Final Practical Exams
Last night the students finished their final practical exams, day 4 of performing their menus and serving invited guests and a panel of industry chefs that evaluated their dishes. It was probably the best of all the finals we have had at the school. However, last term’s group 
perhaps made this term’s greater success possible. That is because the students from last term made a simple suggestion in re-arranging the last 2 weeks of the term. In the past, the term ended with a 3-day Food Costing Project, the 4-day Practical Exam, and an individual Black Box exam. Many felt the Black Box and Food Costing, though valuable exercises, disconnected with the main event, the 4-day Practical Exam. So we fixed that. We started with the Black Box, carried the same proteins into the Food Costing Project, and again carried the same proteins into the Final Practical Exam. Doing things in this order allowed the students to work initially individually, then teamed with a partner, and eventually partnered in a group of 4. Each step of the way their ideas evolved, were taken apart and re-constructed, and eventually attained the kind of quality we expected.
Every term things get better, and improvements are more than often initiated by our very students. One of the key instruments of a good teacher are his/her listening skills. I am convinced chefs in the industry would benefit from tuning their ears and taming their mouths. I only hope that our students take our lead when their time comes.
Culinary yours,
Tony Minichiello
Chef Instructor, Owner
Last Wednesday I went on a farm tour in the Fraser Valley with a van full of chefs, organized by Jason Malloff, chef of the newly opening Pala Lago restaurant in Cultus Lake. We visited Polderside Farm (Jens and Virginia Jacobsen), Swift Aqua Culture (Bruce Swift), Limbert Mountain Farm (Trudy Bouchard), Farm House Natural Cheeses (Debra Amrein-Boyes), Fraser River Fishing Lodge and Bison Farm (Frank Staiger), and The Birds and the Bees (a squab farm) (Walter Bergen). In attendance were chefs Jeff VanGeest (Aurora Bistro), Angus An and David (Gastropod), Rob Belcham (Fuel Restaurant), J.C. Poirier (Chow), Scott Jaeger (The Pair Tree), and writer Andrew Morrison (Urban Diner). Here are some interesting observations I concluded from the trip.
A few months ago I was invited on to the board of the Chef’s Table Society of Vancouver (
Summer is just around the corner and that means it’s soon time for Culinary Camps with Chef Barb. We’ve got a new line up of classes that will have the young culinarians in the family creating fresh, seasonal meals using BC’s bumper crop of summer fruits and veggies. From breakfast treats to after dinner sweets, we’ve got meal planning covered.
Chefs to the Field is an invitational fundraiser where 8-10 teams of professional chefs cook-off using local organic ingredients, supplemented by food they harvest themselves in a mad-dash to the fields at the local host farm.
