ST. HELENA – Are you interested in a culinary career? Applications are now being accepted for Napa Valley College’s Napa Valley Cooking School. It offers a 14-month program (nine months of classes and 600 to 800 hours of externship) starting Sept. 2.

The program is located at the Upper Valley Campus in St. Helena.

It will run through May 15, with a six-week optional pastry program at the end. Uniforms, knives, tuition and books are all included in the cost of $15,500. The cost of the course will increase next year.

The instructors are qualified, executive-level chefs with a student/teacher ratio of only 18 students to two chef instructors.

Barbara Alexander is executive chef and director of Culinary Operations. Externships are at the best restaurants across the US, Canada and Europe with a 100-percent placement following graduation.

The course covers all aspects of professional culinary training, basic skills (knife skills and product identification), soups, stocks and sauces, nutrition and food science, butchery and charcuterie, basic pastry and basic to advanced bread baking, food and beverage cost control, classical cuisines of Italy, France, Asia, the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Applications for fall are being accepted. Financial aid is available through the Napa Valley College main campus.

For applications, call the Upper Valley Campus at 967-2901 or 967-2902.

Tours of the school can be arranged through Chef Barbara Alexander at 967-2930.

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