Tag: chef

Hungry for Higher Education

Life has undergone some drastic changes for most of us in the past year. Facing pressure on all sides from rising expenses and a plummeting employment rate, the job market feels especially volatile, especially if you’re the sort of person who wants to do what they’re genuinely passionate about. The good news is that jobs in the food industry are more important than ever, and with so many people changing careers now, this is a great time to invest in further education.

Is that even possible to get a degree as an avowed vegan, you may ask? Plant-based diets are far from a passing trend, and mainstream institutions are finally waking up to the signs, revamping decades-old programs to accommodate. Brand new schools are cropping up at the same time to offer a fresh perspective on the field, too. Whereas in the past, you might have been forced to sacrificed ethics until graduation day, there are now 100% vegan culinary institutions and programs that uphold those high standards.

Compiled and provided by Culinaryschools.org, the list of options continues to grow:

Living Light Culinary Institute

Living Light is an internationally known raw organic vegan chef cooking school. Located in Fort Bragg, California, it was founded in 1997 by master chef Cherie Soria who is considered the mother of gourmet raw food cuisine. Living Light offers workshops and comprehensive chef and instructor training designed for both the serious chef and the ordinary individual interested in healthier meal choices. Their certifications include Gourmet Chef, Associate Chef. and Raw Culinary Arts Professional. Workshops in knife skills, recipes and nutrition facilitate the training. Internet classes are available using videos and online instruction.

Vegan Culinary Academy

Located in beautiful Napa Valley, California, Vegan Culinary Academy was founded in 2007 by Certified Executive Chef Sharon Christensen. Though they do not offer a certification program, all chef instructors are credentialed and certified in the state of California. Their classes are customized and personalized to include plant-based diet instruction, food sculpting, and food business management. They guide students through intensives and traineeship programs.

The School of Natural Cookery

The School of Natural Cookery has a unique curriculum where students learn to cook without using recipes. Their non-traditional professional culinary program caters to the intuitiveness of the individual chef/artist. Joanne Saltzman, who founded “The Language of Cooking” bases the school’s cuisine on original foods to include grains, beans and vegetables. The School of Natural Cookery first opened its professional curriculum in 1991 and it has flourished since. Located in Boulder, Colorado, this school offers both a diploma and certificate program as well as teacher training.

Vegetarian Society Cookery School

Part of the Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom, Vegetarian Society Cookery School is a prestigious venue for vegetarian and whole food cooking education. Founded in 1982 by Sarah Brown & formerly known as the Cordon Vert School, its diploma is well-received around the world. The highly regarded and intensive diploma program is only open to professional chefs but their courses are available to anyone who wants to excel in whole food cuisine. The school is headquartered in Cheshire, England in an old Victorian mansion. Chefs can find a helpful eLearning section online to learn the basics of vegetarian cooking and catering and to assess their own knowledge of the art.

Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts

Located in Manhattan, New York, the Natural Gourmet Institute enjoys first class facilities. Founded by Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D. in 1977, the school emphasizes the relationship of food to its effects on health. Their hands-on approach to the natural diet and cooking techniques provides the student with an overall knowledge of both theoretical and practical information. The Chef’s Training Program includes an intensive internship often leading to employment offers.

The Natural Epicurean

The Natural Epicurean bases its philosophy on macrobiotics, which they describe as a holistic approach to a healthy lifestyle choice. The academy was founded in 1994 by Elizabeth Ann Foster and is located in Austin, Texas. They offer an intense 800 hour training course and include cooking for healing, cutting techniques and home remedies. Natural whole foods cooking is combined with eclectic course offerings. Internships are available.

Natural Kitchen Cooking School

The Natural Kitchen believes in making the world a happier and healthier place one kitchen at a time. Based in New Jersey, the school was founded in 2005 by Christine Waltermyer who continues to have a large television presence as a natural and raw foods chef. The Natural Chef Training Program offers hands-on innovative cooking techniques. They often have guest chefs and include food history, food politics and personal healing in the curriculum.

Are you thinking about going back to school? Whether you’re vegan for ethical, environmental, or health reasons, you have a wealth of options to make your dreams of a culinary career come true!

 

This post was made possible as a collaboration with Culinaryschools.org. My opinions can not be bought and all content is original. This page may contain affiliate links; thank you for supporting my blog!

Hannah (BitterSweet)4 Comments

Front and Center

Pizza parlors are a dime a dozen in any city worth its rent. Sold by the slice or full pie, the combination of crisp, slightly charred blistered crust with gooey cheese, still bubbling from the oven’s scalding hot breath, no one can resist such simple pleasures. Cybelle’s Front Room in San Francisco was founded upon that basic premise, like countless others, but rapidly evolved into an outpost for far more complex, diverse comfort food delights.

Not just catering to the sporadic herbivorous visitor, an entirely vegan menu pulls out all the stops, with old-school Italian-Fusion fare, paying no mind to misguided naysayers. Leave your diet at the door, because this is no rabbit food.

