APTOS — For leisure reading, Eric Carter turns to the cookbooks of Thomas Keller, the famed restaurateur of the Michelin-starred French Laundry.

“I like reading them for the sheer pleasure,” Carter said of the tomes. “They’re challenging recipes, but they’re fun to read.”

The La Selva Beach resident’s reading choice makes sense, though.

Carter is director at Cabrillo College’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management program, shaping students into budding chefs in and out of the kitchen multiple days per week. He also helped reboot the community college’s Pino Alto Restaurant at the Sesnon House, where eager pupils get hands-on experience running the kitchen and floor Wednesday through Friday.

In the past few years, Carter has taken an initiative to increase student success. Since then, the number of students receiving degrees and certificate in Cabrillo’s culinary program has tripled.

While Carter has taught at Cabrillo for 17 years, his personal training in the kitchen was baptism by fire. He never studied at a culinary school, learning instead by working side jobs to support himself through college at San Jose State.

His first gig was at age 18 washing dishes at Villa Fontana Retirement Community in San Jose, though he doesn’t really flaunt it on his resume.

“It was dish-washing slash putting parsley on the plate for garnish,” Carter said with a laugh.

After that, he trained as a saute cook, where he cooked up food and sauces up to 60 hours per week.

“You need to multitask, and I like that,” Carter said. “I enjoy the pressure of cooking on the line.”

While Carter enjoyed working in various kitchens through the years, he decided to hang up his apron and start teaching when his four children started attending school. He had to take a pay cut, but the hours and summer vacations were ideal.

While demo kitchens and lecture halls are a change of pace, Carter said he fostered skills early on that he incorporates into his lesson plans. Last year, there were 265 students enrolled in the Culinary Arts program.

“You’re always teaching when you’re cooking,” Carter said. “I think you have to be a lot more patient as an educator, though.”

So what about cooking at home? Carter hits up the Aptos Farmers Market at Cabrillo College every Saturday, looking for fresh, local ingredients such as salmon and salad greens. It helps that his wife, who he met in his class, likes to cook as much as he does — she generally makes a salad every night, and he tackles the main course.

“I love to cook at home,” Carter said. “I cook at home more now than when I was a chef.”

Follow Sentinel reporter Bonnie Horgos on Twitter at Twitter.com/bhorgos