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Recipe for success By Melodie Woerman
Culinary Cornerstones looks a lot like other cooking schools. In 12 weeks of instruction, a trained chef teaches the basics of classic French cuisine, everything from the ingredients in hollandaise sauce to how to braise lamb shanks. Students wear standard cook’s garb of double-breasted white coats and black-and-white checked pants, and they never set foot in the kitchen without a tall paper chef’s hat. They learn the proper techniques for chopping and slicing and keep an instant-read thermometer handy to check for correct food temperatures. But Culinary Cornerstones isn’t like other cooking schools. It’s operated by Episcopal Community Services in Kansas City, is housed in the Community Kitchen at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral and recruits students other programs would never consider — people who have done time in prison or been homeless or suffer from significant emotional illness. Deacon Allen Ohlstein, who also serves at St. Paul’s, Leavenworth, oversees the program for ECS, a social service agency that serves the dioceses of Kansas and West Missouri in the metropolitan Kansas City area. He said he searched for students “who needed a unique chance to be in a positive environment and learn more than just cooking skills.” Culinary Cornerstones is the only offering of its kind in Kansas City, Ohlstein said. “There are plenty of programs for people who haven’t been in jail or homeless or are bipolar.” This one reaches out to people who are, in his words, “almost impossible to employ,” and gives them the skills to get and keep a job. But it’s more than just that. “It’s about redemption,” Ohlstein said. “Plain and simple, that’s the heart of Culinary Cornerstones.”
Prison time and homelessness Now there are two women and four men. Two of them have earned some college credits, while one spent only a little time in high school. Others have earned a GED. Several speak passionately about their Christian faith, and one is a Wiccan, a religion centered on reverence for the earth. Three have done time in prison, and two have been homeless. One said she could have been both but mostly was just lucky. The group has established an easy bond, spending three hours a day in classroom instruction together and another three hours in the kitchen. They refer to each other by the title “Chef” and the person’s first name. They hold each other accountable, too. Donovan gets hyper when he has too much caffeine, so the group has cut him off from his beloved Mountain Dew. Andrew, now seven months clean from a cocaine addiction, was caught with a bagful of candy bars, something he had pledged to give up. He handed them all in, asking if he could keep one bag of Skittles. The class said no.
Students are required to find themselves a restaurant internship for the second 12 weeks of the program, and several already have. Donovan works at Le Fou Frog, an upscale French bistro. Andrew works at McCormick and Schmick’s on the Country Club Plaza, starting as pantry cook with plans to move up quickly through the various food stations. Big Don — he had a stint as a semi-pro basketball player and looks like he could still play power forward — is the breakfast cook at the Aladdin Hotel. Theresa is considering job possibilities at both the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the swanky American Restaurant. Tiffany has her own catering business. Mark is looking at options. They learn from Jessica Bero, “Chef Jessica” to them, who Ohlstein hired to inaugurate the program. She’s a graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and has experience in restaurant kitchens and doing catering herself. She shows a lot of classroom poise for a 26-year-old who has to adapt to students with drug treatment appointments, parole officers and spotty transportation. She doesn’t have any specific training for the social aspects of her job, but she says as a single mother she understands their need for flexibility and tries to accommodate it as much as a demanding 12-week program can allow. She said some students have the reading and math skills of an elementary student, making it hard for them to grasp intricate French cooking terms or calculate fractions. Some can become “almost melodramatic” when frustrated by things they don’t understand, she said. She said most of her students are learning what it takes to not only find but also to keep a job, and few had ever imagined themselves in a real career. Some are developing their technical skills beautifully, Bero said, while others still work to interact with others and “keep their own tendencies at bay.” Throw in the struggles any professional kitchen faces — from food deliveries that don’t arrive on time to equipment that fails — and she said her day is never dull. “Over time you learn to expect the unexpected,” she said, “and really welcome the excitement of a curve ball.” New donors restart the program With money in hand, they hired Bero as the chef trainer. Ohlstein said other applicants were older and had more experience, but Bero was special. “She has a passion to make a difference,” he said. “She wants to help people change their lives, not just help teach them to cook.” She’s also Jewish, which Ohlstein says just adds to the eclectic nature of the group. Students even are learning a little about kosher cooking. ECS provides each student with their uniforms and the $85 textbook used in class. They loan each student a set of professional-grade knives and will offer them at a discount once they graduate. The program covers their certificates for food safety and handling and the cost of food. Ohlstein said whenever possible they use commodities provided to the Community Kitchen, where students do their hands-on training. Sometimes the two cross over, like when students practice slicing and chopping on vegetables the kitchen can use the next day in its 500 free hot lunches. ECS has to buy meat and other ingredients not on hand. The only drawback to the program’s shared kitchen is time, Bero said. While sharing space provides a restaurant-level facility and keeps the program connected to the Community Kitchen’ pool of potential recruits, it means students can’t get in to cook until lunch is served and cleaned up. Students enjoy the hands-on cooking experience, she said, and it would help their training to have more of it. But they still cover a lot of culinary territory. They’ve even catered half a dozen lunches for ECS-sponsored events, including one the second week of class. “We’ve made everything from curry chicken wraps to green chile enchiladas and mojito chicken,” Bero said. Their efforts have drawn rave reviews. People can’t believe their meal isn’t coming from a high dollar restaurant, Ohlstein said. Recruiting already is underway for the next class of students, who will start in late July or early August. This inaugural group will have a graduation ceremony when they finish their instruction time with Bero and will receive a final certificate once their internship is completed. Employers who have hired students tell Ohlstein how pleased they are with their work. He knows the long term success of Culinary Cornerstones depends in large part on the success of these first students. He told them that, too, and urged them to take full advantage of this opportunity. Andrew said he and the others understand that. “The best thing about this program is the chance to move forward,” he said. “You’re going from nothing to something. Everyone in here has suffered from something. With our backgrounds, other programs wouldn’t let us in. This is the opportunity to change. A lot of people don’t get this opportunity. Jessica and Allen have given us the chance to move on. It’s really beautiful.” Ohlstein said that opportunity has its root in Jesus’ own ministry, which included reaching out to the hungry and poor, those diseased in mind or body, the disenfranchised and to criminals. “Our call is to continue his ministry to all of creation, to all of God’s beloved family,” he said. “That is the heart of Culinary Cornerstones.” |
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Episcopal Diocese of Kansas. All rights reserved.
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