By Stephanie Llamas

Eager culinary students swarmed to interviewing tables at Riverside City College’s first ever Culinary Arts Job Fair on March 19 at RCC’s Culinary Arts Academy.

The job fair was organized by Meriel Anderson-McDade, employment placement coordinator, as a means to provide opprotunities for students to meet employers such as Pechanga, Soboba and San Manuel Casinos who sought out to fill open positions with recently graduated and soon-to-be graduate RCC culinary students.

Culinary Arts graduate Josh Johnson found the job fair to be beneficial to any aspiring culinary arts students who wants to work in the industry. 

“It is a way to get in touch with the students, it helps employers who are looking for somebody and want to review resumes and have one on one time with future employees,” Johnson said.

Cristian Villa-Senior, a recent Culinary Arts graduate, said he gained interview experience and an amazing outcome after interviewing with top companies such as La Volata Pizzeria and The Soup Shoppe.

“The experience was well needed and it helps in any career that you take in the kitchen,” Villa-Senior said. “It helps you start off on a better path to understand everything and all the equipment needed.”

The fair was intended to be an equal opportunity event for  employers to meet, inform and interview potential applicants who have either finished their two-year course or are in the process while job seeking students get the chance to ask questions, talk up their skills and make important connections that could possibly land them their career job.

“What I would like to come out of today’s event is not only every student seeking a job to get a job, but also to have our program receive that exposure. Our students are very talented,” Anderson-McDade said.