what you said, forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou. In today's episode, we're going to talk to
a graduate of the hotel, restaurant and tourism management program.

S3 (01:00):
My name's Aaron Mubarak. I am currently assistant manager of
food and beverage operations at the Ritz-Carlton, Reynolds Lake Oconee
in Greensboro, Georgia.

S1 (01:10):
We'll talk to a culinary arts student.

S4 (01:13):
I'm Morgan Pulse. I'm a mother of two. I've been
married for. We'll see. We're going on seven years now.
I'm currently going to Athens, Turkey. I started out as
an accounting major. I've finished all my Céline classes and
then switched over to the Culinary and Baking Program, and

(01:33):
I am currently in that at the moment. And I'm
possibly throwing the idea round of graduating this year with
the accounting and then coming back to finish up the
culinary and then eventually starting my own bakery.

S1 (01:52):
And we'll hear a story of triumph, of overcoming adversity
to achieve a lot more.

S2 (01:59):
I come from a background where I grew up on
the west side of Chicago, and so I didn't know
if I would make it. And when I say I'd
make make it. It was pretty violent back then in
the eighties.

S1 (02:13):
Batman is very important to these programs. I'll let him
introduce himself.

S2 (02:18):
My name is Dr. Alfonzo Boyd. I'm the program chair
for Culinary Arts, as well as hotel, restaurant and tourism management.
And if you put both of those together, I cover
anything in hospitality, so that could be anywhere from owning
your own business. You could own your own travel agency,
your own restaurant. You can work in these empty seat entities.

(02:40):
It could be hotels, convention and visitors bureaus as well
as event planning. So anything dealing with putting on events
for the general public, I, I would say that we're covered,
you know, so anything that's disposable income that people love

(03:00):
to do so and sometimes people forget what those are,
even sports arenas like, it's endless because people love having
a good time, right? So when we cover all those,
there is I come from a background where I grew
up on the west side of Chicago, and so I
didn't know if I would make it. And when I

(03:23):
say I'd make make it, it was pretty violent back
then in the eighties. So for a young black person
to like graduate from sixth grade, eighth grade or high
school was was pretty slim because crime was just so bad.
It was is more than likely you were going to
join a gang or end up dead somewhere. And so

(03:47):
for me to make it out of that and achieve
everything I've done in my life, I look for more
individuals like me or anyone who just wants to do
more with their lives. And I get a lot of
students who are just like by time they come to me,
they're just kind of like lost and beaten down. And
I encourage them that they can achieve more. You can

(04:10):
earn your degree. You can have a better life. You know,
I have one student graduate, and now she works for
a pretty prestigious hotel making pretty good money. You know,
she never thought that she would make them, you know,
for her life. And so I just want to be
able to give people make their dream a reality. That's

(04:32):
what I want to do.

S1 (04:33):
We'll hear more from Dr. Bui about his background, qualifications
and his journey in a bit. But first, that student
he just mentioned, that's Aaron.

S3 (04:43):
My name is Aaron Brock. I am currently Assistant Manager
of food and beverage operations at the Ritz Carlton, Reynolds
Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia. I graduated from Athens Tech in
May and started my job two weeks later. Already I.
I had a job before I left, thanks to my professor.

(05:05):
And that's about it. Been working really hard ever since.
I learned a lot about the industry, perfecting my craft
and just focusing on growing my career. I'm a nonexempt manager,
so I have a salary, but if I work outside
the means of that salary, I get compensated, meaning I
make overtime and I work overtime every week. So my
starting salary was 45 a year, 45,000 a year, which

(05:29):
I was like, Oh my gosh, it's so amazing. But
after overtime, I, I would imagine I'll probably make a
lot closer to 60,000 a year. So it's definitely it
can be very lucrative, but a lot of people don't
don't really want management and want to stay in more

(05:50):
like a typical position, like a bartender or server and
servers at my and my property. They they make a
lot of money. They easily make more money than I do.
Just because it's expensive, we turntable so quickly, you can
really make a lot of money. So a lot of
people look at hospitality as kind of a industry. You

(06:12):
don't really make a lot of money, but if you
work for the right place, you work for the right people,
you will make you will make a lot of money,
especially if you're young, like I'm young, I'm not married,
I don't have kids. This is a great amount of
money for me. And I live very comfortably live by myself.
I have my own house, but a lot of people
live very, very comfortably working in hotels and working in

(06:33):
restaurant management.

S1 (06:34):
What type of things do you need to know? What
type of things do you learn in Athens Tech?

S3 (06:39):
I remember in one class, I think it had to
have been business etiquette. Dr. Wilson, the professor, was teaching
us things to say and things not to say. So
like when? When a guest says thank you, the response
is not no problem. You never say no problem. So
every time I say it or I catch myself saying
it like, stop, don't say it. Or Every time one

(07:01):
of my employees says it, I want to say, I
like you. Don't say that. It's my pleasure. It's absolutely.
Of course, things like that. Stronger words. So we we
were taught to to to use better verbiage. And I
think that that's translated well into my career now, because
I do work at a five star resort and I

(07:23):
need to say the right thing. I can't just be casual.

