If You CAN Do, Teach

A Q&A with Joel Papcun of the Great Lakes Culinary Institute

By Jillian Manning | Feb. 12, 2022

For almost 20 years, Joel Papcun has been preparing the next generation of chefs at Northwestern Michigan College’s Great Lakes Culinary Institute. He has not only trained and graduated hundreds of students into the culinary industry but also opened the institute’s teaching restaurant, Lobdell’s.

For those that haven’t yet been, perhaps the best indication of the student-run restaurant’s success and popularity is that it opened last week, Feb. 9, for the first of its spring semester lunches; as of Feb. 8, reservations for any date this spring were already full. (Optimistic would-be diners, you can still sign on to the waiting list at 231-995-3120.)

Before Papcun became an instructor of gastronomical arts, he was perfecting the art himself. He began with a summer job at a Detroit pizza parlor and would eventually go on to serve as chef at Detroit’s renowned Trattoria Andiamo, as well as Shanty Creek in Bellaire, and TraVino (now McGee’s 72) in Traverse City.

We caught up with Papcun in advance of Lobdell’s much-anticipated spring opening to talk about his journey north, and how he’s helped put NMC’s culinary program — and northern Michigan’s reputation as a foodie town — on the map. 

Northern Express: How did you get your start in the culinary arts? Did you always love to cook growing up, or was it a career you fell into along the way?

Joel Papcun: I have enjoyed cooking since I was very young. My earliest memories take me back to when I was eight or nine years old, helping my mother in the kitchen. I have eight siblings, so it was a nonstop job keeping food on the table.

At 13, I began working in a small pizzeria on the east side of Detroit. I was planning on being a commercial pilot at the time. My boss mentioned that he was going to teach me how to cook and that I would never go hungry. Shortly after that is when I knew what I wanted to do as a career. I have never looked back.

NE: Why did you make the leap from a commercial kitchen to teaching?

JP: I called a fellow chef in the Detroit area, who happened to be a culinary arts instructor at Macomb County Community College. I was looking for interns and quality culinary students to work for me at Trattoria Andiamo in early 1995. After a brief telephone conversation, he suggested that I may enjoy teaching culinary and laid out a basic plan of action to move towards that end. I quickly set a ten-year goal to be teaching at a collegiate level.

I began teaching at Golightly CTC in Detroit as a ‘special instructor’ in the butcher shop where high school students learned the journeyman butcher trade. I worked with a butcher in the class and quickly learned that teaching was very different than being a ‘trainer’ in a restaurant. The early experience … provided direction and assurance of my new career path. I really loved teaching and learning each day.

NE: What led you to NMC?

JP: Through my personal travels, and having a brother living in northwest Michigan for years, I was familiar with NMC and the culinary arts program. It became a goal of mine to move my wife and family Up North and to end up at NMC as a full-time culinary instructor.

In 2000, Chef Fred Laughlin, director of the NMC culinary program approached me about teaching at NMC as an adjunct instructor. I jumped at the chance. I began teaching part-time at NMC in the fall of 2000. I continued teaching as an adjunct instructor until 2002, when my culinary industry job became an executive chef opportunity for the Schelde corporation. It was at that time that the culinary arts program was being considered for a space at the new Great Lakes Campus. I [opened] the new TraVino restaurant and applied for a newly created full-time faculty position at NMC. I was hired and began teaching in fall of 2003.

NE: GLCI was named the best culinary school in the Midwest for 2022 by Intelligent.com. What do you think makes it stand out? 

JP: We have a number of opportunities that set us apart: small class sizes, quality learning labs, and industry-trained faculty that promote a great learning atmosphere. Culinary faculty and staff are the primary advisors for our students, this, in turn, helps us to guide the student through the beginning stages of their culinary career.

NE: What are your classes like?

JP: I teach the CUL 295, the capstone course of the Great Lakes Culinary Institute culinary track. Our class meets four days a week, six hours a day. The students plan, develop, open, and operate Lobdell’s.

NE: What are some of the major differences between life in the kitchen and life in the classroom?

JP: Commercial kitchens require skilled, efficient staff. In a culinary training situation, the emphasis is on skill-building and knowledge base development. Speed will increase with experience and practice.

NE: What is a favorite piece of advice you pass along to your class?

JP: Always make quality, upward career moves. Focus on either substantially more responsibilities and management opportunities, or compensation.

NE: What challenges lie ahead in the future careers for your students?

JP: Many restaurants have had to streamline processes and limit services during the last two years. [Some] of the quality restaurant job opportunities have been diminished to little more than a “fast-food” situation. Without quality learning experiences, I feel many young culinarians will become disillusioned and perhaps fall away from the career path that drove their passion to begin with.

NE: What about opportunities? What can students look forward to when they graduate?

JP: The culinary industry is in a growth phase that is nearly limitless in scope. Food and medicine — or food as medicine — offers many new opportunities that were unheard of 20 years ago. The food industry had to adjust to the changes caused by the ongoing pandemic, in turn offering many new and creative opportunities.