Despite her blisteringly hectic schedule, I had the great fortune of sitting down with chef Christa Yan (in our respective apartments during shelter in place mandates) to get the inside scoop of how this classic red sauce joint transitioned into a meatless dining destination.

Buffalo Chick’n Mac & Cheese

Hannah Kaminsky: When was Cybelle’s Front Room originally established?
Christa Yan: So CyBelle’s Pizza used to be a pizza chain with 28 CyBelle’s Pizza locations throughout the Bay Area. It was one of my dad’s first “real” American jobs when he came here from Hong Kong as a teenager. He worked his way up and became manager of all 28 CyBelle’s Pizza locations. In the early ’90s the entire chain split up and all the stores became independently owned. My dad ended up independently owning one CyBelle’s Pizza location on Parnassus near UCSF here in San Francisco.

In 2004, the original Front Room, where we are now on 9th Avenue, went up for sale by the original owners, who had been running the Front Room since the ’70s. My dad ended up buying it from them and decided to combine the two names and menus, hence CyBelle’s Front Room was born and it’s been this way since 2004. It’s been 16 years now as CyBelle’s Front Room and owned and operated by my parents!

Caesar Salad

HK: When did you start serving a vegan menu?
CY: I started the Vegan Menu in August 2017. It started out as a few simple items. I had just moved back to the Bay after a 10-year stint in Chicago. I didn’t know what the vegan community in SF was like at all. Had no idea it was such a supportive community!

HK: What was the inspiration?
CY: Inspiration was honestly seeing the lack of vegan food in our immediate area in the Inner Sunset District here in San Francisco. I’m a comfort food type of gal. I love eating “naughty” food! I wanted some real naughty vegan food!

Impossible Nacho Fries

HK: How often do you change the menu?
CY: So we do have an 8-page permanent plant-based menu now. It’s grown definitely. We keep adding “specials” pretty much all the time that interchange every month or so. We have a little table menu that we call our mini “specials board” and that’s where we keep all our specials that change all the time, in addition to the 8-page permanent plant-based menu.

Zucchini Noodle Carbonara

HK: How have the vegan dishes been received? Was there any push back from regulars?
CY: No push back from regulars that I can recall right now honestly! I think plant-based comfort food is new to a lot of people who aren’t familiar with faux meats etc. Our regulars that have been coming for 13+ plus years are wowed by everything honestly and they try stuff from the vegan menu all the time!

Chicken Parm

HK: What’s the most popular order?
CY: It’s a tie between the beignets with cookie butter and the mac n cheese pizza right now.

Beignets with Chocolate Sauce and Cookie Butter

HK: Do you have a personal favorite?
CY: My personal favorite is our Vegan Mozz Stuffed Garlic Knots. They are super naughty. Loaded with garlic and butter and olive oil and more garlic and then more butter. Not for the faint of heart. Or anyone on a caloric deficit. But it is right up my alley and it’s been a huge hit.

HK: Is there anything you’re particularly excited about coming soon?
CY: OH YESSSS. We are debuting housemade vegan pepperoni. Working on Vegan Mozzarella sticks as well. Lots of cool vegan pizza combos. More types of different vegan wings as well. Possibly a super crispy ridiculous fried chik’n sandwich. Lots of things in my brain!

Mac & Cheese Calzone

HK: Any other background information or stories you’d like to share?
CY: My parents have been in this business 30+ years now. They are high school sweethearts. They are true San Franciscan locals. They met at George Washington High School here in SF. They compare their love story to The Notebook, it’s ridiculous and sweet and hilarious. I feel lucky to have such a solid support system that came from so much love like that. It’s almost not real but it is.

My father is at the restaurant from open till close, every single day, and has held our family and business together for decades. That to me is the definition of a dedicated father, great husband, honorable businessman. He has helped so many businesses on our block. I could go into detail but he’s so humble about it he doesn’t want me advertising. He came here from Hong Kong as a teenager with very little. This is a true American Dream story.

Cybelle’s Front Room
1385 9th Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94122

 
 

 

 

Hannah (BitterSweet)6 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Greens is the New Black

Potato Griddle Cakes with vadouvan and spinach. Served with coconut tamarind chutney, shaved fennel, mint, and lime vinaigrette.

Arugula Salad with charred cauliflower, watermelon radish, avocado, and pumpkin seeds.

Grilled Brussels Sprouts with muhammara sauce, pomegranate reduction, and slivered almonds

Mesquite Grilled Brochettes with mushrooms, Mariquita Farm potatoes, peppers, fennel, sweet potatoes, red onions and Hodo Tofu with chermuoula.

Wild Mushroom and Spinach Phyllo with Moroccan chickpea stew, green harissa, roasted carrots, and maitake mushrooms.

Broccoli Pizza with macadamia cheese, baby arugula, and spicy red pepper pesto sauce.

