Why the culinary institute is closing its dining room for the summer

While many restaurants on P.E.I. just open their doors for the summer months, the dining room at the Culinary Institute of Canada will be closing its.

In past years dining roomwould hire graduates and staff on contract for the summer to cook for and serve the public.

The decision came out of the large revitalization project the school has gone through, which included a multi-million dollar renovation and a revamp of its programming.

"A lot of the feedback that we got when we did the research to get ready for this reopening was that we need to focus on our primary goal, which is education," said Austin Clement, program manager for culinary and hospitality programs.

"So during this summer we're going to have some new initiatives."

Those initiatives are still being worked out, but include increasing public education with culinary boot camps, providing more shorter courses for the public and developing specific training for professionals in the industry.

No longer competing for summer hires

The teachers who would have worked in the dining roomwill miss out on a contract for the summer, along with six or seven of the graduates.

The posting for thosejobs hadn't gone out yet, and staff and students have been made aware of the change.

Clement says the off time will give staff more time to prepare for fall lessons. Hefeels the change of focus will also help industry, because the institute won't be competing with other restaurants.

"Certainly in the last eight or nine years, we've seen the number of restaurants, the quality of restaurants [go up] and we're kind of stepping back during their busy time and a time when they're crying for labour force," he said.

"Our responsibility is to train the students, train the labour force. If we open a restaurant while they're looking for staff and we're keeping staff and keeping students, it doesn't really fall into what our priority is. "

The dining room will close the last week of April and reopen in the first week of October.

More P.E.I. news