Falling in love with your schooling

When Brendan Villafana walked through the doors of Assiniboine Community College, he was looking for a career. He found it. He also found romance.

Villafana met his now-fiancée about six years ago, while they were both in their first years of the Hotel and Restaurant Management program at ACC. They’ll be married in a small ceremony this spring.

After that first year, they moved to work in British Columbia, falling in love with the west coast and with each other. Villafana then came back to finish honing his skills at ACC. Now, he’s working at one of the top restaurants in Winnipeg — the swank steakhouse 529 Wellington — and eyeing up his sommelier certification. Eventually, he’d like to open his own place.

Having just turned 25 in January, Villafana says that his college education gave him a huge head start.

“A lot of my colleagues at 529 (are) the best of the best from other establishments,” Villafana says, calling it an “all-star lineup” of dining. But he says that, thanks to his foundation at ACC, he’s fitting right in.

“ACC really cuts a solid 10 to 20 years off of working through the ranks.”

That’s exactly how the program is designed, says Kyle Zalluski, who’s been an instructor with Hotel and Restaurant Management for about 10 years.

“This is about future career advancement,” he says. “It’s very hands-on, very practical.”

Split into two years, the program allows students to take a one-year certificate or go on for a second year and earn a diploma. That’s how Villafana did it, with an extended break in-between.

The first year is hospitality-focused, and is exclusively done at MICA, the Manitoba Institute of Culinary Arts, which is located in a gorgeous heritage building on Brandon’s North Hill. The second year blends in business administration courses, preparing students for more of a management role in the future, Zalluski says.

In between the two years, students do a co-op work placement. It’s not an internship; it’s fully paid and they’re expected to be fully contributing employees, Zalluski says.

“We have great relationships. We have people hiring our students, our students have great summer employment, and they get paid experience.

Many go on to get hired back at their work placement after finishing their diploma.

“The majority of students go on to work in food and beverage. That’s restaurants, resorts, convention facilities,” he says. “There’s also accommodation, the rooms division, the front desk … any hospitality service industry you can think of.”

Although there have been curriculum changes, the program’s been around since the late 1980s, and in his 10 years with it, Zalluski says he’s seen students go on to work across the country.

“Some stay local, many travel abroad,” he says. “I literally have students from coast to coast to the Moosomin Red Barn.

That national outlook is built right into the program, which includes trips to sample beer from the vat at Half Pints and Fort Garry breweries in Winnipeg and a week-long tour through the Niagara wine region, both in preparation for beer or wine pairing events at the college.

Those events — which include Harvest on the Hill, the Wine and Food Festival and the ever-popular Grey Owl student restaurant — are some of the biggest public outreach events for the college.

“We’re the ‘face’ of Field to Fork,” Zalluski says, mentioning the ACC initiative that includes horticulture production and culinary arts students as well. “They grow it, they prepare it, we are the ones who share it and the story behind it.”

The public events are both great public relations for the college and important practice for the students. They’re held at the century-old MICA building, originally the nurses’ residents for the Brandon Mental Health Center. It’s been fully restored and has had a modern teaching kitchen built on to it.

“We are blessed with the most beautiful event location in Brandon,” Zalluski says. “The space allows us to do these events. The move here has been tremendous for student learning.”

The events are also perfect practice for a program that will send graduates into a public-facing industry.

“Students have the advantage of having the public coming into their classroom with over 3,000 guests coming through the doors of MICA,” Zalluski says. “It’s a unique learning experience — very hands-on … once a month we’re firing up a major event here. It’s similar challenges that students will face in industry.”

The events also allow students to partner up with those in complementary programs, like Horticulture Production and Culinary Arts.

“The group work is tremendous,” Zalluksi says. “They have to work collaboratively with their classmates.”

Villafana agrees that the events are key to the learning experience in Hotel and Restaurant Management.

“That’s the neat thing about ACC — we do so many events that are unique. It’s good preparation for ‘real world,’” he says. “The only difference is people in the field have been doing it for 10 or 20 years; in the classroom we’re all fresh. But we try to make it as seamless as possible for the guests, in that way, the classroom is the same as industry.

While a student, he says, the Wine and Food Festival was one of his favourite events to put on.

“The month of Grey Owl is an unparalleled experience (but) the wine festival was always one of the most fun,” Villafana says. “Researching and tasting the wines was always have a great time.”

Now he’s looking forward to coming back in April to attend it as a guest, for a change.

“It’ll be neat to be see it from the other side of the table,” he says.