{"id":10428,"date":"2026-03-05T14:11:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T19:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/?p=10428"},"modified":"2026-03-11T09:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:20:00","slug":"culinary-arts-students-get-taste-of-fine-dining-at-yonos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/2026\/03\/05\/culinary-arts-students-get-taste-of-fine-dining-at-yonos\/","title":{"rendered":"Culinary Arts Students Get Taste of Fine Dining at Yono&#8217;s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two Culinary Arts students got a crash course in fine dining recently when they joined Professor Dave Campbell in the kitchen of Yono&#8217;s Restaurant in Albany for the Valentine&#8217;s Day dinner rush.<\/p>\n<p>Cerulean Acevedo (New Fairfield, CT) and Ryan Sanchez (Poughkeepsie, NY), both first-year students in their second semester, worked the kitchen from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on what is one of the busiest nights of the year for any restaurant. Neither had previously worked in a professional kitchen. The opportunity came through Campbell&#8217;s direct relationship with Yono&#8217;s, the kind of industry connection that opens doors for students well beyond the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>After some prep work to get acclimated, Ryan worked the fry station while Cerulean worked the garde manger station, preparing salads, tuna tartare, and other cold fare. When the dinner rush hit around 5:30 p.m., both students held their own through a packed Valentine&#8217;s Saturday night.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Working at Yono&#8217;s was a fantastic experience. The entire team was welcoming and helpful from the start,\u201d said Sanchez. \u201cWhat struck me most was how seamlessly the kitchen flowed during service. It was impressive to witness firsthand, and I truly enjoyed being part of their team for the day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Campbell said both performed well and came away from the experience energized. &#8220;You can teach someone knife skills and mise en place in a lab setting, but there&#8217;s nothing that prepares you for a full dining room like actually being in one,&#8221; Campbell said. &#8220;Ryan and Cerulean stepped into one of the best kitchens in town on one of the hardest nights of the year, and they delivered. That&#8217;s something they&#8217;ll carry with them for the rest of their careers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That kind of real-world immersion is central to what SUNY Cobleskill Ag &amp; Tech&#8217;s Culinary Arts program offers. With professional-grade facilities, hands-on instruction, and faculty who maintain active ties to the industry, students can hone their skills in environments that mirror the demands of the industry.<\/p>\n<p>Yono\u2019s has been a landmark of Capital Region fine dining since 1986, known for Chef Yono Purnomo&#8217;s distinctive blend of contemporary American cuisine with Indonesian influence. The restaurant has been nominated for the prestigious James Beard Award three times, and co-owned by Yono\u2019s son, restauranteur and wine director Dominick Purnomo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe students were a tremendous asset for service on Saturday night,\u201d said Dominick. \u201cI hope they enjoyed the experience in an immersive setting as much as we enjoyed having them here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ready to learn about our Culinary Arts program? <a href=\"https:\/\/cobleskill.edu\/academics\/programs\/business-food-service-agricultural-management\/Culinary-Arts.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click for more information.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"photonic-wp-stream photonic-stream \" id=\"photonic-wp-stream-1\">\n\n\t<div id=\"photonic-wp-stream-1-container\" class=\"title-display-tooltip photonic-level-1-container sizes-present photonic-random-layout photonic-thumbnail-effect-none\" data-photonic-platform=\"wp\" data-photonic-gallery-columns=\"auto\" data-photonic-query=\"order=ASC&amp;orderby=post__in&amp;id=10428&amp;itemtag=dl&amp;icontag=dt&amp;captiontag=dd&amp;size=thumbnail&amp;include=10435,10434&amp;exclude=&amp;link=post&amp;offset=0&amp;layout=random&amp;custom_classes=&amp;alignment=&amp;caption=title&amp;page=1&amp;count=-1&amp;thumb_size=thumbnail&amp;slide_size=large&amp;type=default&amp;style=random&amp;display=local&amp;columns=auto&amp;thumb_width=75&amp;thumb_height=75&amp;fx=slide&amp;controls=hide&amp;timeout=4000&amp;speed=1000&amp;ids=10435,10434&amp;0==&quot;thumbnail&amp;1=(150&amp;2=\u00d7&amp;3=150)&quot;&amp;main_size=large\">\n\t\t<figure class=\"photonic-level-1 photonic-thumb\" style=\"--dw: 800;--dh: 534\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-2-1024x683.jpg\" title=\"Yono\u2019s 2\" class=\"photonic-lb photonic-baguettebox baguettebox\" data-photonic-media-type=\"image\" data-content-type=\"image\" data-photonic-deep=\"gallery[photonic-wp-stream-1]\/10435\/\" data-title=\"&lt;a href=&apos;https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-2-scaled.jpg&apos; &gt;Yono\u2019s 2&lt;\/a&gt;\" data-photonic-tooltip=\"Yono\u2019s 2\">\n\t\t\t\t<img alt=\"Yono\u2019s 2\" class=\"random\" data-src=\"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-2-1024x683.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<figure class=\"photonic-level-1 photonic-thumb\" style=\"--dw: 800;--dh: 534\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-1024x683.jpg\" title=\"Yono\u2019s\" class=\"photonic-lb photonic-baguettebox baguettebox\" data-photonic-media-type=\"image\" data-content-type=\"image\" data-photonic-deep=\"gallery[photonic-wp-stream-1]\/10434\/\" data-title=\"&lt;a href=&apos;https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-scaled.jpg&apos; &gt;Yono\u2019s&lt;\/a&gt;\" data-photonic-tooltip=\"Yono\u2019s\">\n\t\t\t\t<img alt=\"Yono\u2019s\" class=\"random\" data-src=\"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-1024x683.jpg\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/figure>\n\n\t<\/div> <!-- .\/photonic-level-1-container -->\n\t<span><\/span>\n<\/div><!-- .photonic-stream or .photonic-panel -->\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Culinary Arts students got a crash course in fine dining recently when they joined Professor Dave Campbell in the kitchen of Yono&#8217;s Restaurant in Albany for the Valentine&#8217;s Day dinner rush. Cerulean Acevedo (New Fairfield, CT) and Ryan Sanchez (Poughkeepsie, NY), both first-year students in their second semester, worked the kitchen from 3 p.m. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[{"term_id":381,"name":"homepage","slug":"homepage","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":381,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":586,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":381,"category_count":586,"category_description":"","cat_name":"homepage","category_nicename":"homepage","category_parent":0},{"term_id":1850,"name":"Student News","slug":"student-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1850,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":11,"count":51,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1850,"category_count":51,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Student News","category_nicename":"student-news","category_parent":11}],"tags":[80,1368],"class_list":["post-10428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-student-news","tag-culinary-arts","tag-yonos"],"images":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-Header-150x150.png","medium":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-Header-300x169.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-Header-768x432.png","large":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-Header-1024x576.png","full":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-content\/uploads\/Yonos-Header.png"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10428"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10433,"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10428\/revisions\/10433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.cobleskill.edu\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}