S2 (07:27):
I think the one course there is and one thing
that crosses over to even the culinary side is hospitality law.
So not only do we teach legalities of it, we
teach other things such as how to look for human trafficking.
You know, what are liability issues for, let's say, someone
doing something illegal in a guest room, in a hotel.

(07:50):
So let's say someone is selling your paraphernalia or substances.
Can you just go in their room? And so we
teach how to properly handle these situations. Case in point,
in one of the classes we teach, you know, privacy laws,
and there's a scenario where we say, hey, what if

(08:12):
a husband walks up to the front desk, shows a
wedding picture and say, hey, my wife is staying here?
I don't know which room can you give me a
room key? Can't, you know, should you give them Urumqi?
And then the answer would be no, because somebody could
be fleeing from a situation where there was domestic violence
and they're seeking safe refuge. So the next class, one

(08:36):
of my students went through that exact scenario and she
her mind was blown and she said, I never would
have thought so. It actually happens quite often. And a
coworker wound up giving the husband the key. And then
they had a whole scenario where she had to be
rushed to the hospital. And I don't know how that

(08:59):
all turned out, but unfortunately, you know, there were some
legal issues behind that repercussions because you gave the husband
turnkey when you should now. So these are some of
the things that we teach within the program that a
lot of people may not even have thought of prior.

S3 (09:17):
It's it's it's common sense. But at the same time,
you need to know. It's nice to see it all
writing and see it'll all come together. It's my thing
because I really like I know how to serve a table.
I know how to talk to a guest. I know,
I mean, I know back of house things. But for

(09:37):
everything to come together and orchestrate in one class to
really focus on a specific subject and take that and like,
like roll with it like hospitality law study accounting for
an office management back, house management, things like that. The
classes are hyper focused on, on a specific thing. So.

(10:00):
By the end of the semester. You're an expert on that.
And so by the end of your entire course of study,
you're an expert on everything. And you can do any
career path and do anything, which I think is super cool.
But it's, it's simple, but you still have to work hard,
if that makes sense. Like you have to try.

S1 (10:19):
How about Morgan? She's studying culinary arts so she can
tell us a little bit about what that entails.

S4 (10:27):
It's been awesome. They're very hands on. They're there to help.
And so we go in. You're pretty much in the
kitchen all day with Jamie. It's fun. It's a lot
of people like, oh, all day class. No, but no.
It's actually a lot of fun. We all have. We're
small class, so we enjoy each other's. All the classmates

(10:48):
time in the structure. He's there to help us and
guide us to make sure that we're learning and knowing
how to do things properly so. But no, every instructor
that I've had so far, it's been wonderful and has
really helped me learn and find my skills. With baking,

(11:09):
there is a science to it. You have to do
things in a certain order or else your cake may
be flat or maybe dense and hard. So you have
to do things in a certain order, in a certain way.
And some people think, Oh, well, it's a cake. I
can just toss it all in and mix it all up.
We really can't. It's kind of like putting the cart

(11:29):
before the horse. You have to figure out and learn
the order.

S2 (11:34):
And that's probably the the the first thing that a
lot of students in the culinary program don't know they
need is, of course, safety and sanitation for safety. Sanitation,
same thing with team. It basically it teaches you how
to properly handle food so people don't become sick from
food poisoning, how to cook food properly, how to store it.

(11:58):
It could be simple things such as hand-washing techniques or
complex things such as the internal cooking temperature of beef
versus fish versus poultry, chicken products, how to store things,
where to store. So it's so many things that they
learn within the program. And just that course, it's like

(12:21):
an eye opening course, like, whoa, this is this is serious. Like, yeah, you,
you are responsible for people's lives.

S4 (12:30):
Coming out and say, it was my first time ever
cooking in a commercial kitchen. I've always been a home baker.
I've never used a commercial oven, anything commercial. So it
was very nice to actually learn the different equipment and
using as a commercial. Erin does cook differently than the
actual home oven. Does it cook so normally a little

(12:52):
hotter than home oven does. And so. Being able to
use these different equipment and machinery and learning all these
different things. As far as like did you learn how
to do safety in a commercial kitchen, which is a
very big, important thing because you could save someone's life

(13:15):
by not having a disease from washing your hands, washing
dishes properly and everything like that. So it's neat to
learn these different things. So if you ever need to
go work in a kitchen or something, you do have
all those in the background. But then we also when
we make bread. Jeff Ponder over at the pizza oven,

(13:38):
which is really cool because I've never seen it or
used one before, so it was neat to be able
to do that. And then they do have like a
laminate or to make Christians and puff pastry and different
things like that, which is neat because not many people
in their life will ever get to use one. And

(13:58):
so because doing it by hand is not fun, it
is not fun at all to roll cold the cold
butter into, though it's hard. Even some of the strong
guys had a hard time with it, but just the
different pieces of equipment is just really neat because things
you would you see, you're like, Oh wow, I didn't

(14:21):
know they did that or me, I didn't know they
made those. And so it's a very neat experience.

