Thursday, March 25, 2010 By George Yatchisin
The big, industrial-strength Blodgett stove blasts heat into the kitchen, but 10 teens remain cool in their busy buzz as they prep twice-baked potatoes. One, gingerly handling the nubbin of the cheddar cheese block, worries, “I’m going to grate my fingers into the cheese,” only for Chef Ian Trenwith, teacher for the program, to jokingly reply, “Fingers are okay, no nails.”
But perhaps Trenwith isn’t joking, for the students in the Teen Culinary Arts Program—which runs from February 3 to May 26 and is sponsored by Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation, the Santa Barbara Foundation, Bragg Health Foundation, and the Adelle Davis Foundation—are certainly getting their fingers deep into the world of the kitchen, from cooking to catering. This new pilot program, part of HOT (Healthy Options for Teens), is aptly billed as a “window into the life of a food chef or a special event coordinator.” What that description leaves out is just how much fun it all seems to be.
As the potatoes bake in the oven, Chef Trenwith—who owns Jolly Brothers Caterers and rents out the Westside Center’s kitchen on West Victoria Street in addition to working with the kids there—preps the teens for their first big coming out: a VIP luncheon they’ll be preparing on April 1. Grabbing a sauté pan, filling it with cooked pasta, and dabbling that with sauce, he smoothly goes into the chef’s traditional toss instead of a stir. Soon, all the students try, too, and instead of a gloppy pasta-plosion across the kitchen, things tend to go well, if often timidly. Still the effort, the joy, the accomplishment—you can’t help but see it on each student’s face.
“The kids leave school, take public busses, and try to get here as fast as they can,” explains program coordinator Anita Ho. “They’re just so excited about it. If they can’t attend, the call me and tell me they can’t make it. We have a waiting list if anyone drops out. They have to be in uniform. They can’t be screwing around with the knives. If anybody acts up, I tease them, ‘There’s a waiting list!’