The secret’s out

NTU’s culinary department becoming ‘too popular’

CROWNPOINT, N.M.

The Navajo Technical University program one instructor once called “the best-kept secret in New Mexico” is no longer a secret.

The university’s culinary arts program is overflowing with students — 157 this semester. The training kitchen built just five years ago is already “getting pretty cramped,” said instructor Joe Chapa.

Robert Witte, a former restaurant owner who was hired to revive the faltering program in 1999, said the reason is simple: “People are realizing they can get the same education they’d pay $20,000 for in Scottsdale, for $3,500 per year. And not have to leave their homes.”

When Witte started, there were three students enrolled in culinary arts.

“I was teaching in a space no bigger than this room,” he said, referring to the meeting room in the president’s office.

Witte lobbied for and got the present building, then lobbied the state of New Mexico for a grant for state-of-the-art cooking equipment to fill it.

“It’s nice when you have an administration you can approach with an idea, and they say, ‘Go for it!’” Witte mentioned.

The program has not only grown in size but in reputation. Its students catered the 2002 Winter Olympics, Indian Day at the state legislature (twice) and a convention on Indian Gaming.

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