The new Community Culinary Pathways Program will give people who can’t afford culinary school a chance to move up the ladder faster.

Chef Jerome Picca has joined Great Bay’s Culinary Arts & Sustainable Foodways program, bringing decades of experience as a chef, owner, and educator.

SAN DIEGO — From starving on the streets, to preparing gourmet meals. A culinary program offered by Father Joe's Villages is giving aspiring chefs a new opportunity and Thursday was their graduation.

From the basement level of the Drake Hotel, the scent of gingerbread wafts through the air as pots and pans clank and the shoes of busy chefs shuffle across the kitchen floor. At the front of the ...