E79: From Flour to Future: Inside the World of Baking Apprenticeships

WEBVTT
00:00:00.017 --> 00:00:04.947
I think that the, the feeling that a show like the bear gives you is very on
00:00:04.947 --> 00:00:10.850
point with what you could feel like at the most intense moments of a lot of establishments.
00:00:11.900 --> 00:00:14.567
I, you know, I think the scenarios get a little goofy and silly,
00:00:14.567 --> 00:00:18.757
but the things that the anxious feeling and the stress that induces in you,
00:00:18.757 --> 00:00:20.979
especially if you've even have like a slight.
00:00:21.525 --> 00:00:25.075
Remote experience in it. Yeah, it feels pretty real.
00:00:35.176 --> 00:00:38.850
This is Learning Innovation, the teaching and learning podcast,
00:00:39.030 --> 00:00:40.737
also known as LittlePod.
00:00:40.969 --> 00:00:44.871
We are created by Lethbridge Polytechnic's Centre for Teaching,
00:00:44.871 --> 00:00:49.857
Learning and Innovation and located in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada,
00:00:50.147 --> 00:00:53.363
on the traditional lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy.
00:00:53.630 --> 00:00:58.628
In the spirit of equity, diversity, inclusion and Nitsitapi Skimstan,
00:00:58.878 --> 00:01:05.077
or real thinking, we play host to a spectrum of guests from the teaching and learning community.
00:01:05.472 --> 00:01:11.181
As we highlight and explore innovation in education, we hope to kindle warm
00:01:11.181 --> 00:01:18.568
conversations, expand perspectives, and foster lasting partnerships today, tomorrow, and beyond.
00:01:18.852 --> 00:01:21.227
The future of learning starts now.
00:01:22.626 --> 00:01:26.721
Okie and welcome. I'm your host, Chris Hodgson-Bright, and I'm a faculty member
00:01:26.721 --> 00:01:29.591
in Digital Communications and Media at Lethbridge Polytechnic.
00:01:30.390 --> 00:01:33.911
Today's episode takes us inside the kitchens and bake shop labs at Lethbridge
00:01:33.911 --> 00:01:39.569
Polytechnic, where passion, pressure, creativity, and a lot of flour come together every day.
00:01:40.364 --> 00:01:44.521
Joining us today is Chef Amanda Kocek, a culinary instructor who has taught
00:01:44.521 --> 00:01:48.291
for seven years here at the Polytechnic, who helps shape the next generation
00:01:48.291 --> 00:01:49.669
of culinary professionals.
00:01:50.257 --> 00:01:56.521
She is joined by Level 3 culinary students, Carl Atkins, who's in his third
00:01:56.521 --> 00:01:57.861
level baking apprenticeship,
00:01:58.622 --> 00:02:04.228
and he's also an instructional assistant and joining him is Rachel Warkin,
00:02:04.634 --> 00:02:09.830
Rowan Desair, and Kathleen Klink, who are currently immersed in the bake shop world.
00:02:10.303 --> 00:02:14.581
From early, early mornings and precision techniques, creativity and pride to
00:02:14.581 --> 00:02:18.971
moments of failure, frustration and befuddlement, they're sharing what it's
00:02:18.971 --> 00:02:23.288
really like to learn the craft of baking in a professional kitchen environment.
00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:27.433
Welcome Chef Kaczek, Rachel, Rowan, Carl, and Kathleen.
00:02:27.688 --> 00:02:31.006
Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having us. This is really fun, really cool.
00:02:31.407 --> 00:02:32.603
Yeah, we're excited to be here.
00:02:33.491 --> 00:02:37.189
Very excited. Yay. Excellent. Yeah, it's a full room here. Okay,
00:02:37.189 --> 00:02:41.339
so Chef Kaczek, can you tell us a little bit more about the programs here at
00:02:41.339 --> 00:02:45.019
Lethbridge Polytechnic in the world of culinary? So we offer three programs
00:02:45.019 --> 00:02:47.495
at Lethbridge Polytechnic in our culinary department.
00:02:47.808 --> 00:02:50.430
So we have our full-time diploma program for cooks.
00:02:51.018 --> 00:02:54.719
So they go through a rotation through all of our kitchens. They learn everything
00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:59.509
from sauces, bake shop. They run our dining room, kitchen as well.
00:02:59.863 --> 00:03:01.785
So that's a two-year program.
00:03:02.238 --> 00:03:06.039
And then we have two streams of apprenticeship. So we have Cook Apprenticeship
00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:10.474
and that's a weekly apprenticeship format that is three levels.
00:03:10.735 --> 00:03:14.979
And then we have our HyFlex Baking Apprenticeship Program as well.
00:03:14.979 --> 00:03:17.169
So that's in an eight-week block format.
00:03:18.246 --> 00:03:20.899
And then how does it work with Red Seal? How do you build into that?
00:03:20.899 --> 00:03:27.487
So apprenticeship works. So how apprenticeship works, you get hours at your place of employment.
00:03:27.847 --> 00:03:32.745
So the apprenticeship structure is 80% is learned on the job,
00:03:33.059 --> 00:03:37.489
20% is learned at technical training. So they come here for their theoretical
00:03:37.489 --> 00:03:39.909
portion, technical portion as well.
00:03:40.223 --> 00:03:44.466
But they're still learning on the job. So they're collecting hours at their place of work.
00:03:44.762 --> 00:03:48.349
And then they come here to learn those technical skills. And that's usually
00:03:48.349 --> 00:03:49.638
structured in three levels.
00:03:49.980 --> 00:03:55.009
Again, our cooks are a weekly apprenticeship format. So they come one day a
00:03:55.009 --> 00:03:56.758
week. They'll go work in industry.
00:03:57.077 --> 00:04:01.309
And that's three years. And then our HyFlex Baker apprenticeship program right
00:04:01.309 --> 00:04:06.679
now is four weeks online or in person for a theoretical component and then four
00:04:06.679 --> 00:04:11.365
weeks hands-on lab component as well. And that's in an eight-week block structure. Okay.
00:04:11.818 --> 00:04:17.409
And you need four years of time in industry and in the classroom or three to
00:04:17.409 --> 00:04:21.319
get to Red Seal? Yeah, three years. And then they'll collect hours on the job
00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:24.583
as well. Okay, great. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
00:04:25.290 --> 00:04:28.835
In no particular order, and maybe we'll start with the instructor,
00:04:29.175 --> 00:04:32.233
and then we can go around the room in any particular order if you guys want to share.
00:04:32.837 --> 00:04:36.651
What first made you fall in love with preparing food and or baking?
