Recent changes to Butler Community College’s Redler Institute of Culinary Arts have brought two new leadership positions to the facility.
Newest Director of Redler, Les Padzensky has years of experience within the industry and plans on putting students and their education first as he steps into this new role. Head Chef, Ethan Moulds is an experienced individual as well – graduating from Le Cordon Bleu, a prestigious culinary school in St. Louis, MO. The new dynamic duo plan to make Redler more student-oriented; providing them with enough knowledge to get jobs in the workforce.
Padzensky and Moulds now take over for former chefs Luis and Alicia Peña who would be departing their roles at Butler to continue their culinary adventures elsewhere.
“Alicia and I are extremely thankful for the amazing culinary and hospitality faculty we had the honor to work with and everyone involved in making this program a success," said Chef Luis Peña.
Padzensky comes to Redler with more than 30 years of management skills and ideas from working in the culinary and hospitality industry. Padzensky served on the Redler Institute Industry Advisory Commitee for three years – primarily giving advice to those in the industry. He is the only director in Butler’s entire history. To him, this job is a dream; there are a few people and committees along the way that made this possible for Padzensky.
“I also know a lot of these people really well [on the committee] - if I have a question about something, I’m not afraid to say, ‘I don’t know the answer’ or ‘Can you help me?’” Padzensky said.
Coming from a long family tradition of cooking in the kitchen and restaurants, new head chef Ethan Moulds built himself a reputation that traveled to across the country, teaching and cooking at William Sanomma and Big Cedar Lodge – soon finding his way to Butler.
Both new faculty members bring a lot to the table for this new chapter of Redler's; however, the dedication that both Padzensky and Moulds have towards students align perfectly with Butler’s morale.
“[We] have at least 800 [cookbooks] but now we have over a thousand. Anyone from the school can check them out [and] a majority of them came from donations so now anyone on any campus can check them out and deliver them right to the campus.” Moulds said.
Padzensky speaks for both himself and Moulds when saying,
“We could be involved in a ton of stuff and we would not have time to teach students probably. Our month of October is booked as far as we’re concerned; we’re doing one thing a week but the students need to feel comfortable that they’re gonna do this. ... “
With Butler’s ever-changing environment within its facilities and degree programs, students are able to be taught by the best in the industry – making faculty members highly evaluate the college’s success rates and opportunities post-graduation.
“It’s a process and we know the school expects certain things from the culinary department but at the same time we need to understand our jobs and make sure we give the students what they pay for.”