S2 (14:28):
No one really teaches you how to cook properly, right?
Like you learn how to cook at home. But did
anyone teach you? Oh, food needs to be done to
a certain temperature. What's the degree of done this? You
know why it's safe to eat a rare steak? These
are things that no one teaches at home. So once again,

(14:49):
in the course, they're just their minds are just blown
and it's always great. I love that course. It's one
of my favorites.

S1 (14:54):
If you're considering the hotel restaurant in Tourism Management or
culinary arts program at Athens Technical College, you're going to
be learning from very experienced people. Dr. Pou His knowledge
is extensive.

S2 (15:07):
Well, I started off probably in high school was my
first job in hospitality. I worked at a piece of place.
Auto Pizza in Chicago was a great place. And the
guy there in the owner and I developed a wonderful
report to the point where I was opening the place
on Sunday and I'm just in high school. I'm not
realize I'm developing actual life skill sets then and now.

(15:29):
I'm just trying to get my little paycheck in and
take home free pizzas. And so from there I went
off to college and I became a server and once
I was doing my masters, I was almost done my masters.
And now when I got done with my bachelor's, I
actually worked for a convention and visitors bureau. So that's

(15:51):
one area of hospitality. And so we were put on
and then some things in nature and help direct people,
whether it was weddings or government events just and then
from there back to serving. And they asked me to
be a manager, so I moved Chicago as a manager,
move back to Chicago after college. And I was a

(16:12):
manager for Longhorn Steakhouse, Montana Grill, as well as Cheddar's
Casual Cafe manager, if you're familiar, any of those. But
I work for all three of those concepts. That is
my I took a break to finish my dissertation. That's
why I worked as a overnight concierge. That was a
crazy experience. I had some you know, the one thing

(16:33):
by working overnight is very quiet until it isn't so
is one or two extremes. You're going to have a
crazy night or a very quiet night. And so to me,
most of them were quiet nights. And then I'm in between.
I work for a Virgin America, so I work for airlines.
I kind of work all over the place in hospitality.
And it wasn't until probably I actually became program hear

(16:55):
someone say, Oh, you have a really expensive career in
hospitality that you built. And I do. I do have
an extensive career. I didn't do that great was probably
my my most interesting experience when I worked over in
China for four and a half years. And so I
was a business professor and while living over there, I
did a lot of restaurant consulting. And so that was
a pretty cool experience. I did a little bit of

(17:17):
hotel consulting on the side, but mainly was restaurants. So
I was able to help teach serving practices, whether front
of house or back in the house. And even though
I'm grading a kitchen back in the house for some reason,
it just took me longer to get the rent from
the house. But once I got it out, you couldn't
stop me. So that's kind of my, my all around overall,

(17:39):
everywhere experience and in hospitality.

S4 (17:42):
I grew up, I've always loved sweets. That's me. But
my grandmother, she was a well-loved woman in the community
who loved to bake. Everybody loved her cakes. Everybody loved
her parts. And over the years she has taught me
about baking and everything on that. I started looking into

(18:04):
the culinary program because I did love to bake and
so I did want to just do a little something,
I guess to say I wanted to spruce myself up
to fine tune my abilities. So I wanted to learn
just a little bit more where you can't really teach
yourself more to the breads, the pastries and different things

(18:29):
like that. And so that was my main goal as
to going into the culinary program. Is to learn things
that I've never been told. And so and that's why
I'm in it now, is to just get that on
to to help better myself and then also to better
my bakery.

S3 (18:47):
App tech has given me a lot of obviously number
one opportunity my employment but you know I have a
resume and it says I went to Athens Tech. I
can use my professor as a reference a job reference.
There's so much to do and and in life and
there's just a lot that you can do and a
lot that I want to do. So I achieving more

(19:11):
would be is my only option. I'm going to achieve
everything I want to everything in life that I'm going
to get. I'm going to get. You have to have
drive and power and and and really want to be successful.
And you will.

S2 (19:28):
If you don't know what you want to do with
your life, but you love people. Hospitality is for you
and if it's not, will direct you in the right direction.
But I'm pretty sure it's for you. So if you
love people, we're definitely the program for you. Sign up.
We'll get you in culinary or hotel, restaurant tourism minister
and also go after your dreams. You know, don't let

(19:51):
anyone tell you that you can achieve because you can
you can achieve whatever you want to in life. I
promise you you can.

S1 (19:58):
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S5 (20:16):
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