Aspiring chefs around the region will be the primary beneficiaries of the $1 million gift from a local couple to the Central Oregon Community College Foundation.

The gift from Frank and Julie Jungers, announced Saturday night at the ”Meal of the Year,” an annual foundation fundraiser, is the second-largest contribution in the college’s history. It is surpassed only by the $2.8 million donation made in March 2005, by late couple Robert and Margaret Turner.

”It’s very exciting, and it really touches us deeply to see the generosity and commitment of the Jungers,” COCC President Jim Middleton said.

The Jungers, who were honored Saturday for their longtime support of the foundation’s scholarship program, declined to be interviewed. They were chosen as honorees before they made the $1 million commitment.

Frank Jungers worked for the Arabian American Oil Company, commonly known as Aramco, for nearly 30 years before retiring as its CEO and chairman.

The couple, who have been part-time Central Oregon residents for 20 years, spend much of their time traveling, according to a release from the college.

They first became connected with the college 10 years ago when Julie Junger took a photography course at COCC and have been staunch supporters since then, according to the release.

Middleton said the Jungers were interested in contributing to improve the excellence of programs at COCC, and the push to ramp up the culinary program occurred at just the right time.

The Jungers told COCC officials they are committed to higher education, and they support the college because of the role it plays in Central Oregon.

Their donation kicks off a campaign by the foundation to raise a minimum of $3.5 million, over the next three years, to build a quality instructional facility for the culinary program, according to campaign chairwoman Eileen McLellan. The college plans to break ground in 2011.

Half of the Jungers’ contribution is an outright gift, while the other half is set up as a ”challenge grant,” where they will match donations up to $500,000.

The new building is crucial to the college’s plan to expand its existing program, known as the Cascade Culinary Institute, and transform it into a top-flight degree program that will attract culinary students from around the nation, McLellan said. The college has offered a culinary program since 1994.

Currently, many students earn a one-year certificate, though the college also offers a two-year culinary management degree. Middleton said the college might partner with Oregon State University-Cascades campus to offer a hospitality management degree.

McLellan – who took one year of culinary classes at COCC herself – said there are always more students applying to the program than the 20 to 30 spots available each year.

The new building is expected to have the capacity for a maximum of 100 students. The college is projecting it can boost enrollment to about 80 students a year, Middleton said.

The facility will include two kitchens, one for baking and one for other hot foods; locker rooms for the students; a loading dock for food deliveries; dry and refrigerated food storage areas and a demonstration theater where students can watch professional chefs prepare dishes, McLellan said.

She said the current facility is very small, with only one oven and limited storage space. There are no locker rooms and no area specifically for demonstrations. Instead, students crowd around, looking over each others’ shoulders, when the chef demonstrates a technique.

The new building will also include a fully operational restaurant, open to the public, to allow students to cook in a real-world environment and learn to work with wait staff and other restaurant employees.

”To (students), the restaurant is their lab and they desperately need that lab before they go into the work force,” McLellan said. ”They need to make their mistakes there, press the envelope there, try their experiments there.”

Middleton said he believes the thriving Central Oregon restaurant industry will mean ongoing demand for skilled culinary program graduates.

”The growth in the industry is, for us, an opportunity but also an obligation,” he said. ”We are tremendously well-situated to have that kind of program here, as opposed to some other area,” he said.

Destination resorts, hotels and retirement communities eyeing Central Oregon all need highly skilled culinary staff, Middleton said.

The college plans to track the program to prevent saturating the local market with an oversupply of culinary graduates.

McLellan said she believes the local restaurant industry will benefit immensely.

”When you have a professionally educated and practically trained culinarian, someone that’s gone to culinary school, that means they’re passionate about that career, they’re passionate about that field,” she said. ”It’s a stable employee.”

McLellan and Middleton also envisioned the new culinary building as a place where residents can learn more about basic cooking.

”The current culinary building, it’s not a teaching environment for the community,” McLellan said. ”The donors say, ‘I’d love to give but can I take cooking classes, too?’ So I guess there’s a need for people who just want to learn how to cook better.”

Middleton said the college might also bring in guest chefs or master chefs who can run professional development workshops for people already in the restaurant field.

He said the importance of the gift to the culinary program and the college as a whole is tremendous.

”The Jungers’ gift makes this dream a real possibility and a reality now, rather than a hope or a dream,” Middleton said. ”This means we are well on our way.”

For more information

To learn more about the culinary campaign or to contribute, contact the Central Oregon Community College Foundation at 383-7225 or go to http://foundation.cocc.edu.