The learning curve is just beginning

Beatrice (left) graduating from Chef de Cuisine
(with Liaison director Murline Mallette)

Brianne hopes to enter the
Armed Forces to cook for the troops.

There were no caps to toss in the air, but spirits were high and the atmosphere was exuberant. In front of seventy guests, 25 students dressed in their chef whites congregated at the college on Wednesday night to receive their Culinary Arts diplomas.  Despite many months of intensive training, late nights of research, reading and study, their diplomas are just the beginning of a lifetime of learning. 

Joda (centre)  graduated from Cook Basic I (with
instructors Chef Bill (left) and Chef Dan (right)

The Chef de Cuisine and Cook Advanced II students went beyond the diploma curriculum, spending at least another four months practicing and refining what they learned in Cook Basic I, studying advanced skills for managing a busy kitchen and running a business of their own.

Nuno & Gerson

The chef instructors took advantage of their last opportunity to roast the students they had tutored through their studies, highlighting some of their most comical blunders. Murline, ever-the-mother, played her tough-love card, pushing her wards once again to check the job boards, work up their resumé, and visit her office to take advantage of her connections in the food world.  

Waiting to exhale

The mood was noticeably altered at Liaison last week, charging the afternoon ambiance with a tension that was almost tangible. After fifteen weeks of culinary classes, the students were put through the rigours of exams, in the kitchen and in the classroom.

Cook Basic students did all their prep work on Tuesday for their hands-on exam the following day. On a set schedule Wednesday afternoon, they turned out their dishes for the chef-instructors to mark on timing, presentation and taste. The tension subsided as one-by-one they learned how they fared, then headed home to cram for just a few more hours.

The ever-active kitchen was hauntingly silent on Thursday as the students bowed their heads over exam papers, challenged to remember the theory they learned more than ten weeks ago. Though they applied their book knowledge almost daily in the kitchen, they were reserved until after their papers were marked.

Waiting to exhale, three young men checked the job board, shifted and paced, their nervousness disguised in jocular humour. The women made notes, quick calls to family, or chatted in low tones about future plans.

That collective sigh, when it came, was worth the wait. Hugs, laughter, whoops of excitement: they’ll be back for an official graduation, but this was their crowning moment when the air cleared, the mood lifted and they prolonged their goodbyes for one more minute of camaraderie.