It’s a big, big week for me. I’m crazy busy with work, with life and in less than a week I will be IN FRANCE. Yes, that’s right, I am finally going to the motherland of all gastronomic delights. Visiting friends in Paris and Valence and planning on spending some extra time in Provence and along the Mediterranean, all over the Rhone and into Burgundy. But more posts, photos, recipes and stories about Europe later, first I have to get through the week.
Do you know about my job at the Saint Joseph Center in Venice, California? I’m only there part time but it’s really an amazing gig and a great place to work! The SJC is a large nonprofit with multiple social services ranging from assistance with the elderly, child care, a homeless shelter and my department the Culinary Training Program.
We have an amazing teaching kitchen where we train folks with “multiple barriers to employment” to become chefs and help them get jobs. Some of our students just got out of prison or rehab, others were in a homeless situation, a lot of them are just broke…but they all have the passion and drive to become chefs and change their lives for the better. It can be tough work at times, but damn gratifying.
The program lasts for 10 weeks total, 6 in our kitchen where we lecture and do cooking demonstrations and labs. We’ve essentially taken the program from Le Cordon Bleu or the CIA and crammed it into 6 weeks. This is followed by an 80-hour professional externship in a real kitchen somewhere in LA. The program is very successful with a graduation rate of over 70% and over 70% of our students get a job in the industry! Oh yeah, the entire program is free for our students! 
During the six weeks of class, our students rotate shifts at an amazing “soup kitchen” named Bread and Roses. I hate to call it a soup kitchen, this place is really a café! We feed about 150 people a day fresh, homemade meals. Our clients at the café have to make a reservation and we have fresh flowers on the tables and volunteer waiters. It’s a great place and even thought I'm grumpy in the mornings I always have AN AMAZING TIME cooking at Bread and Roses. What did you do before noon today?
Chef Derek, the executive chef and head instructor, is out of town for the week so I’m filling in for him. It’s a lot to tackle, being both the teacher to our students in the afternoon and the executive chef in the mornings at Bread & Roses.
Today was day one of five. We always do breakfast on Mondays. It’s usually a lot of fun and a little bit easier ‘coz we bend the rules and buy sausages and tater tots (which are insanely popular)—otherwise everything we make is from scratch. The three students I had in the kitchen today were a great help, we really rocked out some awesome food FAST: buttermilk pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes. The pancakes were the best part though!
I was thinking about those pancakes all day long, so good! I have no idea why anyone buys pancake mix, they are so easy to make! Below if MY RECIPE for super easy, super yummy buttermilk pancakes.
Sorry for the crummy photos, I took these on my cell phone while chefing.
More to come before I say bon voyage suckers!
-G
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