00:04:37.162 --> 00:04:43.890
I think for myself, it started at a young age. So baking with my baba, Ukrainian heritage.
00:04:44.296 --> 00:04:47.398
I remember making pierogies, some of my earliest memories.
00:04:47.781 --> 00:04:51.405
So some of that takes me back to my childhood, but it evolved kind of throughout
00:04:51.405 --> 00:04:53.121
the years. I've always had a love for food.
00:04:53.556 --> 00:04:57.925
And I think creating and mixing ingredients it just excites me and that passion's
00:04:57.925 --> 00:05:02.295
never wavered my whole life right on and you turned it into a career I turned
00:05:02.295 --> 00:05:05.972
it into a career and I've never really looked back on that any point in my,
00:05:06.558 --> 00:05:12.835
yeah 20 years of being in this industry nice anybody else yeah for myself I,
00:05:13.455 --> 00:05:17.990
I think growing up most of my best memories did involve food in a big way,
00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:22.385
whether it be with my mom and her bake shop that she ran my or working with
00:05:22.385 --> 00:05:27.665
my auntie for many years when I was in middle school and high school I just
00:05:27.665 --> 00:05:32.392
remember it being a really important aspect and also like getting people together with being.
00:05:33.315 --> 00:05:36.107
A fairly large family it was always a good reason to get people together and
00:05:36.235 --> 00:05:37.680
yeah it was good excellent,
00:05:38.558 --> 00:05:42.525
personally I can't remember a time that I was not in the kitchen I've always
00:05:42.525 --> 00:05:45.598
been in it working away trying new things innovating
00:05:45.982 --> 00:05:49.175
I opened my own business when I was 11 years old So I've always known that I
00:05:49.175 --> 00:05:52.495
wanted to be in this industry So it's really cool to actually be technically
00:05:52.495 --> 00:05:57.315
trained now With great mentors, great instructors Nice, 11 years old 11 years
00:05:57.315 --> 00:05:59.094
old Tell me a little bit more about that
00:05:59.506 --> 00:06:02.871
I was actually doing a course of management My elementary school,
00:06:03.355 --> 00:06:07.789
And one day I decided to go to my town office And just get a business license
00:06:08.161 --> 00:06:09.246
And what was the name of the business?
00:06:09.362 --> 00:06:14.244
The Kate Smiths It was with me and my best friend when I was younger That's pretty awesome, yeah,
00:06:14.917 --> 00:06:18.436
Anybody else want to share? When I was younger, I mostly grew up watching my
00:06:18.436 --> 00:06:21.947
mom, and she learned from my baba, which is her mom.
00:06:22.190 --> 00:06:26.656
I also have a Ukrainian background, so it's a big family, but I learned from
00:06:26.656 --> 00:06:29.429
my mom, my baba, my grandma on my dad's side.
00:06:29.743 --> 00:06:34.016
So it's just been in the kitchen since I was four years old or younger.
00:06:34.845 --> 00:06:41.904
And started culinary when I was 18. So it went from cook and into a baker, and I enjoy it.
00:06:42.276 --> 00:06:47.470
Excellent. Yeah, for me, I think I grew up just watching my mom bake a lot.
00:06:47.645 --> 00:06:52.686
And as I got older, she'd let me do more and more stuff. And she would do cakes
00:06:52.686 --> 00:06:57.246
for people. And she'd always have kind of like the scraps and extras left over
00:06:57.246 --> 00:06:59.393
so I could decorate my own.
00:06:59.619 --> 00:07:02.866
Not the best because, you know, I was four. But I don't know,
00:07:02.866 --> 00:07:07.879
that kind of got me into it. And just the hobby has led to a career now, which is kind of cool.
00:07:08.083 --> 00:07:11.546
That's great. And so, yeah, a lot of family connections around the table.
00:07:11.546 --> 00:07:14.396
That's great. And just importance of bringing people together.
00:07:14.396 --> 00:07:15.763
Really love that. OK, that's great.
00:07:16.215 --> 00:07:20.694
So maybe, again, in any particular order, before entering culinary school,
00:07:21.048 --> 00:07:24.949
what did you think the industry would be like and what surprised you the most?
00:07:25.453 --> 00:07:29.321
I think for myself, it's evolved. Industry's evolved a lot over the years.
00:07:29.773 --> 00:07:33.956
But I remember back in high school, you know, watching the Food Network and
00:07:34.336 --> 00:07:37.918
the cooking shows on there. So that was kind of that expectation.
00:07:38.290 --> 00:07:41.756
And then you get into the kitchen and you find out it's a bit of a different
00:07:41.756 --> 00:07:45.926
reality and then you kind of work your way through the paces within the industry.
00:07:46.389 --> 00:07:49.946
What did you notice was different right away? It's a lot more hard work than
00:07:49.946 --> 00:07:56.156
TV portrays sometimes or even Instagram now and TikTok and you got to learn that skill set.
00:07:56.156 --> 00:07:59.566
Sometimes you start off, you know, peeling potatoes, doing prep,
00:07:59.566 --> 00:08:03.662
washing dishes, but you put in the time and you start working your way up. Nice.
00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:09.296
Yeah, I feel like especially early on, It can, it can feel really different.
00:08:09.717 --> 00:08:13.384
The industry can feel really different depending on what type of establishment you're in.
00:08:14.478 --> 00:08:17.138
Maybe, especially when you're young, you might think like, oh,
00:08:17.138 --> 00:08:20.188
it's going to be creativity constantly all the time and you're going to get
00:08:20.188 --> 00:08:22.741
to choose everything and have an input on everything.
00:08:23.206 --> 00:08:27.918
But there's a very real business side of it and reality of like having to just
00:08:27.918 --> 00:08:29.199
simply follow direction.
00:08:29.733 --> 00:08:34.377
And I think a lot of especially young people aren't prepared for that when they enter it to begin with.
00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:39.858
And that's also the benefit of being able to move around to different establishments
00:08:39.858 --> 00:08:41.889
eventually as your career progresses.
00:08:42.312 --> 00:08:45.638
And hopefully finding some creativity and eventually you do get there,
00:08:45.638 --> 00:08:49.455
right? Yeah. But yeah, that's probably a growing pain a lot of people run into. Sure.
00:08:50.184 --> 00:08:54.438
Like I know I started off like working in a care home, so it was slower paced.
00:08:54.438 --> 00:08:59.541
Yeah. Well, when I came to the college and did the program, I'm like, I'm way out of my league.
