Forty-eight laid-off fast-food cooks from the Los Angeles Airport Culinary Training Program had their graduation at LAX Friday.

Students, all of whom were former fry cooks and burger flippers, will be hired by local chefs, whose restaurants will populate the redeveloped LAX terminals.

A $4.11 billion modernization project at LAX includes the introduction of new and upscale restaurants at Terminal 4 and the Tom Bradley International Terminal. The new restaurants include Campanile, Border Grill, the Larder at Tavern, and Kogi BBQ.

“Wow, I did it,” said graduate Valencia Crain, 49. “I started it, and I did it.”

Crain was laid off from a food manufacturing company before she joined the program. She said it was very hard for her to find a job with no skill or certification. Her passion about cooking came from her love of catering. For the future, she wants to be a versatile chef who knows everything from the kitchen to the business, cooking to management. She thanked the program for giving her a second chance in her career.

“Now I have a future. I can move on,” Crain said.

Joe Waller, vice president of HMSHost, which manages the LAX food operations, said it was a personal moment for him. As the first person graduated from college in his family, he stressed the important of education.

“I’ve seen first hand how a little education can make a world of difference,” Waller said.

At the graduation, students were joined by a group of L.A.’s leading restaurateurs, whose establishments will be among those that open at the terminals later this year. Mark Peel, owner of Campanile and former fry-cook himself, said the challenge for the students from now on is to continue to grow. He asked them not to be complacent and keep learning.

“I learn something new everyday,” Peel said.

To give a preview to graduates and their families with a taste of what’s to come at LAX, Peel served saffron-pickled deviled eggs, smoked eggplant puree, and aged cheddar crostini. Border Grill chefs Susan Feiger and Mary Sue Milliken served ginger and aji Peruvian ceviche on plantain chips, and Ann Gentry of Real Food Daily offered a vegan oatmeal cookie and tempeh BLT. Amy Berman from Vanilla Bake Shop shared a delightful assortment of mini cupcakes.

Roy Choi, chef of Kogi BBQ, found similarity with the students since he started in a food truck himself. He never met them before, but he said it felt like seeing family.

“This is only the beginning,” Choi said, “This is one stage of their journeys, but it’s only one stage. It is like marshal art, and it takes a lot of stages.”

The LAX Culinary training program is a project of the Hospitality Training Academy, a non-profit labor-management trust, formed through a partnership of Unite Here Local 11 and leading Los Angeles hospitality employers. It was funded by the academy through a L.A. city grant of $225,000. L.A. Trade Tech and HMSHost developed the culinary curriculum to meet the needs of the new restaurants.

Adine Forman, executive director of the Hospitality Training Academy, said they want to change the dynamic of LAX by introducing the L.A. restaurants into the airport. The training focuses on preparing graduates for working at a fast pace in a high level restaurant. Airplane layovers will bring a lot of travelers to the restaurant, which requires the chefs to work very fast.

“Part of our goal is not just to make the food,” Forman said, “But to make it at a quick pace, at the pace of LAX.”

L.A. mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel showed her support to the program at the ceremony.

“This is the program that we should grow and expand,” Greuel said, “Having the public and private sectors, having the labor union and management coming together, and saying to individuals who lose their jobs, we are going to retrain them.”

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