CCSF Culinary fundraiser @ Il Cane Rosso, 8.25.12. Good for culinary, good for the college

On Saturday, Aug. 25th, the City College of San Francisco Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies Department will host a fundraiser at Il Cane Rosso, in the hopes of keeping the program alive. The evening will offer three passed appetizers, a three-course meal (veg option included) and wine pairing, all for $50. That, my friends, is a steal!

Here's some background on CCSF's financial woes, and me, genuinely waxing poetic, carried away by sleeplessness and a lingering hangover from SF Chefs' Grand Tasting. Manohmanohman.

In the middle of Spring semester 2012, this is what was freaking most of us students out. And that's when City's culinary department started kicking it into high gear. The efforts of faculty members to get more fundraising events off the ground, besides our annual Wok on the Wild Side mainstay (oh we kicked it into high-gear for that madness, too), were only borne out after discovering this Summer that the entire college was imploding.

So while Culinary Arts and Hospitality Studies is but one arm of City College, we are an important one. Eighty percent of our graduates are placed in jobs immediately after graduating -- a dizzying figure when compared with the rest of the college. Walk into a restaurant, and you will stumble over successful CCSF alum. We are everywhere, we work hard, and, most importantly, I've found that we are an invaluable resource for one another.

The flipside of the Culinary Arts Department's financial trouble is that we cannot succeed without an accessible institution like City College. We cook in bulk, serving 900 affordable meals a day for an entire campus, providing us with an educational experience totally unique to our program; we're able to work (our butts off), and graduate with minimal to no debt in an industry that starts at the very low end of the pay scale. That's what City is all about; without City, our careers, our education as culinary professionals, isn't the enriching experience we've come not just to expect, but appreciate as well.

But if us culinary students can kick butt with a few events, like the upcoming fundraiser, then maybe we can prove to the Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges that there's one reason to keep the CCSF ship sailing. We can't represent the History Department, or Chemistry, or Paralegal Studies, but we can represent ourselves, and all that City College has provided for us in the careers we love.

Feel persuaded to come show your support? Love the SF food scene that CCSF alums have helped mold for decades? Well, then, here's all the info you need for the fundraiser at Il Cane Rosso. I hope to see your lovely faces there!