Located in Venice, Ca the St. Joseph’s Family Center provides an excellent culinary program. I recently volunteered and taught a class as a guest chef on the versatility of eggs, flour & butter. We made savory crepes avec fromage et jambon, a buttery yellow cake with chocolate ganache and some classic brioche. I wanted to demonstrate the versatility of the three ingredients in three different applications. The crepe demo quickly turned into a competition that JaQuiel definitely won based on her expression alone.
The students were really great, many of them with some experience in kitchens. They were looking to improve their skills and knowledge as well as increase their earning potential. The program is free to the students and helps prepare them for the real culinary world with Serve Safe food sanitation certification, knife skills, and professional kitchen training. The students are required to complete physical and written exams and an 8-week externship in a professional kitchen.
St. Joseph's students prepare a meal
The quality and value of this program should be acknowledged and a special thank you to Program Manager, Thomasine Howlett, for her excellent work and to Executive Chef Derek Walker for sharing his kitchen with us.
We wish lots of luck to the next graduating class and look forward to seeing them out in this business making valuable contributions.
We had a great time and look forward to teaching and volunteering more.
The culinary program operates on private funding and if you would like to donate please contact them on their website.
Kathleen Schaffer is a guest chef visting St. Joseph's
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