The
Paragon Culinary School is designed to be an alternative
to the
larger Culinary Schools; to specifically provide another
option in Culinary Education for Colorado’s Youth
and Citizenry. Unlike the larger institutions, PCS will
focus ONLY on culinary arts and restaurant management,
with intensive training by world leaders of the field,
not simply instructors.
The number of students will be
limited to a few hundred, rather than thousands, resulting
in amazing one-on-one style training at a much higher
level than previously available. This is not a general
college, or a school for regular hospitality managers,
it is designed to assist in the creation of great future
chefs and restaurateurs.
In addition, we believe so strongly
in our program, and the future of our students, that
we have cut tuition in half. With the work study option,
which we highly recommend, tuition is only $10,000. a
year, rather than the national average of over $30,000.
Our full three year program costs less than one year at many Culinary
Schools. We are concerned with the future and the cuisine,
not the cash...(click here for
more...)Dean’s
Address
From the desk of Chef/Owner Victor W. Matthews,
Jr.
Welcome to Paragon Culinary School! A 24,000 square
foot, state-of-the-art site featuring an open kitchen,
comfortable classrooms, banquet hall, art gallery, locker
room, offices, and dorms. The word “paragon” means the
best of the best, and this is exactly what we have set out
to accomplish at PCS. In my 22 years as a professional
chef, sommelier, restaurant manager and owner; I attended
four different schools, opened two, and taught at over a
dozen, including receiving an Education Degree with honors
(4.0) and three different state certifications. This
experience showed me very clearly the pluses and minuses
of school-based education. However, the completion of my
personal training and fruition of my goals was only
possible in the field, through years of intensive
apprenticeship. This too taught me valuable lessons in how
people, especially restaurant people, actually learn. What
you will witness at Paragon is the perfection of all this
experience. A truly effective restaurant training
environment is our goal. So, what makes us so different?
1. Size. Yes, size does matter, but not in the
way you might imagine. Large schools with thousands of
students may be famous, but they suffer two major,
almost catastrophic, drawbacks. First, they need huge
campuses with large fields of grass and hundreds of
thousands of square feet of marble and granite
antediluvian buildings. It is impressive, yes, but
unimportant and far too expensive. Imagine heating and
cooling the Capitol Building. Just the size doubles your
tuition. But cost is not the biggest concern with larger
schools. Stadium-style seating and lack of intensive
personal training, when combined with a structure
designed around the “lowest common denominator”, really
does a disservice to the students, who will pay three
times as much and not end up properly prepared for the
field. We are small (less than 300 students), on
purpose. It keeps our tuition low, our class size small,
our training level intense and effective, and our staff
very specifically the best they can be.
2. Chefs, not instructors. It is hard to say this
without hurting someone’s feelings, but there is a BIG
difference between a culinary instructor and a
world-class chef who has run the finest kitchens in the
world. It would be the same as learning to drive from a
driving school instructor as opposed to Mario Andretti;
or taking an art class from the local part time night
class teachers rather than apprenticing under Monet
himself. Simply put, our staff of award-winning champion
chefs has and is shaping the culinary world on
the four and five star levels as leaders and masters.
There are teachers and even deans at other schools who
would be considered several whole steps below them in
the classical brigade.
3. Hands on. All students will learn and work
“hands on” in all sections of the restaurant, and not
just a couple times for exams…continuously. They will be
truly prepared to work in an actual real world
environment.
4. All-Encompassing. Far too often a trainee, or
even an experienced employee, only knows or understands
one particular area of the restaurant operation. This
not only makes them less valuable as an employee, but it
increases the chance of conflict with other departments.
Our students learn EVERYTHING, from bookkeeping
and ordering to cooking and serving. We are not training
only chefs, but general managers and future
restaurateurs.
So, three times the training for one-third the price.
You can’t beat that. Instead of the national average of
32-36 thousand a year, you only pay 10. That’s right, the
entire three-year program is LESS THAN the national
average for a single year at one of those big inefficient
schools. AND, you actually get into the kitchen and learn
to cook. Thank you for your consideration, and I hope to
see you soon.
Sincerely,
Chef Victor W. Matthews, Jr.
Dean/Owner/CEO
Paragon Culinary School
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