Blog learns that Chef Robert Barr’s contract with Community College will not be renewed after May 14; reasons for Community College’s non-renewal decision unclear
Sedona Center Culinary and Hospitality Program Director Robert K. Barr
The Blog has learned from reliable sources that the Culinary and Hospitality Program Director at the Sedona Culinary Institute, Robert K. Barr, has been notified by Yavapai Community College that his contract with the College will end May 14. According to those sources, the bad news for Sedona and the Verde Valley was delivered through then Sedona/Verde Dean Dr. Tina Redd sometime before she suddenly resigned.
Like Dr. Redd, Mr. Barr joined Yavapai Community College in 2018 with sterling credentials and experience. He had worked as instructor, restaurant owner and resort administrator and had served as personal chef to Ray Charles, Reba McEntire and former Vice President Dan Quayle.
He had 30 years’ of experience in every facet of food preparation, service and management. He is the recipient of the Presidential Medallion, as well as a High Gold Medal and multiple silver medals from the American Culinary Federation. In 1997 he was named as one of the Best Chefs in America by the Restaurant Hospitality Rating Bureau. He came to Yavapai Community College from the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Scottsdale, where he has served as Chef Instructor from 2015-2018.
The Blog believes that Mr. Barr was seeking to expand programs to teach higher level cooking skills at the Sedona facility but his efforts may not have been well received. He may also have agreed with others in the Sedona/Verde Valley region that to succeed as a destination facility, the Institute had to have four kitchens, more space, and adequate student housing. These views have not found favor with the previous and present Prescott based administrations.
The implications of the Community College decision to end its relationship with Mr. Barr are unclear. Those who are most distrustful of the Prescott Community College executives and their total control over the Sedona Culinary Institute fear that it may signal a first step in a slow but gradual effort to once again shutter the facility.
Everyone in Sedona and the Verde Valley will be carefully watching developments at the Institute over the next few months.