00:08:59.710 --> 00:09:06.780
Yeah. I'm so far behind, but yet I started growing with it. I got faster and now I'm pretty good.
00:09:07.593 --> 00:09:10.966
For speed wise. That's great. You adapted well. I did. Yeah.
00:09:10.966 --> 00:09:13.996
And you see, you see students grow and evolve and, you know,
00:09:13.996 --> 00:09:17.246
maybe they don't get it the first time, but they're getting that second time
00:09:17.246 --> 00:09:19.936
or third time and they're starting to make that progression.
00:09:19.936 --> 00:09:21.746
So we see that a lot as instructors.
00:09:22.117 --> 00:09:25.586
Um, and then I think two students start to see that a bit within themselves
00:09:25.586 --> 00:09:28.137
and that starts to grow confidence. Nice.
00:09:28.687 --> 00:09:32.686
Yeah. I know for me, it was very intense at first. I was not expecting such
00:09:32.686 --> 00:09:35.116
a fast-paced environment and
00:09:35.116 --> 00:09:39.786
like I've come from like 10 years of retail experience so this was like so.
00:09:40.506 --> 00:09:46.786
Different for me but kind of what Amanda was saying like I when I started I
00:09:46.786 --> 00:09:50.766
pretty much knew nothing so then being able to see even the changes from then
00:09:50.766 --> 00:09:55.310
to now is like holy crap yeah but yeah so just seeing that.
00:09:55.920 --> 00:10:01.064
Changes in myself too is insane like I didn't think I'd be here.
00:10:01.447 --> 00:10:05.360
Yeah, I agree with what my classmates said. It was a lot faster paced than I expected.
00:10:05.766 --> 00:10:09.326
And you had to follow more procedures for each establishment more.
00:10:09.326 --> 00:10:12.156
There was no creativity, really. You could play a little bit,
00:10:12.156 --> 00:10:13.386
but you had to get stuff done.
00:10:13.926 --> 00:10:17.676
You can't just play around. You actually have to get the work done and get products
00:10:17.676 --> 00:10:20.261
sold. Yeah, people are waiting for you. Yeah, right on.
00:10:20.801 --> 00:10:24.886
Thinking about people like Anthony Bourdain. We talked a little but earlier
00:10:24.886 --> 00:10:28.297
before the show started about the menu or the shows like the bear,
00:10:28.831 --> 00:10:31.652
there's some like recent pop culture shows around the industry.
00:10:32.076 --> 00:10:37.906
Do you like how they portray a typical kitchen or what? Any comments?
00:10:37.906 --> 00:10:40.956
I don't know. Are there better shows or better examples out there?
00:10:41.275 --> 00:10:45.364
Carl and I had this conversation just before we started about the bear.
00:10:45.834 --> 00:10:49.968
Neither of us have watched. I think we watched the two first episodes each.
00:10:50.564 --> 00:10:55.556
It was it was a bit almost too realistic for me to watch i think i have to be
00:10:55.556 --> 00:11:00.376
in the right headspace to fully dive into it yeah i'm just not there yet the
00:11:00.816 --> 00:11:05.646
i think that the the feeling that a show like the bear gives you is very on
00:11:05.646 --> 00:11:11.646
point with what you could feel like at the most intense moments of a lot of establishments yeah.
00:11:12.500 --> 00:11:15.165
I, you know, I think the scenarios get a little goofy and silly,
00:11:15.165 --> 00:11:19.355
but the things that the anxious feeling and the stress that induces in you,
00:11:19.355 --> 00:11:24.238
especially if you've even have like a slight remote experience in it.
00:11:24.783 --> 00:11:26.275
Yeah, it feels pretty real. Okay.
00:11:27.915 --> 00:11:31.605
Cause it can be high pressure and it can be a high pressure industry too.
00:11:31.605 --> 00:11:38.670
You don't have much margin for error when it comes to dishes or formulas or product going out.
00:11:39.030 --> 00:11:41.535
Yeah. When you're in a restaurant, like it's filled, you know,
00:11:42.095 --> 00:11:47.755
there's many restaurants in this city, even that has 150, 200, 250 seats.
00:11:48.095 --> 00:11:51.485
And if you are on a Friday, Saturday night and you have that many people waiting
00:11:51.485 --> 00:11:56.335
or in the middle of a meal, it only takes a couple of very small mistakes to
00:11:56.335 --> 00:11:59.196
suddenly cause an avalanche of problems.
00:11:59.614 --> 00:12:03.075
Right. So yeah, it's always a delicate balance. And you're carrying a team.
00:12:03.395 --> 00:12:06.435
Whether you're working in a bakery or a restaurant, you are part of a team.
00:12:06.435 --> 00:12:10.745
So you work together as a team through that. So you, you know,
00:12:10.745 --> 00:12:14.358
you help each other out and hold tight. Yeah.
00:12:14.718 --> 00:12:19.315
How many people are like in a typical line in a restaurant or in a bake shop?
00:12:19.995 --> 00:12:25.664
How big are these teams we're talking about? It can range from like 12 to like 20 people.
00:12:26.575 --> 00:12:30.215
I might say for bakeries, it's a little bit smaller. I think it depends on your
00:12:30.215 --> 00:12:34.185
establishment, but usually it's some sort of team mentality.
00:12:34.185 --> 00:12:38.275
I'd say cooking more so if you're working on a line or a prep team.
00:12:38.595 --> 00:12:42.365
But for bakery, I mean, sometimes, yeah, you're working a little more individually,
00:12:42.365 --> 00:12:46.175
but everything still comes together. Whether you have someone working the ovens,
00:12:46.175 --> 00:12:49.755
mixing, decorating, you're still seeing that product come together.
00:12:49.755 --> 00:12:51.537
It's just a different structure. Sure.
00:12:52.373 --> 00:12:56.744
Yeah, the bake shop, you probably have the benefit of being able to really structure your day. Okay.
00:12:56.953 --> 00:13:01.068
Because you, especially over time, you have a very clear understanding of what
00:13:01.068 --> 00:13:03.868
you need to, what you need to produce, right? Yeah.
00:13:04.188 --> 00:13:07.068
And restaurants, right, when you're doing line short order cooking,
00:13:07.068 --> 00:13:10.918
I've, the biggest restaurant I've worked at, we had on a Saturday night,
00:13:10.918 --> 00:13:15.544
you'd have 13 to 14 people working in the kitchen during a rush.
00:13:16.130 --> 00:13:19.049
And that just comes down to how many stations are in the kitchen.
