The John Folse Culinary Institute will begin construction this fall on a new $12 million facility located in the front of campus off of Bowie Road.

Executive director Randy Cheramie said the new building has been in the works since he arrived at Nicholls in 1999. Since then, he has watched the department grow as students continue to take an interest in culinary arts.

“We are busting at the seams,” Cheramie said. “This new building will put us all under one roof again.”

The Institute currently has 9,000 square feet of teaching space that is divided between Gouaux Hall and the Carmel Inn. The new building will expand teaching space to 33,000 square feet and increase enrollment from 305 students to 625 students.

“We never let the facility get in the way of our teaching,” Cheramie said, “but we are expecting a difference in how fast we can grow.”

Although there have been large budget cuts in recent years, the state approved $7.8 million in funding to kick-start the project.

The culinary program will have to raise the remainder of the money, but Cheramie said he expects to receive $2.2 million from “In-Kind” equipment donations.

“We are looking for equipment and will use it as a showroom for our donors’ best products,” he said. “Most of our equipment has been here for 15 years and needs to be replaced.”

Cheramie said the floor plans are designed for flow of instruction, and there is no wasted space anywhere in the building.

“Everything from the way food comes into the building and how it leaves as trash has been thought out,” he said.

The new building will include four classrooms, each designed for a specific course such as meat fabrication, soups and sauces, pastry and baking, and a general skills classroom for elective courses in foreign cuisines. A baby vegetable garden and herb garden will also be at the new site to provide the culinary program with fresh options.

There will also be a restaurant open to the public and a demo kitchen for community involvement where courses will be taught by instructors or visiting chefs on weekends during the fall and spring semesters.

Brooke Theriot, culinary arts sophomore from Houma, said she is excited she will be able to use the new building before she graduates.

“I’m more focused on pastry, and the new building will have a kitchen just for baking instead of all the cooking classes in one room,” she said. “The bigger kitchens will stop us from bumping into each other.”

Cheramie said the new building, which is expected to open fall 2013, will host tours for anyone who wants to learn more about the culinary program. The new building will also create the opportunity for Nicholls to host culinary competitions such as the regional level of the San Pellegrino Almost Famous Competition and the American Culinary Federation.

“It’s important to spread the word about the John Folse Culinary Institute because we have something special,” Cheramie said. “We hope to become the center of culinary education for the South central region.”