Restaurant Associates & Compass Group Welcome First “Head Brewer”

Just over one year ago, Restaurant Associates (RA) and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) came together at CIA’s Hyde Park, New York campus to create a partnership geared toward fostering creativity, innovation, and intrapreneurial thinking in the contract foodservice industry. Additionally, Restaurant Associates and Compass Group made a substantial commitment to provide scholarships to students in pursuit of their culinary degrees.

The centerpiece of their partnership is the CIA’s Student Commons and “The Egg” dining facility, which opened before the fall 2015 semester. The Student Commons features several cooking & dining venues, a high-volume production teaching kitchen, a “black box restaurant” in which students studying intrapraneurship can develop and market-test new restaurant concepts, and much more. Additionally, the Hyde Park campus has begun operating a fully functional brewery.

Last month, Restaurant Associates announced the hire of Hutch Kugeman to serve as the first head brewer for the Brooklyn Brewery at the CIA, a microbrewery that will begin producing beer this fall. Hutch will lead the production of four different beers to be sold across multiple dining venues on the CIA’s campus. Additionally, the brewery will serve as a classroom for bachelor’s level students taking “The Art and Science of Brewing.”

RA’s first Head Brewer was previously a middle school teacher before making his craft brewing hobby a full time job when he helped found the Crossroads Brewing Company in Athens, NY.