In the kitchen of Mississippi University for Women’s culinary center, Heather Baumbach stood over a stove stirring a pan of chopped apples for the filling of a drop-biscuit apple dessert. She, along with several other chefs-in-training, planned to cover the finished biscuits with a honey glaze.
“Lots of butter, lots of sugar,” she said.
Baumbach isn’t a chef, though. In fact, she has no professional culinary experience. She teaches high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota where last year she taught her first culinary class. Now she’s getting certified under the national ProStart program, a curriculum for high school culinary students.
Mississippi University for Women is the only university in the South that offers the ProStart Institute, said Chef Jessica Henry, ProStart coordinator at MUW. ProStart Institute trains the teachers to train the students.
Last week’s program aimed to certify teachers in the first of four ProStart levels. The week-long course specifically instructed new culinary teachers in caring for kitchen knives, making sauces, and other culinary basics, Henry said. The 20 or so teachers in the program are from all over the country and from a variety of backgrounds.
Some have worked in restaurants but never taught. Others have taught high school students but never culinary classes. Still others have one or two years of teaching high school culinary classes but arrived at MUW for further qualifications.
The teachers arrived in Columbus July 10. Over the next six days, they spent time in both classrooms and kitchens while also dining at Huck’s Place and other well-known restaurants around town.
“They’re loving it,” Henry said.
Many of the teachers are not from the South and not accustomed to Southern fare.
“Seems that everything is cured in Creole sauce,” Baumbach said.
Still, she said she tried something unique in every restaurant.
Importance of preparation
In addition to making — and tasting — food, the teachers learned some of the hospitality and business background along with how to use and prepare kitchen instruments before the actual cooking begins. Kim Stewart, a new teacher from near Spokane, Washington, said it had never occurred to her how much prep chefs have to do. And now it’s her job to explain that to her students.
“It’s really quite involved,” said Steward, who helped her brother run his own restaurant before she began teaching last year. “There’s so much you have to do beforehand.”
Stewart plans to impress on her students the importance of prep, taking stock of ingredients, and especially of making sure that nothing comes from a can — the food is healthier, cheaper and of better quality when it doesn’t come from a can or a box, she said.
Warm Southern hospitality
Like Baumbach, Stewart said she enjoyed Columbus’ seafood and Southern flavors. She also found she liked the people, both in the ProStart Institute and in the restaurants.
“The people are so warm,” she said. “There’s no ego in this kitchen at all.”
Not all the teachers are new to Southern food. Danielle Frey, who spent 10 years in restaurant management before she began teaching last year, is from Lucedale. She taught culinary I at her school last year and will teach many of the same students in culinary II this year. She’s sure the students will be excited to learn the same things she did. Learning from chefs who teach college culinary courses has helped her know how to present the knowledge she already had from the restaurant industry to her students.
Frey is also excited to point her culinary students in the direction of MUW’s culinary program.
“They’re going to be so jealous,” she added. “They’re going to say, ‘I can’t believe you went up there.'”
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