L. A. to Get 5% of Cooking School’s Gross Receipts : Griffith Park: The institute must also give six scholarships and make low-interest tuition loans available to its future chefs.

Los Angeles parks authorities decided Monday to take a bite out of the money made by a culinary school as it trains chefs at the city-owned equestrian center in Griffith Park.

The city’s Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners voted to require Los Angeles Equestrian Center Inc., which holds an exclusive lease to operate the center, to turn over 5% of the gross receipts made by the Los Angeles International Culinary Institute.

The institute, which opened last month, has subleased space from LAEC to operate a snack bar, restaurant and cooking school.

The board Monday also required the school to provide scholarships for at least six disadvantaged students and make low-interest tuition loans available to its future chefs. The action follows criticism from City Council members, who questioned whether parks negotiators obtained acceptable financial terms from LAEC when they gave the company exclusive rights to operate the equestrian center in May, 1990.

Councilman Joel Wachs has complained that when negotiators agreed to a flat-fee arrangement with LAEC, amounting to $350,000 over five years, they were unaware of the profits LAEC would earn from the cooking school and other possible subtenants.

After hearing Wachs’ concerns, the parks board decided in August to negotiate a cut of the school’s payments to LAEC.

The board’s legal adviser, Senior Assistant City Atty. Pete Echeverria, said LAEC would have received 10% of the cooking school’s gross receipts under its sublease agreement. Under the new agreement approved Monday by the board, the city and LAEC will split the 10%.

The agreement to split proceeds from the sublease to the school must still be approved by the City Council, Echeverria said.

Echeverria could not project how much money the city will make from the school, which charges $13,500 for an 18-month program on restaurant cooking and management. Run by former Century Plaza Hotel executive chef Raimund Hofmeister, the school will have no more than 48 full-time students at a time, according to city records.

Kenneth Mowry, the equestrian center’s general manager, did not object to the agreement giving the city half the proceeds his company was to receive from the cooking school.

“We feel comfortable,” he told the parks board. He said the culinary school is “a very necessary addition to the center. It will not only enhance the center but all of Los Angeles.”