Turning a New Menu Page on Culinary Job Training

One resident of Peter and Paul Community Services in St. Louis first tested her cooking chops when she took over breakfast and lunch cooking duties to serve others in her shelter.

This chosen interest in food would soon lead her to the Culinary Job Training program led by the Campus Kitchen at St. Louis Unviersity where she’d study restaurant guidelines, tour Whole Foods Market, lead her own cooking shift, and leave with her very own chef’s jacket – prepped to conquer the food service industry when she chose to leave Peter and Paul.

Her story is not unlike dozens of culinary job training graduates that have passed through the doors of the Campus Kitchen at St. Louis University in the nine years since the Campus Kitchen has offered the program, which is modeled after parent organization DC Central Kitchen’s Culinary Job Training curriculum. This year, a new emphasis on passing the Restaurant Association’s ServSafe exam and giving job training students more practical experience could provide participants an even better edge on gaining employment after graduation.

Coordinaor Jenny Bird said the program used to follow an eight-week path, but she’s shaved those weeks down to six, reduced the class size, and restructured the curriculum to give students even more of a chance to succeed. She kicked off the class with exam training for ServSafe, which is the National Restaurant Association’s certification for food safety, before ever turning on a burner.

“After ServSafe was done, all the nerves about it were done,” said Bird. “That was a big part of it – they had four days of class and one day to take the test.”

Bird took the class of four through ServSafe curriculum using pneumonic devices and flash cards and saw three of four pass the test.

“The ServSafe is a real thing in the industry,” said Bird. “Even if you are in fast food and you have your ServSafe [certificate], you can start as a manager.”

With the test behind them, Bird took students – who were selected from several community partners with employment specialists looking to place clients – through a range of culinary lessons and guest speakers. She taught: baking, sauces, knife skills, plating and garnishing, herbs and seasoning, and soups, stews and stocks. She brought in Andrew Veety, a local food enthusiast and blogger, to teach a meat and poultry lesson. Bird even planned a field trip to the local Whole Foods so students could learn about HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) and see first-hand how a prep chef completes his shift.

The final section of the course gave students a chance to become chef of their own kitchen and take over Campus Kitchen meal shift planning and execution. Students spent two weeks leading shifts with Campus Kitchen interns under them to teach the organization, planning, and patience required when working in the kitchen.

When the culinary students successfully completed all three parts of the revised training program, each received a certificate and chef’s jacket to mark there achievement at a graduation ceremony, August, 25.