It took less than 15 minutes before one of the young chefs, trying to hide a bloodied finger and wounded pride, asked where the first-aid kit was. In short order, four other participants in Culinary Camp at Kendall College in Evanston asked the same question. Their battle scars of the future patched up, all of them went back to the piles of onions, potatoes and garlic.
Eleven high school students, all of whom have thought that maybe they should make their career in the kitchen, signed up for the weeklong, overnight camp. After all, there’s baseball camp, music camp, computer camp, art camp and weight-loss camp, so why not cooking camp?
Lesson No. 1, barked out by chef Michael Carmel, director of the culinary program, was to peel potatoes, three of them. Then slice them, one quarter-inch thick. Got that? Now make little matchsticks. Then, how about dicing?
And so begins, amid fear, loathing and flying potato peels, the rash of injuries, none serious. Even something so seemingly innocent as a potato peeler becomes an instrument of the devil for some of the young men and women. Hands that may be skilled under Dad or Mom’s watchful eyes begin to fumble as Chef looks on. Three minutes, 40 seconds to peel one potato?
“They’re a little nervous,” Carmel said.
For good reason. A classroom lecture before the six boys and five girls were let loose in the kitchen demonstrated the proper technique for using a very large, sharp knife. Hold the food with your fingers, use your knuckles to guide the knife. This is all well and good in theory. Except isn’t that knife awfully close to flesh?
“I knew you’re supposed to use your knuckles to guide the knife,” noted Jeremy Hatfield, one of the happy campers, who aspires to own a fast-food restaurant someday. “But I never knew how to do it without cutting my knuckles off.” Knuckles and fingers intact after an afternoon of plying the craft, Hatfield clearly was pleased.
Another student was less happy. He regarded the potatoes on the cutting board with disdain. His bandage was still in place but one chunk of the potato had taken on a suspicious red tinge. Becoming a chef, he said, is the fall-back career, just in case a Big League Baseball Contract doesn’t pan out. In the meantime, he grasped the knife like a icepick and jabbed the potatoes into his own rendition of raw potato hash.
This is the fourth summer that Kendall has sponsored the camp. It gives high school students some valuable hands-on experience and it gives Kendall a recruitment opportunity for their two-year professional cooking program. Through the course of five days, delusions about the cushy life of a chef fade: There are odoriferous bulbs of garlic to be chopped; mountains of eggplant to peel, salt and saute; dishes to wash; floors to sweep.
Teary-eyed from onions, 15-year-old Keith Chazin stopped briefly to say that a cooking career has crossed his mind. When he was barely out of kindergarten, he began tuning in to cooking shows on television and by the time he was 11, he was adding items to the family’s grocery list. Now, with his own herb garden and a repertoire of recipes, he’s every parent’s dream.
“I cook dinner all the time. I tell my mom what to get at the store; she brings it home and I cook it. Last week, it was chicken breasts with lemon, olive oil and fresh herbs,” he recalled.
Before coming to camp, he had not attended any cooking classes, relying instead on TV and occasional guidance from a caterer who is a family friend. Kendall presented the first opportunity for Keith to test the waters outside the friendly confines of home.
“I wanted to do this before I actually work in a restaurant, just to make sure,” he said, noting that a part-time restaurant job might be his next step.
The lessons are progressive. From the first day’s primer on vegetable chopping, the students go on to prepare a full meal-a vegetable tian (casserole) topped with goat cheese, smoked pork loin with fresh peach chutney, a classical terrine and a luscious dessert made with fresh raspberries. Graduation is a banquet, served to parents and friends.
With her long curls tamed into a ponytail and hidden under her starched toque, 15-year-old Lori Peterson said that while cooking meals was not new to her, she looked forward to learning fancier, restaurant-style recipes and some professonal techniques.
“I cook lunch and dinner for my family,” she said. “I get recipes from cookbooks, but here I want to learn better ways to do things.”
If the better way is the easier way, all the students learned at least one lesson on their first day at camp. Carmel told them to start out with three nice, big potatoes. Next on the assignment list was onions. “Dice two or three,” he said. Knowing by now what was ahead, they all picked two onions, not three, digging around in the bag for the smallest possible specimens.
FRESH PEACH CHUTNEY
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 1/2 hours
Yield: 3 cups
5-6 large, ripe peaches or nectarines, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sherry vinegar
Juice of 1 orange
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon each: cinnamon, ground allspice
Pinch ground cloves
1/2 cup raisins, if desired
1. Combine all ingredients in a non-aluminum saucepan. Heat to a boil; reduce heat and simmer gently, uncovered, until thick, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, adding a small amount of water if the mixture seems dry. Add raisins during the last 20 minutes, if using. Cool before serving. Chutney can be stored in the refrigerator 1 month.