00:13:19.217 --> 00:13:23.458
And also if you are running prep or if you have a bake shop side of the kitchen
00:13:23.458 --> 00:13:30.168
too that are totally dedicated to just desserts right it all depends on the on setup on setup and how,
00:13:31.075 --> 00:13:34.708
how far they want to go in terms of like in-house desserts and stuff like that
00:13:34.708 --> 00:13:40.158
okay that's great uh let's switch gears now maybe the hardest lesson you've
00:13:40.158 --> 00:13:41.713
learned in the kitchen so far.
00:13:43.179 --> 00:13:47.711
Hmm. Well, that's a tough one. There's a lot of lessons over the years I've learned.
00:13:48.023 --> 00:13:51.656
I think when it comes down to we hold ourselves to a very high standard and
00:13:51.656 --> 00:13:53.856
we do within this industry.
00:13:53.856 --> 00:13:58.316
But sometimes, yeah, you can be pretty hard on yourself with that pressure.
00:13:58.316 --> 00:14:02.606
And it's learning from those hard lessons, too. I think that makes you a better
00:14:03.026 --> 00:14:05.266
chef or baker in the long run in industry.
00:14:06.295 --> 00:14:10.886
Yeah I believe the hardest lesson that I had to learn is to move on from a mistake
00:14:11.164 --> 00:14:12.952
if you make a mistake you don't have the time
00:14:13.248 --> 00:14:16.596
to go back and dwell on it you just have to go into the next thing if it's your
00:14:16.596 --> 00:14:20.256
mistake if you're to redo a product redo it okay you don't have the time just
00:14:20.256 --> 00:14:23.924
to sit there and feel the feelings you just have to keep moving okay
00:14:24.344 --> 00:14:29.056
yeah I feel like personally the biggest challenge that I faced was learning
00:14:29.056 --> 00:14:32.826
a work-life balance yeah prior to working at the Polytechnic,
00:14:33.346 --> 00:14:38.352
I had a three to four month period where I was doing 70 to 80 hours almost weekly,
00:14:38.979 --> 00:14:42.108
and I realized at the end of that that like,
00:14:42.868 --> 00:14:47.266
you're you can be fully consumed by the industry if you let it,
00:14:48.386 --> 00:14:51.242
yeah and you have to be like like very like.
00:14:52.779 --> 00:14:57.216
Deliberate and not letting that happen right or setting boundaries yeah it's
00:14:57.216 --> 00:15:00.366
boundaries right like it and making sure that you maintain life,
00:15:01.326 --> 00:15:04.706
outside of because it is high standards right and it does take a lot from you
00:15:04.706 --> 00:15:08.926
sometimes yeah did you have to force yourself to pick up any hobbies or how'd
00:15:08.926 --> 00:15:14.006
you do it well i love hobbies it's just i wasn't doing any of them 70 80 hours yeah,
00:15:14.646 --> 00:15:18.966
yeah it was rough it was like a good three months where it was like and it's.
00:15:19.866 --> 00:15:21.459
Yeah it's just not good yeah.
00:15:22.281 --> 00:15:25.373
Do you guys go through that, a bit of the talk about mental health and just
00:15:25.373 --> 00:15:27.973
like not dwelling on mistakes and just moving on?
00:15:27.973 --> 00:15:31.973
Like, is that some discussion that happens or there's even no room for that
00:15:31.973 --> 00:15:34.003
because you're still just preparing the food?
00:15:34.003 --> 00:15:37.043
No, I think there's been changes over the years in industry.
00:15:37.043 --> 00:15:41.023
I think that's definitely coming more to the forefront is mental health within
00:15:41.023 --> 00:15:43.363
the industry. And I think that's important to talk about.
00:15:43.883 --> 00:15:50.643
Having resources for employees, I think, and students too, I think is important
00:15:50.643 --> 00:15:54.933
because we do go through a lot of pressure and, you know, just life too,
00:15:54.933 --> 00:15:58.691
right? So having those mental health resources, I think is important.
00:15:59.208 --> 00:16:03.363
And that's changed, I think, over 20 years being in industry too,
00:16:03.363 --> 00:16:06.274
is that's talked about a lot more openly. Yeah.
00:16:06.801 --> 00:16:10.093
Okay. That's really good. Do you think any of that, like you mentioned about
00:16:10.093 --> 00:16:14.519
how there's no time to dwell on those mistakes, do you transfer that to any other area of your life,
00:16:15.111 --> 00:16:19.403
yeah i do i've gone more used to just pushing through in the moment and then
00:16:19.403 --> 00:16:23.003
i can feel it afterwards okay but just kind of finding the time and the place
00:16:23.383 --> 00:16:27.283
because in certain scenarios you truly don't have the time you can take like
00:16:27.283 --> 00:16:30.680
a second to breathe compose yourself and then you have to keep moving yeah.
00:16:31.285 --> 00:16:35.583
Any other tough lessons out there anybody else wants to share you're your own
00:16:35.583 --> 00:16:39.943
critic even when you don't think of it like you can critique yourself so much
00:16:39.943 --> 00:16:45.925
on just a simple tart and then it's like you're blowing it out proportions so big that it's just,
00:16:46.442 --> 00:16:48.172
it's tart let it go,
00:16:48.764 --> 00:16:51.794
you live in the moment and then let it go yeah.
00:16:52.732 --> 00:16:56.473
Or even on like if you're doing a cake and there's a little tiny imperfection
00:16:56.473 --> 00:17:00.643
you see it no one else is going to point it out unless you say like oh look
00:17:00.643 --> 00:17:03.183
at this i don't like it then they'll be like okay maybe but.
00:17:04.312 --> 00:17:07.103
And it's a tough pill to swallow, too, that you're not going to be perfect at
00:17:07.103 --> 00:17:09.763
everything. Yeah. Because I like to be good at everything I do.
00:17:09.763 --> 00:17:12.843
So when I mess up something, it irks me so much.
00:17:13.843 --> 00:17:17.623
Yeah. You can be a perfectionist to a certain extent, but only so much.
00:17:17.623 --> 00:17:19.903
Yeah. You just have to kind of learn to let it go. Yeah.
00:17:20.323 --> 00:17:22.702
Nice. Yeah. Okay. Great.
00:17:23.583 --> 00:17:29.593
Let's give a bit of a snapshot or tell us more about what life is like.
00:17:29.593 --> 00:17:36.563
So for those of us who do not know what the culinary world is like or that we
00:17:36.563 --> 00:17:42.013
don't understand about baking, what is something that you can help tell us a
00:17:42.013 --> 00:17:43.733
story about what that's like?
