Great cooking starts at the farm
This Mother’s Day — one of the busiest brunch days of the year — a crew of our externs spent the shift in the kitchen at Café Modern, the Wolfgang Puck Catering restaurant inside the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, working right alongside Chef Jett Mora. It was a perfect snapshot of what the back half of our program is really about: getting students into real, high-pressure professional kitchens long before they graduate.
What a culinary externship looks like at CSFTW
Our Professional Culinary Program culminates in a two-month externship in a working kitchen. We collaborate with more than 50 vetted local partners — restaurants, hotels, catering companies, private clubs, bakeries, and beyond — and we tailor every placement to the student. You’ll talk through your culinary focus with our Program Director, Ethan Starr, and we target opportunities that fit your strengths and goals, with resume and interview prep along the way so you can land the right one.
Why Café Modern is one of our favorite partners
Café Modern is operated by Wolfgang Puck Catering inside the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth — a striking, light-filled contemporary space. For an extern, it’s a rare three-in-one experience under a single roof: café and brunch service, high-volume catering, and upscale special events like weddings and galas. Students work in a fast-paced, polished environment, sharpening their technique and building a professional network at one of the city’s most respected culinary operations.
Learning from Chef Jett Mora
At Café Modern, our students work directly with Chef Jett Mora and his team. That mentorship is where classroom fundamentals turn into real-world instincts — timing on a busy line, consistency under pressure, and the standards that define a top-tier kitchen.
From externship to career
For a lot of our students, the relationship doesn’t end when the externship does. Many of our externs — and graduates — go on to work with Chef Jett Mora at Café Modern. That’s the whole point: an externship that isn’t just a box to check, but a genuine foot in the door to a career in Fort Worth’s food scene.
See it for yourself
Hands-on training at places like Café Modern is the heart of what makes our program different. If you want a culinary education that ends with you in a real professional kitchen, come see how it works.
