Culinary student Joan Mary Jablonoski
(Dinner at the Jablonoski house, as she recalled, was “feeding time at the zoo.”) Meals were basic Irish (meat and potatoes), Italian, and Polish (her grandfather’s pierogis remain unmatched). Yet at an early age, she knew she was destined for a culinary career. J: I’ve always been a foodie. I started helping my mom in the kitchen when I was old enough to hold a knife and not cut myself – 7 or 8 years old. While other kids were watching Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, I was glued to the Food Network. I loved being in the kitchen. If I could have, I would have put my bed in there. FNE: And so when did you seriously consider food as a career and what made you chose Johnson & Wales? J: I had an uncle who used to come to Rhode Island on business and he first told me about Johnson & Wales when I was in the third grade. By fifth grade, I made my dad a spreadsheet, with the tuition costs and everything, on how I needed to go there. He showed it to me when I left for RI in 2010 to start school. FNE: Talk about those first couple of years. J: We have trimesters, with one academic trimester, with math, science, writing – the usual core courses. The other trimesters are labs, where you
work in the kitchen. Freshman year, you learn a lot of the fundamentals: the different cuts of meat, how to butcher an animal, the flavors, the seasonings, and you have to follow recipes. Sophomore year, you use recipes as a guide, but are encouraged to experiment on your own to suit your tastes. FNE: What steered you towards the Culinary Nutrition program? J: I knew I wanted to get a bachelor’s
degree instead of just doing a two year associates’ and becoming a chef. I wanted something more to fall back on. You have to take Nutrition 101 as a core course, and that’s where I first began to understand what nutrition was, how it was a lifestyle, and how you could take these awesome dishes, like an alfredo sauce, and completely change them using a third of the fat, but still have them taste the same. continued on page 46
Foodies of New England
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