00:17:43.733 --> 00:17:48.393
What does it look like? Is it 4 a.m. mornings? Like what does that look like exactly?
00:17:48.701 --> 00:17:51.839
I think for me as an instructor, it's a little bit different.
00:17:52.081 --> 00:17:56.246
I do have a little bit more of a work-life balance sometimes,
00:17:56.647 --> 00:18:00.753
but now kind of that focus has shifted more to instructing students,
00:18:00.753 --> 00:18:05.784
teaching students, and working on professional development opportunities as well.
00:18:06.180 --> 00:18:10.073
And networking, I think it's good to always have mentorship as well.
00:18:10.073 --> 00:18:13.370
So if you can find someone you can mentor under that can kind of
00:18:13.760 --> 00:18:17.853
help you through those paces, if it's a place that you work,
00:18:17.853 --> 00:18:23.743
a friend, family member, instructor, co-worker, colleague, I think that's very
00:18:23.743 --> 00:18:25.140
beneficial in the long run.
00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:30.351
Again, within this industry too, I think teamwork and collaboration are a huge part of it.
00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:34.130
Did you have a mentor? Do you have one now?
00:18:35.116 --> 00:18:40.218
I do have a couple now that have definitely helped, especially with instructing,
00:18:40.218 --> 00:18:42.929
too, because instructing and industry are a little bit different.
00:18:43.401 --> 00:18:48.243
So it's a bit of a different pace. So learning that instructing side and how to teach students.
00:18:48.568 --> 00:18:51.685
Yeah, you have apprentices in industry and you're training them.
00:18:52.016 --> 00:18:55.158
But then when you move to the instructor side, it's a lot different.
00:18:55.458 --> 00:18:58.528
So having those mentorships in place. I think when I first started,
00:18:59.306 --> 00:19:02.538
I didn't have that mentorship in place and it was a bit more of a struggle.
00:19:02.538 --> 00:19:05.704
And then I found some different mentors to definitely help with that.
00:19:05.908 --> 00:19:07.400
Do you want to give shout outs to any of them?
00:19:08.427 --> 00:19:13.356
Alan Dumonceau at NAIT. Okay. He's been a huge mentor to me.
00:19:13.356 --> 00:19:17.096
So if I have questions or if I'm uncertain about something as well,
00:19:17.736 --> 00:19:21.036
he's a great resource for myself. And he is a phenomenal baker.
00:19:21.036 --> 00:19:22.664
Okay. Phenomenal. That's great.
00:19:23.041 --> 00:19:26.756
And did you grow up in the Edmonton area or you just networked? Networked. Yeah.
00:19:27.056 --> 00:19:30.866
Networked through Skills Alberta. Okay. So that's where I first met him.
00:19:30.866 --> 00:19:36.076
And yeah, I do a lot of volunteer work with Skills Canada. Great.
00:19:36.595 --> 00:19:39.677
Speaking on mentorship, I want to give a shout out to Chef Amanda.
00:19:40.108 --> 00:19:44.130
I've worked with her a lot closely because I just competed at the Provincial Skills Competition.
00:19:44.473 --> 00:19:47.329
So I've been working with her for the past couple of months really closely.
00:19:47.602 --> 00:19:49.668
And she's been a teacher to a lot of people.
00:19:50.011 --> 00:19:54.176
So I just want to give a quick shout out to her. She's absolutely amazing. Thanks, Rowan.
00:19:55.776 --> 00:19:58.916
You've been a delight to instruct. Actually, all of you have been a delight
00:19:58.916 --> 00:20:02.102
to instruct this year. Yeah, you brought in the right students.
00:20:04.309 --> 00:20:07.936
Tell me about skills. How'd you do? I got fourth in the province.
00:20:07.936 --> 00:20:11.158
Congrats. So it was a lot of hard work. Yeah.
00:20:11.415 --> 00:20:15.506
I would work eight hour shifts sometimes and then come here for four hours or
00:20:15.506 --> 00:20:18.583
I'd be here for 10 plus hours on certain days. Okay.
00:20:18.943 --> 00:20:22.816
Multiple times a week. Yeah. So it was a lot of hard work, but it was so worth it.
00:20:23.216 --> 00:20:26.577
I got a lot of opportunities to network and meet a bunch of people. Yeah.
00:20:26.896 --> 00:20:31.146
So I definitely recommend competing to any people who want to in their respective
00:20:31.146 --> 00:20:32.456
fields. That's really good to know.
00:20:33.096 --> 00:20:35.770
What do skills look like? It's a week. It's a day. What is it?
00:20:36.020 --> 00:20:39.946
For baking, it was a day-long competition, so about eight hours. Okay.
00:20:40.219 --> 00:20:45.948
And you just go for the one day from morning till night, do a bunch of different things in it.
00:20:46.273 --> 00:20:50.290
So I had to make four separate, three separate things.
00:20:51.045 --> 00:20:54.319
Yeah, you did three separate things. Three things. I don't even remember now.
00:20:54.679 --> 00:20:57.100
But I had to make three separate things in seven hours.
00:20:57.700 --> 00:21:01.342
So it was a rush to get everything done. Did you know what you're going to make before you got there?
00:21:01.642 --> 00:21:05.232
Okay. Yeah, I've been preparing since December. Okay. For the competition.
00:21:05.232 --> 00:21:07.586
Amazing. But what did you make, Rowan? Yeah.
00:21:07.713 --> 00:21:13.042
I had to make two gatos in honoris, 12 hand-cut, hand-dipped chocolate bars,
00:21:13.042 --> 00:21:14.255
and a three-tier wedding cake.
00:21:14.991 --> 00:21:20.872
Phenomenal. Yeah, so it was really busy preparing for that competition. I'm really proud of her.
00:21:21.296 --> 00:21:26.195
We also have regional skills. So at the high school level, we host that here at the Polytechnic.
00:21:26.532 --> 00:21:31.222
And then we have provincial skills. And I believe national skills is going on
00:21:31.222 --> 00:21:35.573
right now as well. So it's a pretty exciting event. Yeah, no kidding.
00:21:36.084 --> 00:21:39.201
Any of the other students here? Did you guys compete in skills?
00:21:39.942 --> 00:21:43.979
I didn't compete. I did volunteer for a day during the high school.
00:21:44.171 --> 00:21:47.294
Regional skills. Regional skills here at the Polytechnic.
00:21:48.231 --> 00:21:52.272
And that was interesting to see. I personally have never done any competing
00:21:52.272 --> 00:21:56.162
at all. I thought about it, but I just wasn't able to as I was a student.
