A search for its replacement has been under way for some time, but so far none has been found.
Riley is not naming names, but he says talks are under way with a few prospects, including representatives of one of the nation's top cooking institutions who came to Charleston to tour possible sites.
"We're working hard and diligently, and I'm confident that we'll be successful," Riley said.
The mayor last week said his talks were "proceeding well" and that the schools that have shown the most interest are doing their "due diligence."
"They are looking into the investment and scale and things like that," the mayor said.
To help him with his pitch to prospects, Riley recruited a few local restaurant heavyweights, including Hank Holliday, owner of Planters Inn, Hank's Seafood and Peninsula Grill, and Tom Parsell, president of the company that owns Magnolias, Blossom Cafe and Cypress Lowcountry Grille.
While inviting schools to meet and take a look is one thing, getting a commitment is another.
"I felt like after that meeting, and when I found out what (Riley) was offering them locale-wise, I kind of thought the deal would be announced, but who knows what the process is," Parsell said.
Beyond finding what the city hopes is a suitable location, that process included identifying schools most likely to expand and preparing answers to questions about the level of investment that would be required and incentives that might be available.
According to Parsell, the school that expressed the most interest has a reputation "way, way above" Johnson & Wales.
That leaves a pretty narrow field that includes the Culinary Institute of America, a 58-year-old school with facilities in Hyde Park, N.Y., and Napa Valley, Calif.
A spokesman for the school, Jeff Levine, said it has no plans to expand to Charleston, but is "always open to ideas."
Another possibility is Le Cordon Bleu, a Paris-based institution with 13 facilities worldwide that has set the bar on culinary training for about 110 years. Cordon Bleu, however, opened an Atlanta facility in October and it is unlikely that it would open another campus so close by. A campus in New York is its only other U.S. locale.
The Arts Institutes, a nationwide chain with culinary schools in 18 U.S. cities including Charlotte and Atlanta, also denied any plans to expand to Charleston.
Still, Riley has said the odds of luring a new, top-notch school are "100 percent."
Demand for competent chefs has ballooned in the last 20 years, and culinary institutions In 1989, there were about 360 cooking school programs in the United States, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics; today there are more than 1,000. There are about 3 million food-prep workers, compared with 3.4 million cashiers, 2.2 million registered nurses and 1.4 million elementary school teachers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Job openings in the profession are supposed to outpace most other occupations through 2012, as growth in two-income households leads more families to dine out.
Charleston's restaurant industry has grown even more quickly than the rest of the nation, thanks in part to Johnson & Wales. The institution has played a huge role in cultivating a cluster of big-name local eateries since it first enrolled 88 students here in 1984.
Johnson & Wales students working their way through school have provided what Parsell calls the "nuts and bolts" of downtown kitchens. A sizable percentage of the city's culinary workhorses, the folks chopping, prepping and taking orders from the well-known white-coated chefs, are either active or former Johnson & Wales students.
About a quarter of the kitchen staff at Magnolias, Blossom Cafe and Cypress Lowcountry Grille are pursuing degrees from the Providence-based institution. Another 15 percent to 20 percent are alumni, including top chefs Don Drake and Craig Diehl.
Chef Patrick Owens, who launched Langdon's restaurant in Mount Pleasant to rave reviews in August, has two people on his kitchen line, both of whom were trained at Johnson & Wales.
All of this explains why in June 2002, when the institution announced that it was moving to Charlotte (and pocketing a handful of big incentives), an ominous ripple went through the culinary community.
Riley, who had promised that something would be worked out to keep the school, pledged to sign a replacement of equal or greater clout.
Johnson & Wales was very close to staying. Business was booming for the school. Local President Stephen Parker had an ambitious plan to offer courses in other disciplines, and in January 2002, just a few months before the announcement of its move, student applications were up 38 percent. The success of Johnson & Wales alumni, including local cooking icons Robert Carter (Peninsula Grill) and Diehl (Cypress Lowcountry Grill) and national celebrities such as Emeril Lagasse, helped drive that interest.
But the school's site, a 200,000-square-foot former cigar factory, was getting cramped. Parking was a problem, and about a third of the students lived across the bridge in West Ashley dorms. More space on the peninsula was hard to come by.
"It was getting to the point where it was difficult to attract students when they saw the facility," said Johnson & Wales Chief Financial Officer Tom Dwyer.
