WSU Tech moving ahead with downtown culinary school, hires well-known chefs to run it
Plans are now moving forward for WSU Tech to open a culinary school in a historic downtown Wichita building, and the school has just hired a well-known foodie power couple to run it.
On Thursday, WSU Tech’s board of directors approved a letter of intent to move forward with plans to open a new culinary and hospitality program in the old Henry’s department store building at 124 S. Broadway. The school will be part of a project by developer Sudha Tokala, who is building an education complex that will take over four downtown buildings and include a private school of osteopathic medicine, student apartments and a Marriott hotel.
Heading the new culinary school, which would start classes in the fall pending approval by the Board of Regents, will be John and Lexi Michael — a married chef duo who helped build Butler Community College’s 8-year-old culinary and hospitality program, which has been based in the Boston Recreation Center near Lincoln and Woodlawn.
The two schools have been in discussions about possible partnerships since 2018, when Wichita State University put the kibosh on a Butler proposal to open a $4 million culinary arts school in the old brick fire station on South Topeka now known as Fireworx Wichita.
When the plan was announced, WSU objected in the form of a cease-and-desist letter, pointing out that Kansas law and Kansas Board of Regents’ policy requires approval by WSU and the Board of Regents for Butler to offer courses outside of its service area. WSU had been granting permission for the school to operate in Sedgwick County since 2012.
Butler quickly withdrew the proposal, and the two schools have since maintained they were involved in ongoing talks about working together.
But those discussions have ended, said WSU Tech President Sheree Utash, and WSU Tech will be moving forward with its own program. Butler’s program will have to leave Sedgwick County and vacate the Boston Rec building by July of 2021, she said.
“We’re going to go our separate ways,” Utash said. “We’ve explored that and I think that we’ve made the collective decision that this is the best direction for all of us.”
Butler President Kim Krull said earlier this week that the school wished the Michaels well and that Butler was looking at options for new faculty members to teach in the spring. The school has “other options” for where to offer their classes after July, she said.
“We have a long-standing and respected culinary arts and hospitality management program, and we’re going to continue to provide outstanding training and educational experiences for our students,” she said.
Food hall, rooftop deck
Utash said that construction should start this spring on the 45,000-square-foot Henry’s building and that the new facility should be open by August 2022.
But classes will start sooner. WSU Tech will start offering hospitality and event management courses this spring, and pending Board of Regents’ approval, culinary classes could start in August. The school would find a temporary location to house the program until the Henry’s renovations are complete.
WSU Tech plans to submit its plan for a culinary arts program to the Regents this spring, and the board should give its answer within 60 days, Utash said.
When renovations are complete, the old Henry’s building will feature not only kitchens and classroom space for the program but also a food hall, where the public could dine on items prepared by the students, Utash said. A small coffee or gelato shop also could be added.
There will also be a rooftop event center that organizations could rent and use the students as caterers.
“I’m super excited about this,” Utash said. “Anyone who has been in Wichita or is a lifelong Wichitan remembers the magnificence of the Henry’s building, they remember at Christmas time walking into the Henry’s building.”
The historical look of the building will be preserved on the outside, Utash said, and the interior will be renovated to suit the needs of the program.
John Michael, who has been with the Butler program since its start in 2012, will be the director of the school. Lexi Michael will be the school’s executive chef and department chair overseeing programming. They’ll likely be able to hire two more instructors for the school, Utash said.
Lexi Michael has been teaching adjunct classes at Butler since 2016 and started as a full-time instructor during the 2017/2018 school year. She’d recently taken over as lead instructor of both hospitality management and culinary arts while John pursued his master’s degree in food business through the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
Both are culinary school graduates themselves, holding degrees from the Culinary Institute of America. Between them, they have more than 50 years of experience in the hospitality industry and have worked in cafes, restaurants, hotels and wine bars across the country.
They submitted their resignations to Butler last week.
John Michael said that having a strong culinary program in a city can improve its restaurant scene. He watched it happen as a young chef living in North Carolina.
Charlotte wasn’t much of a food town until Johnson & Wales opened a school there. Now, Charlotte is “one of the coolest food towns you can go to,” he said.
“Where we’re at right now in Wichita’s food scene, I feel like we’ve made tremendous progress in the last decade,” he said. “But when communities have really great culinary schools, it really does make a big difference.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 11:46 AM.
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