Steinbrenner’s Culinary Arts program has been ranked as one of the best in the area since its creation by Chef Phil Meola a few years ago. Through the program, students have been able to get work experience that will help them going into their future careers and pursuing other opportunities. A major contributor to this program has been the Gonzmart family.
The Gonzmarts are a well-known local family who owns both the Columbia Restauraunt in Ybor City and the Ulele grill. They saw potential in the culinary program at Steinbrenner and have helped support it throughout its history. They continually offer internships to Steinbrenner culinary students, and in some cases, hire them as full time or part time employees. One such employee is Steinbrenner senior, Dylan Tyler, who currently works as an employee at Ulele.
“Our school does a lot of events with them, helping Ulele with catering and stuff like that, so they saw me a lot at those events and after a few times, offered me an internship. I interned throughout the summer and then they decided to hire me,” said Tyler.
The Gonzmarts pay for some scholarships to the Culinary Institute of America college in New York to help kids further their culinary educations.
Through the Future Chefs program,students are able to get internships at places like the Columbia Restaurant, Ulele, the Refinery, 717 South and Edison, as well as the Straz Center. This helps the students get real world experience in actual kitchens, and gives them the opportunity to improve their skills.
“Our culinary program is great because just having Chef Meola and Chef Walesheck as my instructors, I get $5,000 dollars off a year in tuition,” said Tyler,” The Gonzmarts have helped me so much, because without them I wouldn’t have the experience of working at Ulele. They have given everyone in the program great opportunities and are extremely generous with everything.”