00:21:56.162 --> 00:21:57.375
Sure. Yeah, fair enough.
00:21:57.590 --> 00:22:03.188
Has culinary school changed the way any of you see food, restaurants, or even yourself?
00:22:03.631 --> 00:22:08.662
I mean, for me, I would always kind of go to the same places,
00:22:09.186 --> 00:22:13.322
to eat and things like that, but after kind of being in the industry,
00:22:13.642 --> 00:22:17.232
I find that I'm a lot more open-minded and like, I want to try new things and
00:22:17.232 --> 00:22:19.772
like, oh, this is a new bakery. I want to go there. Excellent.
00:22:20.110 --> 00:22:22.962
I just love seeing all the different things and I like trying new things.
00:22:22.962 --> 00:22:25.050
Yeah. And it's just really interesting.
00:22:26.359 --> 00:22:29.810
Yeah. Nice. no like growing up my mom would always tell us,
00:22:30.422 --> 00:22:33.882
try something new you'll never know if you don't like it if you don't try it
00:22:34.067 --> 00:22:41.393
yeah so as i did cook i started realizing how much i will critique my grandma and my dad,
00:22:41.858 --> 00:22:47.022
on how much they will eat hamburger with a little bit of pink and i'm like that's
00:22:47.022 --> 00:22:50.426
still raw yeah that's not cooked you're gonna get,
00:22:51.019 --> 00:22:55.234
E. coli here. Yeah. Do they take the critique well or?
00:22:55.634 --> 00:22:58.515
No, they just brush it over the shoulder and still eat it. Oh,
00:22:58.515 --> 00:23:02.435
yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, they're still here. Yeah. Right on.
00:23:03.361 --> 00:23:07.275
That's good. Open-minded. Is that for all of you or do you become more discretionary
00:23:07.275 --> 00:23:11.087
and you only choose your favorites after you've been in the kitchen so much or what?
00:23:11.430 --> 00:23:15.895
I think I get pretty excited. So if there's a new ingredient that I haven't
00:23:15.895 --> 00:23:20.895
even seen before or if I'm traveling, traveling is a really good experience
00:23:20.895 --> 00:23:24.355
to try new foods, new cultures. I still find it exciting.
00:23:25.015 --> 00:23:30.808
That's one of the highlights, I think, of this industry too, is the cultures as well.
00:23:31.127 --> 00:23:35.555
So if you get a chance to travel and eat food, I mean, immerse yourself in the culture.
00:23:35.975 --> 00:23:39.635
It's pretty eye-opening. Yeah. Any favorite places you've been to or any favorite
00:23:39.635 --> 00:23:42.015
restaurants? I did a study tour in Italy.
00:23:42.415 --> 00:23:47.612
So we flew into Rome and then we kind of ate our way down from Roman to Sicily. Excellent.
00:23:47.768 --> 00:23:51.745
To put it a better way, but it was, it was phenomenal. We got to eat at a lot
00:23:51.745 --> 00:23:53.796
of restaurants, food markets.
00:23:54.051 --> 00:23:58.555
We got to make, we did a little cooking class in Sicily. So we got to cook with
00:23:58.555 --> 00:24:02.515
octopus and shark and yeah, we got to make limoncello.
00:24:03.195 --> 00:24:06.492
Yeah, it was a great experience. Nice. Sounds really good.
00:24:07.015 --> 00:24:10.535
Okay. Let's go to the next one. What's one moment in the program that made you
00:24:10.535 --> 00:24:12.275
feel proud of how far you've come?
00:24:12.658 --> 00:24:17.925
Probably early on in the first level, I was pretty happy with myself when I
00:24:17.925 --> 00:24:22.795
successfully made a cake that wasn't dense and awful tasting.
00:24:25.277 --> 00:24:31.031
But honestly, every, probably almost every week that we're in class doing something, I'm learning a lot.
00:24:31.466 --> 00:24:36.725
My background is mostly with cooking and culinary. I did my red seal about nine
00:24:36.725 --> 00:24:40.005
years ago is when I completed it at the Polytechnic as well.
00:24:40.517 --> 00:24:44.575
So since then, it's just been straight cooking in kitchens, catering businesses.
00:24:44.975 --> 00:24:48.380
And so this was my first major step into baking.
00:24:49.012 --> 00:24:54.250
So this last, this past year has been a lot of new knowledge and learning.
00:24:54.933 --> 00:24:59.741
And so it's just kind of putting it into practice has done a lot for me. That's great.
00:25:00.288 --> 00:25:05.273
Anybody else? Some proud moments there? I think every time, like watching how
00:25:05.273 --> 00:25:11.063
fast I get, because I used to be so slow, taking my time, making sure I'm measuring everything.
00:25:11.563 --> 00:25:15.120
But now I know what I'm doing. I know that I'm capable of making the recipes
00:25:15.317 --> 00:25:17.803
so I can go faster and I can improve my speed.
00:25:17.803 --> 00:25:21.627
And I'm still making great product or even in my decorating skills,
00:25:21.947 --> 00:25:26.083
I can make gum paste roses and all this really fast, really delicate.
00:25:26.083 --> 00:25:29.453
And just seeing the growth from that, the first ones I made in first year to
00:25:29.453 --> 00:25:32.320
now, it makes me pretty proud. Excellent.
00:25:32.985 --> 00:25:36.743
I mean, yeah, even first year when you're just trying to get like the basics
00:25:36.743 --> 00:25:41.483
down to now when you're like, okay, I have time to make this look pretty and
00:25:41.483 --> 00:25:44.421
decorate it a bit more and put more details into it.
00:25:45.611 --> 00:25:50.145
Like yeah it's just it's a lot of fun to like actually get to play with it more sure.
00:25:51.486 --> 00:25:56.912
Just trying to regain your bearings after like you take a too long break is,
00:25:57.545 --> 00:26:01.220
a challenge for me because i took two years off to get more experience sure
00:26:01.603 --> 00:26:05.953
so coming back it's like trying to get that muscle memory back into my hands
00:26:05.953 --> 00:26:09.701
for mixing measuring knowing my stuff again yeah,
00:26:10.825 --> 00:26:15.263
yeah so you can't let it slide you can't just yeah it's got to always keep on
00:26:15.263 --> 00:26:19.967
practicing that's the only way you'll know if you'd keep down that you got it yeah.
00:26:21.536 --> 00:26:25.448
Funniest or most chaotic thing that's happened during class or service?
00:26:25.448 --> 00:26:29.199
So let's hear some of these horror stories, if there's any.
00:26:29.582 --> 00:26:31.486
Or funniest, it doesn't have to be scary.
