Culinary students at Johnson County Community College (photo credit: JCCC)
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Johnson County Community College is planning a groundbreaking ceremony for its new Hospitality & Culinary Academy. The event is planned for 1 pm on May 22. Classes will begin in fall 2013 in the $12 million, 36,000-square-foot building. It will house offices, classrooms, a library, five culinary labs, an innovation kitchen and a demonstration kitchen in a culinary theater. The school says the culinary labs include two for professional cooking classes, one for pastry classes, a cold foods kitchen and a restaurant kitchen. The restaurant kitchen will adjoin a dining room on the east end of the building that can be converted to classrooms. Seven hundred students are enrolled in the college's hospitality management program. Besides serving those students, the facility will provide space for noncredit classes and community activities.