THUNDER BAY – Several St. Ignatius High School students in the specialist high skills major program traded their classroom for a kitchen for a day in order to learn what it takes to make it in the restaurant world.
The experience, at Chanterelle on Park, also earned them their cook/line cook as well as their event co-ordination certificates, giving them a leg up should they look for work in the field or decide to pursue culinary studies in college after they graduate.
Brianna Dupuis-Hynes, an 18-year-old Grade 12 student, said she loves to cook and work with others, and thought the program would be a great way to get better at both.
Educationally, it’s skills she can use just about every day for the rest of her life.
“It educates me on how to prepare foods for when I’m older, how to work with people in a classroom and others as a team,” she said.
The experience dovetails with the food and nutrition course she’s taken at St. Ignatius, learning how to cook healthily and safely, and it helps her escape the traditional classroom from time to time and get hands-on learning rather than reading from a textbook.
“It’s a lot of fun, than doing all that work all the time, but we do have to do work and learn about it too,” she said, adding she is interested possibly in a career in the kitchen, but like most teenagers, she’s not exactly sure where her future career path lies.
Either way, it was a great learning experience.
“It’s different that we’re in an actual kitchen that people use, learning more techniques and seeing all the different ways that (chef Franco Masdea) was showing us,” Dupuis-Hynes said.
“I learned that you should season your (food) after your sauce is done, because it evaporates.”
Masdea taught them a variety of techniques, getting the teens to cook a pasta dish to perfection.
He said cooking is a skill that all students should have and also a great way to encourage them to enter a specialized trade that is always in need of new blood.
Students also get their Smart Serve and WHMIS certifications, further enhancing their resumes should a culinary career be in the offing.
“Today ... was making sure they know what they need to have ready when they start cooking. That was the whole thing, from blanching their noodles to chopping their vegetables to making sure they had a hot pan to cook in,” said Masdea, who also teaches at Confederation College.
“Having this as the backing to go into the culinary program, it makes it that much easier for them.”
