Local Chefs
How does one best instruct students on how to become more knowledgeable of local chefs and new up and coming chefs?
Matt,
eater.com is a great place to start. The sight can be specific to any of the major cities. In addition, there are links to other sites. I encourage students to read Chef blogs, bring in articles from the food section of the newspaper (or news website) about restaurant reviews, and to read magazines such as Food & Wine, Sauver, and more. How about you?
Jae Gruber
As a gen ed instructor and someone who is relatively new to the culinary field, I use myself as an audience and ask the students to tell me of the best sources of accurate and current information in the field. I also assigned a blog assignment so that they could contribute to the new generation of culinary writers.
Stephanie,
These are great ideas Stephanie. Asking students to give you the best sources encourages them to do further research by giving them "expert power". Blogs are a great way to make education and assignments more appealing by applying a current trend.
Jae Gruber
I recommend my students stage at different restaurants around town that would potentially interest them when they are looking for a job.
Brian,
It is important to encourage students to do stages as well as volunteer activities. It can give them a reality check on what it is like to work in different types of environments and also give them the ability to self-analyze - they may perform better in one situation as opposed to another.
Jae Gruber
In my city, we have a plethora of food related publications. I encourage my students to read them and become familiar with these "up and coming" chefs.
I tell my students to find out if they went to a professional cooking school, where did they work in the past? This gives them some ideas of their own career paths.
very inspirational!
Albert,
These are great ideas. Research on Chefs will help students prepare for interviews as well as they learn more about menus and what skills are required in different types of establishemtns.
Jae Gruber
Asking the student which local eatery they would like to know more about and then getting them to stage for an evening usually is the route I take.
Robert,
This is an excellent idea. The more we can encourage students to stage while they are in school, the more they will understand the realities of the profession. They will also be able to more effectively correlate the knowledge gained in the classroom.
Jae Gruber
I find that the majority of students are not knowledgable regarding local chefs and restaurants.At the begainning of each term I tell them to think about the food that peaks their interest then do research on local establishments that serve that food. Their sources for the information could be restaurant reviews online or print.There are local magazines that have restaurant listings according to geographic locations. Once they have found the establishments they would research who is in charge of the kitchen then hopefully get information about those chefs.
Gilbert,
All very good points which will contribute to the success of your students.
Jae Gruber
Since it's not always feasible for students to eat in restaurants of local chefs, cost being the main factor, I always suggest staging with someone that they might consider working for. I also recommend that they volunteer to work with local chef's when they are doing fund-raisers, make up some inexpensive business cards so that they may trade with chef's who are impressed with their work. Also the internet is a great way to read up on what local chef's are doing, where they've worked, travels and education, etc..
