Encino : Culinary School Gets Cooking at New Site

After months of battling his former landlord, Chef Raimund Hofmeister of the Los Angeles Culinary Institute says he is happy to return to what he does best: training future chefs.

The cooking school reopened at a new location on Ventura Boulevard and White Oak Avenue in mid-December, after being unceremoniously booted out of its previous site, the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank. The school reopened its restaurant, the Classroom, on Jan. 12.

Hofmeister, who runs the institute, said school officials and students are pleased with their new quarters, a sand-colored contemporary building with turquoise accents, located in the Wall Street Village shopping center at 17815 Ventura Blvd.

“It’s a terrific facility, much better than what we had before,” Hofmeister said. “We didn’t have a baking facility before, and now we have a fully equipped bakery.” He was referring to Panos Bakery, which the school co-owns, seven blocks to the east on Ventura.

Enrollment at the school has dropped slightly, from 120 at its previous location to its current roll of 110 students. The school offers an 18-month program for full-time students who aspire to become professional chefs. It is the students, led by Hofmeister, whose culinary creations supply the restaurant, open Friday through Sunday for lunch and dinner.

On Nov. 22, 1995, the equestrian center evicted the culinary school--one of two in the Los Angeles area--saying that it had not paid rent for about a year. Hofmeister confirmed that the school had not paid its rent during that time, but blamed a business dispute over lease terms and failure of the management to make repairs at the facility.

Although the legal wranglings are still underway, culinary institute officials say they are glad to turn their attention to more positive pursuits: running and expanding their school.

The combined space of the school, restaurant and bakery is 10,500 square feet--roughly the same size as their previous digs.

Hofmeister said he would like to open another location in downtown Los Angeles by the middle of this year.

“It’s a new year, it’s a new beginning,” Hofmeister said.