00:26:32.154 --> 00:26:37.678
So in one of our first years in the baking apprenticeship, we were all making
00:26:37.678 --> 00:26:41.291
cakes and we had to taste test them and they were really, really salty.
00:26:41.860 --> 00:26:46.718
So someone accidentally put the salt in our sugar container and all of our cakes were ruined.
00:26:47.058 --> 00:26:51.298
So we had to remake them all. And yeah, we were all laughing pretty hard.
00:26:51.938 --> 00:26:54.988
Was that deliberate or mislabeled? No, I think it was an accident.
00:26:54.988 --> 00:27:00.008
Usually every couple of years, someone accidentally puts salt in the sugar bin.
00:27:00.008 --> 00:27:02.708
It's kind of a culinary class. That's hilarious.
00:27:03.016 --> 00:27:06.298
Because we normally like have different, like we normally get like a big bowl
00:27:06.298 --> 00:27:08.848
of ingredients and just put it at our table. So when we're done using it,
00:27:08.848 --> 00:27:12.538
we put it back. So someone's probably like, oh, this is obviously sugar. Yeah. And it was not.
00:27:13.298 --> 00:27:16.758
It's a good lesson learned. Yeah. Did we learn from it? Yes.
00:27:17.078 --> 00:27:19.978
Hasn't happened again. Hasn't happened again. Don't jinx us.
00:27:21.593 --> 00:27:26.098
We know better yeah another fun one is like well it happened today when we have
00:27:26.098 --> 00:27:31.578
a large batch of dough that clearly there was something mismeasured or forgotten
00:27:31.978 --> 00:27:35.438
and and it also this is it's also in some way a good opportunity to,
00:27:35.958 --> 00:27:41.118
apply some of the learning because if you have 50 pound ball of dough that is
00:27:41.118 --> 00:27:44.758
going to be garbage like that's significant amount of waste yeah so you know
00:27:44.758 --> 00:27:47.878
when we have to sit down redo the math go through the recipe and look at all
00:27:47.878 --> 00:27:49.618
the percentages and trying to,
00:27:50.078 --> 00:27:53.989
deduce what was missed or what was added too much of.
00:27:54.877 --> 00:27:58.972
You know, it's it's a good opportunity to to practice that. But yeah,
00:27:58.972 --> 00:28:01.312
that does get chaotic for sure, because then it puts you behind,
00:28:01.312 --> 00:28:04.402
you know, 20, 30 minutes on what you're trying to do. Right.
00:28:04.702 --> 00:28:10.562
And so, yeah, I think some other fun ones, too, like just bakery pranks or kitchen
00:28:10.562 --> 00:28:12.482
pranks. There's always the classics.
00:28:12.902 --> 00:28:16.002
So those are always fun as well. I haven't done any for you yet,
00:28:16.002 --> 00:28:18.942
Carl, but there's some hazing in there or something.
00:28:20.362 --> 00:28:24.072
There's sometimes I think out in industry, too. Like if I think back to industry,
00:28:24.072 --> 00:28:26.732
I mean, yeah, there's definitely the pranks. You go to the other kitchen and
00:28:26.732 --> 00:28:31.182
ask for a bag of steam or, you know, the classics. I'm far too seasoned for
00:28:31.182 --> 00:28:33.162
that to work, but. We'll see.
00:28:34.042 --> 00:28:35.902
Excellent. Can't wait to hear.
00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:41.112
Even this morning, too, putting stuff in a mixer and then turning it on and
00:28:41.112 --> 00:28:43.872
being like, oh, there's a bit too much in the mixer and it all comes out.
00:28:43.872 --> 00:28:45.822
I don't know if we did that. That was you.
00:28:46.702 --> 00:28:49.772
Everyone's doing their own thing and we just hear, ah, and then we all turn.
00:28:49.772 --> 00:28:52.882
It's just all on the floor. Yes.
00:28:54.351 --> 00:28:58.679
Right on. So back to Amanda, how do you help students build confidence after
00:28:58.679 --> 00:29:00.078
failure or tough feedback?
00:29:00.618 --> 00:29:04.109
Well, even today, like we had a mismeasurement. So we stop what we're doing.
00:29:04.769 --> 00:29:09.499
We take a look at what was weighed out. How do we fix this? So I think focusing
00:29:09.499 --> 00:29:12.809
on the lesson learned, how do we learn from this?
00:29:13.129 --> 00:29:15.109
How do we make sure that doesn't happen again?
00:29:15.569 --> 00:29:20.069
What are the steps that we take to move forward? And sometimes it's life lessons,
00:29:20.069 --> 00:29:22.313
too. It's not always just about the product.
00:29:22.667 --> 00:29:28.718
So it can be things like how to take criticism or constructive feedback how to work within a team,
00:29:29.236 --> 00:29:33.639
how to manage emotions can be some of those life lessons that are learned as
00:29:33.639 --> 00:29:39.129
well along with how to get your technical skills up there so you know how ingredients
00:29:39.129 --> 00:29:40.881
function those sort of things right.
00:29:42.409 --> 00:29:46.499
On i will say that chef amanda does do an amazing job when you do make a mistake
00:29:46.499 --> 00:29:50.089
it's very much a learning opportunity it's not like can't believe you did this
00:29:50.089 --> 00:29:54.049
like you should know better It's okay, how do we go from here fixing it?
00:29:54.049 --> 00:29:57.304
Like, you know what you did wrong, we're not going to do that again, right?
00:29:57.722 --> 00:30:00.299
And even like, if there's not something you're quite grasping,
00:30:00.299 --> 00:30:03.969
like, she's very approachable outside of class to go and be like,
00:30:03.969 --> 00:30:06.939
okay, I'm not getting this or like, here's stuff that's happening in like my
00:30:06.939 --> 00:30:12.496
personal life that's affecting me. And she's very good at kind of accommodating that. Okay.
00:30:13.352 --> 00:30:16.345
Just helping you do the best that you can. Because at the end of the day,
00:30:16.345 --> 00:30:18.965
you can really tell she wants you to learn and know your stuff and she wants
00:30:18.965 --> 00:30:20.895
you to succeed, which is just... I do.
00:30:21.875 --> 00:30:25.113
Well, and I always tell them too, like, you know, once you go out into industry,
00:30:25.368 --> 00:30:28.695
I mean, I'm always there, you can email me, but you're going to have to,
00:30:29.075 --> 00:30:33.065
you know, train the next generation too. So after you graduate,
00:30:33.065 --> 00:30:35.401
you get your Red Seal, you may have apprentices under you.
