Washington State Chefs Sponsor Bite of Apprenticeship, Raise Funds for Scholarships
The first-ever Bite of Apprenticeship program, sponsored by the Washington State Chefs Association, brought in $5,000 in scholarship funds, attracted media attention and recognized the work of Seattle-area culinary students and apprentices.
The apprenticeship program provides 700 hours of classroom work for those already employed in the foodservice industry. Apprentices are sponsored by their restaurants and attend classes at Renton Technical College in addition to their restaurant work. Apprentices from Joey’s Restaurant, Earl’s Restaurant and No Junk – Good Food, Inc., a school catering company, and the Columbia Tower Club participated in the event, which offered bites of an amazing variety of preparations.
Several of the 11 Seattle-area’s ACF-accredited culinary-education programs also presented bites for the 100 guests at the event, held at Renton Technical College. Schools represented included Lake Washington Institute of Technology, Bates College, Renton Technical College and Bakery, Puget Sound Tech, Bellingham Technical College, Olympic College and the Puget Sound Skills Center.
In addition to the selection of winners by a panel of professional chefs, the “biters” voted for their favorite dishes. The People’s Choice award went to Renton Technical College, whose students presented gumbo, trout amandine, chocolate mascarpone cups and petite chocolate bouches. The Renton student team included Chris Mullins, John Burch, Jessica Young, Jacqueline Keeys and Mark Barker. The Renton team coach is Chef John Fisher.
Best Apprentice award went to Travis Hine of Earl’s Restaurant for his pulled-pork sliders and slaw.
The Lake Washington Institute of Technology took Best School award for its team’s presentation of cinnamon-smoked pork belly and curried chicken, goat cheese and caramelized cipollini-onion barquette. Students on this team were Meg Venama, Randall Poole, Holly Hewitt, Gabe Fulwinder, Sarajean Hansen, Bea Hartmean, Jeremy Kelly, Roman Lavrentyev, Rodney Leach, Miranda Myers and Lorena Santos-Barrera. Chef Stockmann is the team coach.
As a part of publicity for the event, the top morning news station in Seattle aired four live segments as well as two taped segments from the Renton Tech kitchens, interviewing chefs and students.
The association, a part of the American Culinary Federation, regularly creates events to recognize members and students, and expects the Bite of Apprenticeship to be on next year’s event calendar.