Training for Culinary Careers

TRAINING FOR

Culinary Careers

By Sophy Mott, Correspondent

PORTABELLA MUSHROOMS stuffed with goat cheese. Falafel scotch eggs. Baked ratatouille lasagna. Avocado-filled cherry tomatoes.

While any one of these enticing small plates would be at home on the menu of the hottest new “foodie” spot in town, they are coming instead from the sophomore students enrolled in the Institute of Culinary Arts at Eastside High School’s campus in Gainesville.

“Being organized in the kitchen – that’s been most helpful to me,” said Yuriko Calva as she readies her creation – chicken-fried mushrooms – for the deep fryer, after carefully rolling them in a savory mix of bread crumbs and spices.

A sophomore with aspirations of a culinary career, Yuriko was accepted into Eastside High’s highly competitive, four-year magnet program as a freshman.

On average, 85 students apply each year, with about

30 accepted – 75% selected by the school, and 25% by a lottery process. Students are under the training and watchful eye of Chef Pamela Bedford, director of the Institute.

Bedford, who proudly identifies as an “Alachua County public school kid,” began her teaching career at Eastside in 2007 after 12 years of industry experience. She manages Eastside’s commercial kitchen, serving room – even the program’s ice-carving club – with ease, sharing teaching duties with Chef Richard Vaughn, himself a 2007 graduate of the program where he now teaches.

“This program is a good motivator,” said Bedford. “Kids want to be in this program, so they’ll do whatever it takes to keep their grades up (in other classes) so they can come here and cook.”

Prepped veggies at the Culinary Arts Institute.

Maria Kremer of the Culinary Team selects edible flowers.

During a recent visit, several students were refining their best vegetarian recipes in preparation for an upcoming competition judged by Rotary Club members. The top five chosen dishes are served by Eastside students in the “Veggie Shack” at the popular Rotary Wild Game Feast benefit. Students with the top three dishes will also receive prize money.

Spring is quite possibly the busiest season for the Chefs and students because, along with their other work, they must get ready for national culinary competitions like the Annual ProStart® Culinary Team Competition in Orlando.

The Institute at Eastside High uses ProStart®, the career and technical education culinary program of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. This program relies upon the high school classroom and Professional Chefs to teach students culinary skills and restaurant management principles, as well as employability skills.

When students meet academic standards and participate in at least 400 hours of work experience, they are awarded the ProStart® National Certificate of Achievement that allows them to earn college credits along with scholarships, giving them the training needed to secure a job or, as with about 90% of Eastside Institute grads, continue their culinary education.

“Most of our students go on to Johnson & Wales University in Miami,” said Bedford. And often, she says, when they get there, the instructors will ask her students “Did you go to Eastside?” because

their knowledge is so high.

“I’ll have students come back and tell me “the first year was so easy” because of everything we learned here (at Eastside.)”

Working in the commercial food industry is commonly a highpaced, high-pressure environment, so earning a spot on the Institute’s prestigious Culinary Team is a perfect training ground.

Getting on the team itself is competitive; it consists of just four advanced students (juniors and seniors), and a team manager whose responsibilities, said Bedford, include serving as a “calming factor” during competitions.

Brianna Bedford, a member of the Culinary Team, has her sights set on a somewhat magical culinary career. “My goal right now is to be a chef for Disney,” she said.

The competitions Eastside students have access to bring tangible rewards beyond experience, too – past winners have brought home $30,000 in scholarship money.

Students entering the program often have little or no firsthand cooking knowledge, shares Chef Bedford, and that is just fine with her.

Class time typically follows the model of lecture first, then demo, then experience. A crucial part of what makes the Institute of Culinary Arts at Eastside so special is the experiential education factor.

“When I graduated from high school, there was no Food Network. Culinary school wasn’t a thing unless you looked for it,” says Bedford. Her father grew up on a farm in Oregon, and later worked for the University of Florida’s

Yuriko Calva is busy making chicken fried mushrooms.

Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences as an “experimental farmer” of sorts. She said she was lucky to have parents who guided her in her culinary career.

She is continually motivated to seek out ways to bring her students outside the classroom and gain knowledge about other aspects of the food industry.

The Institute’s success has even resulted in “celebrity chef ” status for 2011 graduate Noam Blitzer, who was crowned “Chopped Champion” on the 2018 season premiere of the popular cooking show, Chopped Champions.

After filming, he invited Bedford to be his dinner guest at the renowned James Beard House, a center for culinary arts in New York City. “When they call you and say come to the James Beard House, it’s all worth it,” said Bedford, who shows the episode to her current students for inspiration.

A taste of the chicken-fried mushrooms proves that the inspiration is working.