When Cathy Horton decided to start a new career in the food industry, she was quick to say yes to just about any opportunity that came her way. Write restaurant reviews? Sure. Cook for a wine dinner? Absolutely. How about work as a part-time chef at Sam’s Club and hand out free nibbles to shoppers? Yep, why not?

But it was when she got the chance to teach a private cooking class that she felt a spark of inspiration. “When I taught cooking classes, I saw the people in the class get excited about what they were doing,” Horton says.

These days, Horton oversees a lot of cooking classes. As chair of the Culinary Arts & Hospitality Management department at A-B Tech Community College, she helms an award-winning program that routinely punches above its weight class and turns out highly successful graduates. Her department includes A-B Tech’s popular culinary and baking courses, as well as its hospitality management program.

“I tell students all the time, ‘They can never take your education away from you,’” she says. And a primary mission among A-B Tech’s instructors is to impart practical knowledge, to teach students how to thrive in the day-to-day demands of restaurants, catering companies, bakeries, breweries, hotels and country clubs.

“A successful chef or baker knows more than just knife skills or how to develop a good palate,” she says. “We want them to have a sense of responsibility, time management, organization and leadership. We try to teach them how to be people that others want to work with and for.”

Horton decided in the mid aughts to pursue a job in restaurants, marking a mid-career shift after several years in the insurance business. She herself graduated from A-B Tech’s culinary program, earning her associate’s degree in 2008. “I went to A-B Tech thinking I’d just take a look at the courses they had—and when I left, I was enrolled in two classes.”

In many ways, the path made perfect sense because Horton had always loved to cook. As a child in Minnesota, she’d earned a spot of privilege in her grandmother’s kitchen, where she alone among the family was invited to help bake cakes. As a young adult, she eagerly awaited the arrival of new food magazines, trying to re-create the magic from the glossy pages when she hosted Sunday brunches for her family and friends.

“When it was time for me to create a second act, I knew I still really enjoyed cooking,” she says.

After graduating from A-B Tech, Horton accepted a job at a Hendersonville restaurant and was then hired by Season’s at Highland Lake, a top-rated restaurant in Flat Rock, eventually working her way to the role of senior restaurant manager. She then started teaching a few courses at A-B Tech and was recruited as chair in 2016.

The art of being a successful chef is so much more than knowing how to cook, Horton says. It’s also about navigating a highly competitive industry and doing well in a role that can be equal parts demanding and rewarding.

“There are lots of people who like to cook, but professional chefs have to be able to do so much more,” she says. “Like saving a disaster. If something goes wrong and you still have to cook for 200 people on a Saturday night, you have to figure it out: save a broken hollandaise or fix a demi glace, repair a dish that’s been oversalted.”

Every day within the classrooms of A-B Tech knowledge is imparted from instructors to students. And the apex of Horton’s experience as department chair occurs when that cumulative knowledge allows a student to jump-start a career of their dreams.

One student who made an impression on Horton enrolled in the school’s culinary program in his mid-40s after a few years in prison. “He told me his goal was to live at the beach. And today, he’s running a restaurant in Myrtle Beach and living his best life,” Horton says. “I still get phone calls from him and he stops by when he’s in town.”

Another student left a career in the military and information technology to launch a new chapter as a baker. Today, he’s fully employed in that field. Still another student hit a series of glass ceilings among the ranks of hotel managers, but earned a hospitality management degree and now works in top management.

“These are the moments I love,” she says. “Every day, I’m watching the next generation.”