LAHTA
Lead HTA Barista Instructor Missy Mayhugh doesn’t know what she would do without coffee. She started working in cafes more than 20 years ago, and has advanced her career in the industry as a barista, manager, consultant and Specialty Coffee Association-certified trainer. An award-winning coffee mixologist and latte artist, Missy now serves as a Head Judge for the U.S. Barista Championships, “the U.S. Open for barista competitions,” and contributes to the Competitions Working Group, advancing training and standards for the industry.
Stepping away from the judges table, what is your specialty drink as a competitor?
“I’m most proud of my smoothie-like creation I based on a Blackstrap Betty cookie – using a single origin Brazil espresso with fresh apricots, molasses and a touch of brown sugar.”
What are the most fun days to teach in the HTA barista lab?
“Latte art, mock café drills and kitchen days when our students bake pastries and make sandwiches. I love helping our students learn time management, teamwork and good customer interaction, and how to parse flavors of coffee, like a sommelier identifies the back notes of wine.”
What are you excited about in leading the Barista/Latte Art Apprenticeship Program?
“Beyond teaching every day in our barista lab, I’m looking forward to visiting the graduates of our first cohort in the workplace, and seeing our students thrive in coffee houses around Los Angeles.”
What is your best tip for brewing coffee at home?
“Get a grinder. Always grind your coffee fresh, it makes a huge difference in the taste.”
What’s your coffee drink of choice?
‘When I’m at a coffee house, I’ll go for a mocha or cappuccino. But at home, it’s black coffee made with my French press, because a pour-over is tough on the open water. Yes – I live on the Mayflower, an actual pirate ship docked in the Newport Harbor. So maybe call me Pirate Ship Barista!”
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Hospitality Training Academy Unveiled New Culinary Training Facility in Koreatown, Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES, California – The Hospitality Training Academy (HTA) was proud to announce and the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art Culinary Training Facility. To celebrate, HTA hosted Ribbon Cutting and Community Buffet event on May 7, 2019. The HTA is proud to expand the reach of its programs through this new, fully equipped kitchen facility that will allow it to provide the most up-to-date, industry-recognized training to a broader and more diverse population due to its centralized location at the heart of Koreatown.
The celebration also marked the culmination of the HTA’s first Culinary Apprenticeship cohort at this Koreatown facility. The HTA Culinary Apprenticeship is an intensive 7-week training program registered with both the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and State of California Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS). After completing the training, participants will move on to work as apprentices and workers, as Line Cooks, at one of HTA’s 160 union employer-partners including luxury hotels and concessions at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The students prepared a buffet for the celebration to break bread with its 145 elected officials, guests and community partners.
Julie Su, Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, cut the ribbon along with other elected officials, including City of Santa Monica Councilmembers Terry O’Day and Greg Morena and Los Angeles Community College District Board Members Mike Fong and Scott Svonkin. UNITE HERE Local 11 Co-President Kurt Petersen; City of Los Angeles Workforce Development Board (WDB) Executive Director, Gregory Irish; Los Angeles County Workforce Development Aging & Community Services (WDACS) Acting Director, Otto Solorzano; HTA Chair Tom Walsh-Garcia and Executive Director Adine Forman ; and Faith and Community Empowerment (FACE) Executive Director Hyepin Im, were also present to show their support of HTA. These strong partnerships play an integral role in making the HTA’s programs successful.
About the Hospitality Training Academy
The Hospitality Training Academy provides job training and placement services to who are underserved and underrepresented in the hospitality industry, in partnership with UNITE HERE Local 11 and its 160 union employer-partners in order to support them through a path to gainful employment. The HTA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, a Taft-Hartley labor-management partnership, and the recipient of private foundation, and Federal, State, and local grants that allow it to do this work to serve Angelenos with barriers to employment and connect them to good, union jobs.
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The Hospitality Training Academy is Recognized During National Apprenticeship Week
From California Department of Industrial Relations Apprenticeship e-Newsletter:
“This year during National Apprenticeship Week (NAW), the City of Los Angeles presented a special commendation to the Hospitality Training Academy (HTA) recognizing their efforts to improve the lives of job seekers through non-traditional apprenticeships.”
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LA CityView Channel 35 debuted “Preparing for a Career in Hospitality,” on March 7, 2018, a 6-minute video sponsored by EWDD highlighting how aspiring chefs can receive culinary training through the City of Los Angeles Economic and Workforce Department and the Los Angeles Hospitality Training Academy (LAHTA).
The video includes testimonials from a successful LAHTA graduate who now works in the kitchen at the Sheraton Gateway LAX, along with interviews from executive chefs at area hotels and the Staples Center outlining opportunities in LA’s growing hospitality industry.
“Culinary arts is particularly exciting because it has no boundaries on age. Young or old, you are able to work in culinary arts,” said EWDD General Manager Jan Perry, who was also featured in the video. (more…)
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Business— Labor and Unions
Here’s the story of how a union helped a company
Updated: AUGUST 18, 2017 — 2:56 PM EDT
Damon Roundtree, 18, carefully removed charred skin from a roasted red pepper, slicing it into narrow strips.
That one simple act had ramifications well beyond embellishing a sandwich, which looked delicious: job readiness; opportunities for underemployed city minorities; union growth; union relevance; schools serving communities; employer savings on training; plus a crew of cooks, servers, bartenders, and dishwashers ready to work at a new Philadelphia International Airport restaurant.
Lots loaded onto that sandwich.
“To me, it’s a new start,” Roundtree said this week. As a teenager, he got into trouble. As a young father-to-be, he wants a career built on his passion for cooking. “It’s fun. It tastes good, and it keeps me occupied.”
CLEM MURRAY / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Wearing a black cap, Penny Greenberg, 62, the head of the culinary program at Dobbins Career and Technical Education High School, conducts a training program sponsored by hospitality union Unite Here as students gather around the stove.
On Tuesday, 75 graduates of the first class of the Unite Here Philadelphia Hospitality Academy will be honored at City Hall. Students range in age and capability from recent high school graduates such as Roundtree, a novice, to longtime chef and manager Anthony Cunningham, 53, who was laid off from his job at a Japanese restaurant in June.
“I’ve put in resumes, but I can’t afford to wait for a vacancy,” Cunningham said.
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