Gateway Classic Fish Fry, Lessons Learned

Thursday afternoon crisis at L'Ecole Culinaire... there is a date change for students who had already signed up to support the Gateway Classic Fish Fry. Need people to support the fish fry on friday now, not saturday. What do L'Ecole students do...they get onboard and support the event. Not all students do this but there were a number of students from Chef Calverts' class who came out and made the event a success.

In exchange for their support; they got to use their knife skills, serve safe knowledge, cooking skills, Garde Manger skills of presentation and volume production, and customer service. Did I mention that these were Phase 1 students? Now I am not sure that they considered all of that when they were performing the task of providing fish sandwiches to the paying customers out front. Or when the health inspector stopped by to check on the process. 

My point, when approached from the perspective that I posed, these events really can and do provide "value added" to our education here at L'Ecole Culinaire. I believe that if presented as such, it may reach at least a few more students here, so that these events can be positive for the students as well as the school. Many times when I hear students talk, they perceive "free labor" when asked about supporting an event, instead of "free experience" for them. Maybe its time to change that.