Johnson & Wales signed an option to buy the former Roper Hospital site in North Charleston, the new temporary home of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. But Dwyer noted that the site didn't sync with the university's pattern of placing its campuses in urban centers.
Nevertheless, the school was taking soil samples and trying to buy some additional offices from private-practice doctors in the area. It was shaping up to be a $60 million to $70 million project.
At that point, Charlotte officials rallied corporate support in their town and put an 11th-hour package on the table that got the attention of the university's top executives in Providence. John Tuomala, a Johnson & Wales alumnus and a recruiter at Compass Group's Charlotte headquarters, organized the city's business community and started making the pitch to Jack Yena, the university's president.
North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey, along with Maverick Southern Kitchen's Dick Elliott and Steve Dykes, economic development director for Charleston County, flew to Providence to meet with university officials. (Because the Roper site was in North Charleston, Riley no longer had any jurisdiction.)
In the end, Charlotte, and the big corporations that call it home, simply offered a much sweeter deal. The state lined up $10 million in economic-development grants. The city sold the university 6 acres of land for $1 million, about $6.5 million less than market value. Bank of America, which is based in Charlotte, donated another 3 acres and leased space in its buildings for a reduced rate. And Compass Group North America, a giant food-service contractor, contributed a one-time $2 million gift to the school.
Dwyer and other Johnson & Wales executives also felt that Charlotte had a bigger and younger pool of potential students to recruit from and would be a better place to expand the university's business-management degree programs.
"There was nothing that the people in Charleston could have done differently," Dwyer said. "We didn't get too deeply into incentives (in Charleston), because we didn't want to turn this into a bidding war. The main thing was the space to build. In Charleston, there really is no place you can build a 170,000-square-foot structure."
The Charlotte facility will cost about $100 million, according to Dwyer. It has 1,200 students enrolled for its opening this fall.
Now time is drawing short for Charleston. Johnson & Wales stopped recruiting students to its campus here last August, according to Parker. Professors already are moving to Charlotte. This fall, the institution will enroll about 750 students, compared with about 1,500 in 2003. The campus will close for good in 2006.
In a worst-case scenario, meaning no school is found to replace Johnson & Wales, the cost of stocking local kitchens with competent labor will surge in coming years, an increase that will affect the prices and possibly the quality of what's on the menu, depending on whether restaurateurs are willing to cough up more for talent.
"For the industry, it will definitely make everyone take a harder look at the people they value the most, ... the men and women who are the spine of their lines," said Louis Yuhasz, who owns Yuhasz Staffing Solutions, a local company that headhunts for area eateries. "A lot of eyes are going to be open looking for where the best deal is."
Donald Barickman, executive chef and part-owner in Magnolias, Blossom Cafe and Cypress, is hoping for the best, though he noted there already are signs of bidding wars erupting for talent.
Barickman, like many others in the area, is hoping that an ambitious plan by Trident Tech to boost hospitality enrollment will keep his kitchens supplied with plenty of "entry-level, groomable chefs," those in the cooking trenches.
The technical school hopes to boost hospitality enrollment from 350 to 1,000, and it's putting up a $27 million, 180,000-square-foot building with state-of-the-art kitchens to show prospects that it means business. Trident Tech also is hoping to offer a four-year culinary degree. Tuition will be around $2,000 a year, compared with about $18,000 at Johnson & Wales.
Some say the technical college's expansion plan, which was under way well before 2002, helped speed Johnson & Wales' departure. Others discount that notion.
"Our first priority right now, our strongest pillar, is Trident Tech," Barickman said. "They will continue to come first for me in this city because they've really stepped up to the plate, and they were even stepping up before this news (about Johnson & Wales) came about."
But Trident Tech doesn't have nearly the reputation that Johnson & Wales does with respect to turning out quality chefs. And its ambition isn't to create a culinary program with a national standing.
As the search continues, some in the industry believe that as long as Charleston can attract hard-working linemen, its restaurants will be in good hands, regardless of pedigree or lack thereof.
Robert Stehling, owner and head chef of Hominy Grill, believes school kitchens don't necessarily turn out quality. When he hires Johnson & Wales students, Stehling tries to select people who have worked in kitchens before, in restaurants, hotels or some other culinary setting.
"The school gives you a great deal of information really quickly, but if you're worried about getting a good grade on your test Friday, you're not absorbing the material," Stehling said. "I'm operating my own culinary school here in many ways."
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