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You’ve been watching over a new generation of culinary professionals, young chefs in the making, here in Charlotte for the past few years. Are you seeing any signs of their impact on the area’s dining scene, and what should we look for from them in the near future?
On a casual basis, I have observed numerous students working in area restaurants- they are frequently identifiable by their [Johnson & Wales] uniform- or we recognize each other and say hello. I love seeing our students working in the area, since I believe work experience greatly enhances their school experience. Right now we see primarily cooks, and maybe sous-chefs, but as time passes we will undoubtedly see, as we have in other J&W communities, a broad and deep presence of our students and alumni in all levels of positions, from cooks and bakers to chefs and managers and entrepreneurs.
What are some of the new food trends you see heading our way, both in restaurants and also in the markets? What should our readers be looking for if they want to expand their food and palate awareness?
I think we will experience a continued focus on spice and bold flavors. Mark Miller told our students last year that Asian food had surpassed Italian as the number one flavor profile in the U.S. We see this in our students, and their desire to eat and cook cuisines that feature bold flavors and highly spiced foods. One of our evolving missions is to help students understand subtleties of flavor, and that not everything is improved with hot sauce.
When we see the molecular gastronomy movement featured in the press, I think that quite a bit of what is happening there will eventually find its way into mainstream cooking, as we have already seen with foams and gels and desserts that feature sweet and savory components. I do think that a solid foundation of classic techniques and an understanding of flavor and texture are critical, and that food cannot be a solely intellectual experience. However, there are quite a few chefs who are challenging the received wisdom about food and how we eat it, and I think that is a good thing.
There is a great deal of talk now about the ethical implications of food and eating, including how it is grown and raised, where we buy it, and the role and social responsibilities of the chef or culinary professional. How are you dealing with these issues with your students, and what kind of impact is realistic on the individual, local, and global stages?
I think the worst thing about the traditional school year is that the culinary students aren’t in class when the produce is at its peak. J&W has been involved in the growing community from the time we arrived. Before there was ever a school here, I was doing demos at the farmers markets in Matthews and Uptown, taking products that the growers brought in and showing people what to do with it. Four of our faculty, Karl and Robin Stybe and Susan and Ed Batten, and about 15 students, developed the menu and produced the foods for a big farm event in Lincoln County in the summer of 2005. I’ve worked with the NC Department of Agriculture on a competition that features NC grown products. A J&W instructor, Paul Malcolm, is involved with Slow Foods Charlotte and the sustainable seafood initiative with the South Carolina aquarium. Our covenant partner Compass Group has done enormous amounts of research into these issues and I think we will have lots of opportunity to move sustainability, environmental consciousness, and farm-to-fork from the co-curricular to the core curriculum. We recently did an in-service training for our faculty with Duke Energy that demonstrated how technology is being used in equipment manufacturing to offer greater energy efficiency over older equipment, and that, just as important, the resources for finding out such information is available to foodservice are expanding, thanks to technology.
Charlotte suddenly has three good-sized, excellent culinary schools (and many high schools are also offering culinary education courses and vocational training). Is this career option something that is growing? Are there enough students to go around, and where will all the teachers come from?
All signs are positive for foodservice as the number of meals consumed away from the home continues to grow. To my mind, culinary schools offer choices to students, and students can make decisions about where to attend based upon the merits of the individual schools and how those attributes align with the students’ aspirations and needs. Faculty for culinary schools will still come from industry, but regulatory guidelines will increasingly require advanced college degrees as well. More than half of the Charlotte J&W culinary faculty has the Masters degree in addition to their individual and collective professional experiences and certifications. Less than 10 years ago, that would not have been the case, but the search for chefs with advanced degrees has been a benefit for the students, because the faculty not only dedicate themselves to developing skills for success as a chef, but also because the faculty have a greater understanding of the larger purposes of higher education, having been through it themselves. We’ve made enormous efforts at developing our faculty as both chefs and as teachers through formal pedagogical training. The mindset changes from being a chef who happens to teach to being a teacher who teaches culinary arts.
This is a cheesy question, but people always want to know this: where do you like to go out to eat—and why (you can name names or just generalities—it’s up to you)? What do you look for in a restaurant and what do you think makes a place, whether inexpensive or high end, the kind of place you’d return to and recommend to others?
Recently I was in the Netherlands, and I was able to have three completely different dining experiences, all of which I enjoyed, from a Michelin starred restaurant to a Dutch pub to a Neapolitan pizzeria. Each was outstanding in its own way, but I think the thread that would make me recommend them is that each had a very solid idea of what it was in business for, that the food was correct for the establishment and was expertly prepared, and that the service was entirely appropriate for the property. In the US, I think that service is the area in which we can most improve. We have great foods and wines, and very talented and knowledgeable people, but I think we have a great opportunity in the growing realization that being successful in the front of the house requires very specific professional skills that can be taught and practiced and improved over time; that is to say, that a server is just as much a professional as a cook. So, while I look for great food, it’s the service that brings me back.
~ Peter Reinhart
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