Blackened Hodo Tofu with Carolina Gold hoppin’ john, cabbage slaw, and golden BBQ sauce

DeVoto Orchards Apple Crisp with ginger streusel and coconut sorbet

Greens Restaurant
2 Marina Blvd A
San Francisco, CA 94123

Hannah (BitterSweet)5 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Omakase

Sushi

Smoked Beet Nigiri: Nitsume sauce, wasabi, shiso, sesame snow.
Carrot Gunkanmaki: ‘Battleship sushi’ topped with roasted carrot yuzu kosho foam.
Asparagus Inside Out Roll: Salt/sugar cured asparagus, avocado, daikon, sprouts, kelp caviar, and spicy aioli.



Abalone Mushroom Sunomono

Shredded and marinated abalone mushroom, accordion-cut cucumbers, wakame, daikon sprouts, and a tosa vinaigrette.

Cauliflower Karaage

Marinated cauliflower fried in a light yuzu kosho tempura batter, and served with yuzu aioli and dusted nori.

Soba Noodle Mazemen

Ramen made with buckwheat noodles, nuka-pickled veggies, charred Tokyo negi, soy-pickled shiitakes, koji-cured carrot, tofu misozuke, and tempura wakame.
Hot dashi, seasoned with a caramelized aromatic tare, poured table side.

Strawberry Matcha Cheesecake

With macerated strawberries and matcha meringue.

Fancy Plants Cafe and Catering
613 W Briar St
Chicago, IL 60657

 
 

 

 

Hannah (BitterSweet)3 Comments

Making Prepared Meals Personal

As a father of two young boys and a busy entrepreneur living in San Francisco, no one understands the daily struggle of getting nutritious, satisfying meals on the table better than Jesse Miner. Inspired by the desire to find a balance between family time, work, and conscious eating in his own life, Jesse applies that very same motivation to his in-home personal chef service. Offering plant based meal plans, cooking classes, and catering for special events, he’s been perfecting his skills over many years of success, to unanimously rave reviews of happy customers.

During the six years that Chef Jesse contributed recipes to VegNews magazine, I had the great fortune of getting to know him and his culinary delights by way of freelance photo assignments. Although I was still the one preparing the dishes and styling them to look “camera ready”, it was easy to taste the skill that went into developing these remarkably nuanced flavor profiles. I will never forget the epic dill-infused savory waffles paired with beet compote, for example. That is what my breakfast-in-bed dreams are made of, to this day.

Having the opportunity to finally eat food directly from the master, at long last, was one of the highlights of my recent trip to the bay area.

Drawing global inspiration from his worldly travels, Korean lettuce wraps radiate warmth from a generous coating of spicy gochujang. Sticky rice is the platform for those sultry soy curls and the whole bundle gets wrapped up in crisp lettuce leaves, creating a fun eating experience for any day of the week. While these components may take a considerable amount of planning and labor to bring together, Jesse does all the heavy lifting here, delivering each element packed with care and ready to go.

A hearty bowlful of this Italian chickpea stew would be a satisfying one-dish meal on its own, but delicate stalks of garlicky broccolini and lightly grilled polenta triangles turn the whole mix into a truly show-stopping dinner. Polenta is something I rarely think to prepare for myself, so it was a real treat to get Jesse’s rendition as a delicious reminder.

Jesse’s own description of this fresh composition reads like soft core food porn. “Plump red strawberries mingle with crunchy golden brown hazelnuts, crisp pink and purple-hued radishes and delicate baby greens in this colorful salad.” This deceptively simple combination of vegetables, fruits, and nuts positively bursts with fresh flavors. It’s a side dish that won’t play second fiddle to any main course, without overpowering the other bit players.

Generously offering a small taste of his work for those not lucky enough to reside in San Francisco to take advantages of his services, Jesse has provided the secret formula. It showcases his skill at balancing flavors and textures, while keeping the end results remarkably uncomplicated.

Strawberry, Radish and Mixed Greens Salad with Candied Hazelnuts and Miso Dressing
By Chef Jesse Miner

Candied hazelnuts
1 cup hazelnuts
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt

Miso Dressing
2 tablespoons white miso
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1 teaspoon agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Salad Ingredients
8 cups mixed baby greens
1 bunch easter egg radishes, thinly sliced
1 pint strawberries, de-stemmed and sliced

1. Heat your non-stick sauté pan over medium heat. Add hazelnuts to the pan and dry toast, stirring occasionally, until starting to brown and skins flake off, approximately 10 minutes. Pour toasted hazelnuts into a bowl. Once hazelnuts have cooled to the touch, rub them between your fingers to remove and discard as much of the skins as possible. Heat your non-stick sauté pan once again over medium heat. Return skinned roasted hazelnuts to the pan along with the maple syrup, olive oil and salt. Stir to combine and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid boils and reduces to thick syrup evenly coating the hazelnuts, approximately 5 minutes. Spread hazelnuts into a single layer on a parchment-lined plate and cool at room temperature. Once completely cooled, break apart and store hazelnuts in an airtight container until serving.

3. Whisk together white miso, rice vinegar, grapeseed oil, agave nectar and sesame oil.

4. Toss greens and radish slices with miso dressing and divide between plates. Garnish each salad with strawberries and candied hazelnuts.

Makes 6 Servings

Printable Recipe

Hannah (BitterSweet)11 Comments