Job Corps chefs get taste of real world

BANGOR – A visit to the Penobscot Job Corps center on outer Union Street last week found the chefs and restaurateurs of tomorrow hard at work on lunch.

While one group of culinary arts students prepared three different entrees and a soup course in a large, sunny kitchen equipped with long counters and stainless- steel appliances, a smaller group put the finishing touches on breads and desserts in the campus bakery.

The dining room and wait staff carefully set tables in the dining area, each table for four covered with a snowy white cloth, artfully folded green cloth napkins and a small vase of fresh-cut flowers. At each place setting was a small, white dish holding a sesame-seed-studded sweet roll and a glass of ice water.

Though it’s the kind of atmosphere one might expect in any upscale restaurant, the fact that it exists in a classroom building on a campus for teen-agers and young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds makes it special.

The students here come from a variety of personal and cultural backgrounds, from big cities and small towns around the country. The common thread among them is their love of cooking.

David Domer, from Madawaska, has been cooking since the age of 5. His first dish was baked chicken. Allison Bryant, who lives in Bangor, is moving on this fall to the University of Maine, where she will further her studies. She has worked in the food service program at UM’s York Commons for two years now and is a supervisor there. John Isaac’s aunt, who runs a restaurant, taught him to cook. Bryon Yeroian, from Boston, became interested in cooking while working as a restaurant dishwasher.

The guests for the day were members of Job Corps’ Community Relations Council, a group consisting of people in education, business and other components of the community. The council’s luncheon last week was the second trial run of the new restaurant the culinary arts students are opening on their campus on outer Union Street.

According to Lou Scappaticci, enterprise manager for the Penobscot Job Corps Center, the soon-to-open restaurant represents yet another opportunity for students to gain some valuable experience before they complete their studies here and move on to further instruction or into jobs in such arenas as catering, the restaurant and hospitality industries, cruise ships and other places where skilled cooks are needed.

The restaurant, tentatively called The Lion’s Den, is a student-run venture. It was built in former storage and classroom space, with the help of students in the construction technologies program. The students not only wrote a business plan for the restaurant, they also pitched the idea to a local bank and landed a business loan. Once the restaurant opens this fall, the students will be in charge of all aspects of the operation – from menu planning and ordering supplies to cooking, serving and dishwashing.

During their luncheon meeting, council members were treated to a meal that began with a bowl of cream of broccoli soup and a fresh garden salad drizzled with a tangy raspberry vinaigrette dressing. These were followed by a choice of entrees – salmon almondine, Greek stuffed chicken filled with a spinach and feta cheese mixture, and fettuccini tossed with a white sauce laden with chunks of sun-dried tomatoes.

Each plate included seasoned mashed potatoes and oven-roasted vegetables, with garnishes of grapes and a large strawberry for color. And for dessert, council members were delighted to see bow-tied servers heading their way with plates bearing a towering confection of three tiers of puff pastry, interspersed with layers of vanilla and chocolate mousse and served with a raspberry sauce.

Among the diners that day was Tracy Gran, dean of University College of Bangor. UCB, for years a customer of the Job Corps catering program, recently worked out an arrangement for daily food service.

“Mutually nourishing” is how Gran describes the blossoming relationship between the two campuses. His students, he observed, need cheap, tasty eats on the fly. Jobs Corps’ culinary arts students need real-world work experience. The relationship began last year, when Job Corps students took on the kiosk in UCB’s Student Union. This fall, they are adding a restaurant called Bullwinkel’s Cafe.

(The misspelling is intentional, Gran said. It allows UCB to avoid infringing on the copyright of the popular cartoon character in naming the restaurant in honor of its mascot, the Maine moose.)

As the man in charge of a college campus where the entire student body commutes, being able to provide reasonably priced food is an important service. During a recent interview, Gran noted that much of the college’s enrollment consists of nontraditional students, many of them limited in terms of both cash and time.

Gran said UCB has contracted with private food vendors in the past, but was disappointed with the quality and cleanliness.

According to Gran, the kiosk offers primarily fast, portable fare, such as beverages, coffees, pizza, calzones, muffins and sandwiches.

Bullwinkel’s, when it debuts in the fall, will offer a wider variety of dishes in a more relaxed setting. The menu, he said, will include most of what the kiosk offers but also will offer such entrees as chicken Caesar salad, burgers and wraps. Plans also call for a “build-your-own” sandwich bar. Bullwinkel’s is located in the former Noncommissioned Officers Club on what once was Dow Air Force Base.

Though Job Corps’ culinary arts program has earned much recognition regionally- as the glassed-in trophy case running the length of their center restaurant attests – its partnership with University College of Bangor thrust it into the national spotlight this summer when the National Job Corps Association awarded UCB an Alpha Award in the community organizations category.

UCB also awarded five scholarships to Job Corps graduates, gave college credit for advanced completion in Job Corps, and set aside a project room on campus where students and staff from the two schools can work together on new joint ventures.