New York's Public High School Four-star Chefs - Standing The Heat At Summer Camp

Marsha Torres, a 17-year-old senior at George Wingate High School in Brooklyn, New York, dreams of working as a chef in one of Manhattan’s top restaurants.

Last week she got a taste of New York when she participated in the Careers through Culinary Arts Program(C-CAP)Summer Chefs Program, two six-day sessions aimed at increasing high school students’ exposure to the culinary arts, exposing them to a variety of cultural cuisines and to help them successfully pursue a career in the culinary arts.

Sixteen students from thirteen schools participated in the program, which was also sponsored by The Art Institute of New York and The Institute of Culinary Education. During the two separate weeklong sessions, they attended culinary classes and food-related field trips, plus a certificate luncheon culminating each week. Each morning, the group took culinary tours of some of the city’s ethnic enclaves and tasted authentic food products and meals. In the afternoon, the session 1 group met at The Art Institute of New York for one week, session 2 group met at The Institute of Culinary Education for one week, for professional career-level instruction in preparing a meal from the culture explored in the morning session. In addition, Swiss-made knife kits from R.H. Forschner were donated to the students to use during the program and to keep.

“We piloted the Summer Chefs Program last year with one session as a way to expose high school juniors to professional cooking classes and types of food and cooking that they will most likely not experience in high school,” comments New York City C-CAP Coordinator Karen Merzenich.

Students must be in the advance culinary class in a high school at one of NYC’s participating C-CAP programs, be recommended by their culinary teacher or principal, and submit an application including an essay.

Many chefs, educators and restaurants supported the Summer Chefs Program.

For session 1, the chefs from the Art Institute of New York City, who taught the classes and led the tours were Chef Russ Moss, Chef Gerry Gliber, Chef Eric Pellizzari, and Chef Anthony Bellucci. Each chef taught classes in their specialty areas. Norman Weinstein, the pre-eminent Chinatown expert, led the Chinatown tour and lunch. Chef Dan Silverman at Union Square Cafi gave the students a tour of his kitchen. Cajun, Creole, Chinese, Italian and Indian were among the cuisines explored. Danny Meyer and his staff hosted the Session 1 certificate luncheon at Eleven Madison Park.

For Session 2, the chef-instructor at The Institute of Culinary Education was Fred Brightman. A pastry chef from Town, Arpana Satyu, led an Indian tour of Jackson Heights. Soul Food, Italian, French Regional, Asian and Indian cuisines were spotlighted for Session 2. Daniel Boulud hosted the Session 2 luncheon at db bistro moderne.

Last year’s Summer Chefs participants, now graduates of the C-CAP program, acted as Peer Mentors, lending their expertise and assistance at this year’s sessions.

“The week was incredible, and I appreciated everyone taking the extra time in helping me to chase my dream,” says Marsha Torres.

According to Ms. Merzenich, “the key to this program’s success is that we keep the numbers of students really small, so each student gets a lot of personal attention and is able to fully participate in all of the activities. We also want to keep the quality of the students, instructors, classes, and the program activities at a high level.”

She adds, “we bring together some of the most motivated and dedicated students from our 32 high school programs. We end up with a terrific mix of students from different cultures, all five-boros, and neighborhoods. They have a chance to learn new things together and spend time together, which adds to the benefits of the program.”

As Coordinato