LA Kitchen’s Class 3 comes to us! Remember our first visit to their facility here? We thought it would be fun for them to tour a busy kitchen in action, and see first hand,that kitchen work is not very glamorous, but if you have a passion for creativity and giving, food can be a good career. The realities are that, as an entry level person, you start at the dish station and then move to prep. Lots of prep. Prep like cleaning cases of artichokes that can literally dissolve your fingernails. For those who love the work and have a desire to keep learning, they know their nails will grow back!
If you eat meat, you need to comprehend and face the fact that an animal sacrificed it’s life to feed you. If you don’t eat meat, great! Together let’s encourage others to eat less of it and to make deliberate decisions of where their meat comes from. For students seeking out a culinary career, there is a responsibility to understand the whole of what you are working with rather than just the parts.
This whole pig came from one of our favorite ranches Cook Pigs Ranch (we visited them here, here, and here, and hosted a dinner with them here, so obviously they are favorites!) . I think it is important for everyone to see a whole animal broken down. Matt approaches this task with such respect and grace, and talks about the process as he goes. He is such a good teacher. These were culinary students so they were looking at this process differently than the children did here. It’s an important demonstration with a huge message for children and adults alike. We must be conscious of where our food comes from, and make informed decisions of what the effects are of our food consumption. In the food industry, we possess a great impact to make change which is a powerful position to be in. We can’t be asleep at the wheel when making choices of where we purchase ingredients from otherwise we are just part of the big food industry problem. It’s important to make culinary students aware that they can be a part of the solution by choosing to support small family farms. We all can.
Photos: Tara Maxey
