Life lessons in the kitchen
Culinary arts student doing great in an industry with pressure
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, March 7, 2016
IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
For Violet Jayko, taking the culinary arts program at Nunavut Arctic College's Kitikmeot Campus with Chef Andrew Poisson is the first step in the fulfillment of a dream she had in high school.
"Yes, I would like to cook for a living," Jayko said.
Culinary arts students at Nunavut Arctic College's Kitikmeot campus include Ellie Tungilik, left, Violet Jayko, Benjamin Emingak, Avalak Atatahak, Delphene Peetooloot, Colleen Panioyak and Deanna Etunga. - photo courtesy of Andrew Poisson |
For Ellie Tungilik, taking the program was about going back to school.
"And I wanted to be a better cook and maybe try for a summer job after this program," she said.
These two students exemplify exactly Poisson's sense of why students take the one-year program.
"The program is centralized around getting the basic foundation they need for cooking, and the structure to start off a cooking career," he said, adding the program teaches much more than cooking skills.
"We work on a lot of family skills, personal skills, self-esteem, getting adjusted to working with the public."
Poisson, who is in his eighth year of teaching the culinary arts program, says it is a foundation for more courses that might lead to a Red Seal certificate.
"We're hoping down the road that we have a pre-trade entry to cooking, which would be a one-year program, as well. And that should lead into a two-year program, which is hopefully going to be the Red Seal program."
But the program is also about connection to food and cooking, family relationships,and being a part of the community.
"We try to build self-esteem, show them the value of what they have and what they can give back, not just themselves, but their family, as well as the community," said Poisson. "We do this in many different ways. We do it by working with the community, doing functions within the community, being involved with the community at all times."
Earlier in the program, Poisson and his nine students, who hail from various Kitikmeot communities, prepared a family breakfast.
"We invited all the students' families. They got to come in and meet each other - people from out of town got to meet people from in town, form a bond type of thing. And they get to see what their aunts or uncles or dads and moms are doing here, what the course is all about," he said.
"It's good for the kids to see this. And for the students to be able to take these skills back to their family. Whatever we practise in class they take it home and practice it with their family - which is becoming a lost art. We're working towards rebuilding that, that social thing."
Tungilik was most impressed with learning how to make fondant cake, which is all the rage these days in the cake world. (Cakes are iced in a method called "fondant," which in French means "melting." Fondant is a thick paste made of sugar and water and often flavoured or coloured.)
"We learned so many things," said Tungilik, adding she enjoyed baking and fondant in particular.
"I'm going to make one for my daughter. Her birthday is coming up soon."
Jayko says the program has confirmed she wants to make a living in this profession. The top three things she's learned are: "Number one, how to use knives. Number two, how to cook a product. Number three, how to serve a client."
So far, it's everything she imagined.
The latest module of the course is what's called a Chef's Table.
"It's basically a twist on being in a restaurant," said Poisson. "So up here they don't know a restaurant concept where we have a maitre d'."
A maitre d' is the person in a restaurant who oversees the waitpersons and busboys, and who typically handles reservations.
The concept is a full-service experience, with a server and helpers helping the servers and an expediter, the person who puts the meals together to have it ready to go out front.
"We have the community involved with this. They get to see how it all works and in return this is a great experience for the students - they learn the proper way to serve a table, the proper way to cook a meal, plate it and send it out to your clients. And they get to interact with the clients that are in the classroom, which is great."
The so-called clients are asked to fill out a survey.
"Giving us input on what we've done, are we doing it right. If we're not, that's great. We get to fix what's not right. The students get that immediate reward. If they've done a great job, they get it right there in writing. And that helps boost their self-esteem," said Poisson.
He agrees the whole experience is indeed a lot of pressure.
"Absolutely. That's what it's all about. That's the cooking industry. It's all about pressure."
The program works out of a semi-industrial kitchen, Uniforms and equipment are paid for by cooking gigs in the community, such as the Kitikmeot Trade Show and the recent teachers' conference held in Cambridge Bay.
"They're dressed professionally. We believe in a professional-looking program. We're not just a fly-by-night program. They wear professional uniforms," said Poisson. "We don't have budgets for equipment and uniforms. We have to raise that money every year. We only get base funding - everything from that point on we raise the money. We have $90,000 worth of equipment in the kitchen now that we didn't have when we started seven years ago."
This year, there are nine students. When the program began, there were six students enrolled for a six-week course.
"Now we do one year and we have 10 spots, with 20 to 30 applicants," said Poisson, adding he has several former students working in camps or lodges throughout Nunavut.
