2017 March PASO Magazine

Chef Phillip Riccomini is retiring
after 19 years at the Culinary Academy
Recently a new San Miguel
Community page was created on
Facebook. After reading several
comments on the page, a member of
our San Miguel Advisory Committee
created a questionnaire asking
what people would like to see done
By Chuck Desmond
With his life spent in or around a
kitchen, one of the most respected
and loved instructors in the entire Paso
Robles Education System is retiring.
His formal title is Executive Chef and
Culinary Specialist and Instructor. His
name is Phillip Riccomini. He’s a really
good guy, a disciplined educator and
has helped many hundreds of students
along their educational paths.
Chef Phillip grew up in the Hi-Desert
area of California as one of three sons
in a family restaurant business. Everyone
worked and by a very early age,
he was butchering as well as doing
dishes and the rest of the chores.
When his dad passed away, the sons
took over with Phillip as “Chef-incharge
of the kitchens.” In 1979, Phillip
knew he had to get better. He applied
to and was accepted at the CIA – Culinary
Institute of America – the most
famous one in Hyde Park, New York.
After graduation, he returned to the
family business which now included
three locations with a bakery and catering
service. The various disciplines
were falling into place.
So much so, that Phillip was recruited
to come to the Central Coast
as head chef for the Park Suites Hotel
which is now Embassy Suites. That
led to a stint at the SLO Country Club
where he met even more people that
would play important parts in his career
path. While Phillip could certainly
cook and bake and run a business, the
one element that was missing was a
more broad overview of the industry.
One garners that by selling in it. Of
course he had “sold” his customers on
their choice of meals and the like, but
he hadn’t sold to people like himself.
Through Kraft Foods and Sysco Food
Systems, that was about to change and
so would his career.
Around 1997, the El Paso de Robles
School District was planning to start a
culinary school as part of a master plan
of teaching more hands-on skills for
our youth. Rod Blackner was hired to
start the program including outfitting a
building with a kitchen and even finding
funds for the project and a revenue
stream that could help support it. Rod
was one of Phillip’s customers. During
sales calls and cups of coffee, Phillip
found out that Rod would be looking
for a certified chef as the head instructor.
Phillip also heard him say that the
person would need a certified teaching
credential; Phillip certainly did not have
that. However, without telling anyone,
Phillip went about getting that certification
and on a subsequent sales call, he
gave it to Rod and said, “I want to apply
for this job. I think I’d be great at it.”
During the interviewing cycle, where all
the applicants were in the same room
together, it was pretty clear that Phillip
had more credentials than the others
and he won the position. He believes
he is the first professional chef in the
State to also be a certified teacher.
In the Fall of 1998, the first class
was held. There were eight girls and
one boy in the 20,000 square foot facility
located at 1900 Golden Hill Rd.
Phillip had written the curriculum and
off he started. It’s hard to say who
learned more – the students in what
they learned about the food business
or the teacher figuring out how to control
a classroom. But, they all survived
the year and the next year, there were
35 students! These years, there are approximately
65 students packed into
4 semesters’ worth of work per school
year. Students are all Juniors or Seniors.
Add it all up and it comes to somewhere
near 1000 students have gone
through Paso’s Culinary Academy!
Let’s look at some of the accomplishments
and goals this man has had
at the Culinary Academy. Phillip has
taught for Cuesta’s North Campus and
today, the High School curriculum is so
good that it counts for College credit
at Cuesta on the way to earning an AA
degree. He has also taught in concert
with California Men’s Colony.
In 2005, the SKILLS USA contests
started producing winners from Paso in
the fields of baking, table service and hot
food preparation. Phillip says his goal
was always to help prepare students for
an intense career in the “real world with
real customers” where, fresh out of high
school on day-one, they could walk into
an interview opportunity and have skills
to get a job. That was his driving force of
being an educator. He fully knows that
some students may use their training as
a way to earn extra money or help defray
college expenses. He also knows some
will have lifelong careers in the food industry
– many have!
Chef Phillip wants all of Paso to
know how much he has appreciated
the support through his 19 years here.
He also says that after 54 years in the
San Miguel Reflections
By Lynne
Schmitz
or improved in the town. Their replies
were interesting in that the improvements
and assistance requested
echoed down the years to those
of us who have lived in and donated
our time to the town for many years.
People change but needs and wants
remain much the same. They want
to live in a clean and friendly environment.
They want laws enforced
both in town and the surrounding
Chef Phillip Riccomini and Kassidy Clayton
food business, it’s time to play in his
work shop, travel a bit and perhaps do
some consulting. “Basically anything
where I’m not on my feet every day.
My hips and knees are tired!”
If it’s been awhile visit the Cafe at
the Culinary academy and enjoy a
hearty, healthy, filling and rewarding
breakfast or lunch for under ten bucks
from Tuesday thru Friday from 8 a.m.
to 2 p.m.. You’ll be with 20-30 other
Roblans who know this treasure. And,
you’ll get to see our youth learning
valuable life-long skills.
Chef Phillip Riccomini, Bless you
and thank you for all these years of
true devotion to the futures of Paso
students! Well done, sir!
Working together for a better community
rural areas of the community. They
want safe places for children to play
and something for them to do. Over
all these intervening years, people
have banded together to provide
cleanliness, stability and safety.
Perusing newspapers from early
days, stories abound of the men
and women who formed improvement
clubs and societies to bring
higher standards of living to dusty
streets of rough and tumble towns.
Please see SAN MIGUEL page 38
36 PASO Magazine, March 2017