00:30:35.697 --> 00:30:38.520
You're going to have to learn to, you know, teach them as well.
00:30:38.863 --> 00:30:41.995
So I think, you know, having those connections because eventually you're going
00:30:41.995 --> 00:30:46.004
to be the ones in industry, doing some of that training as well.
00:30:46.229 --> 00:30:51.921
So it's giving you those skills to work with and have that confidence within yourself.
00:30:52.726 --> 00:30:55.471
So things have come a long way since Chef Gordon Ramsay?
00:30:57.317 --> 00:31:01.944
Has anybody lived through those experiences? Have you had people like that you've had to work under?
00:31:02.460 --> 00:31:07.684
Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I think, again, it probably depends on the bakery or the establishment
00:31:07.684 --> 00:31:12.624
itself, but it all comes down to the culture that's, you know, created. Yeah.
00:31:13.044 --> 00:31:16.244
And you have to be really thoughtful on that. And like, if you're a manager
00:31:16.244 --> 00:31:20.614
or owner that wants a good environment, you have to go out of your way to make that happen. Right.
00:31:20.924 --> 00:31:25.954
But yeah, there's definitely moments, right, where people fly off the handle.
00:31:25.954 --> 00:31:29.114
And honestly, sometimes, in my opinion, it's warranted. Okay.
00:31:29.114 --> 00:31:32.084
Like it makes sense, but you have to, you have to ring it in,
00:31:32.084 --> 00:31:34.647
right? Like you can't just go wild all the time. Right.
00:31:35.082 --> 00:31:38.464
Or else it's just, no one can take you seriously. Right. Exactly.
00:31:39.364 --> 00:31:43.934
Who's going to lose it next? Yeah. Okay. But yeah, I mean, of course in a learning
00:31:43.934 --> 00:31:47.774
atmosphere like this, like it's, there's not a better place to mess up.
00:31:47.774 --> 00:31:52.625
Right. Cause then it's just, you can actually learn from it and room to grow from it. Yeah.
00:31:53.104 --> 00:31:57.724
Anybody else have any people worked under that it's been like a bad experience
00:31:57.724 --> 00:32:01.524
or a lot different than what Chef Kaczak is teaching?
00:32:01.644 --> 00:32:05.044
I think you have different styles. So you have different styles of teaching.
00:32:05.044 --> 00:32:08.524
Yeah. You have different styles of management. Right. And you have to go with
00:32:08.524 --> 00:32:09.984
what works for your establishment.
00:32:10.304 --> 00:32:12.934
And classes are different too. So you get different classes.
00:32:12.934 --> 00:32:16.536
Your management style changes sometimes depending on the classroom as well.
00:32:16.699 --> 00:32:20.005
Why is Bakeshop such an important foundation for culinary students?
00:32:20.786 --> 00:32:24.734
Well, I've noticed having gone through the culinary and worked in the culinary
00:32:24.734 --> 00:32:31.524
industry a lot, and now I'm moving into the baking side, there's a lot of crossover in various areas.
00:32:32.004 --> 00:32:35.084
I mean, you have lots of savory baking, and then you also have lots of cooking
00:32:35.084 --> 00:32:37.933
that integrates sweet aspects and like...
00:32:39.082 --> 00:32:42.586
And so if you can have a good understanding of both sides, right,
00:32:42.586 --> 00:32:47.446
that's just going to help you execute your job and it'll add to your creativity
00:32:47.446 --> 00:32:51.344
and your ability to adapt and to make and to be creative, right?
00:32:52.165 --> 00:32:54.586
Baking's not easy compared to the rest of the kitchen, is it?
00:32:54.606 --> 00:32:56.536
It's kind of like a higher level.
00:32:56.546 --> 00:33:01.099
It has. I mean, it's different, right? It just has its own challenges. Sure.
00:33:02.199 --> 00:33:05.946
For sure. It definitely has its own challenges, yeah. I think understanding
00:33:05.946 --> 00:33:08.786
where your food comes from, too. There's a lot more that goes into it.
00:33:09.546 --> 00:33:13.656
I think then sometimes people realize, I mean, you know, supporting that local
00:33:13.656 --> 00:33:17.829
economy, you know, local businesses, I think is important as well.
00:33:18.328 --> 00:33:21.474
Yeah, it's really interesting. I just love that concept. And if you can like,
00:33:21.910 --> 00:33:25.646
I know that happened a lot with a store that's a restaurant that's closed now,
00:33:25.646 --> 00:33:30.356
but like Mocha Cabana, they're really partnered well with the Polytechnic.
00:33:30.356 --> 00:33:33.026
I don't know if there's those partnerships that are continuing,
00:33:33.026 --> 00:33:37.346
but I really like that idea of like the supporting local or like the 100 mile diet.
00:33:37.746 --> 00:33:40.895
Yeah, like we just had a local producers gala back in April.
00:33:41.092 --> 00:33:44.146
So we had a lot of producers at the Polytech, local businesses.
00:33:44.146 --> 00:33:47.803
So we like to, I know as instructors, we like to stay involved.
00:33:48.058 --> 00:33:52.436
Keeping contact with alumni as well, I think is important because they're the
00:33:52.436 --> 00:33:54.536
ones working within that industry.
00:33:55.094 --> 00:34:00.967
So again, keeping, yeah, keeping relevant within the businesses that are local to Leftbridge here.
00:34:02.868 --> 00:34:05.880
Right. We've talked about it a bit, but are there any other changes that we
00:34:05.880 --> 00:34:08.386
haven't mentioned that you've seen over the years?
00:34:09.530 --> 00:34:12.870
How the industry has changed or evolved or? Kind of ebbs and flows.
00:34:12.870 --> 00:34:14.782
I mean, economies affect stuff.
00:34:15.480 --> 00:34:19.810
You know, COVID was a big thing that affected the industry, I think,
00:34:19.810 --> 00:34:22.629
quite a bit. So that's still recovering a little bit.
00:34:23.043 --> 00:34:28.050
But yeah, I mean, over my career and my experience, there's different changes
00:34:28.050 --> 00:34:31.100
and it depends where you work too. I mean, if you're working in a catering company,
00:34:31.100 --> 00:34:37.263
small bakery, big establishment, hotels, it's different across the board. Yeah.
00:34:37.670 --> 00:34:41.900
It's definitely with inflation, just noticing like how much the price of food
00:34:41.900 --> 00:34:44.690
has gone up, how much in the last year, two years, three years.
00:34:44.690 --> 00:34:49.520
Yeah. Even with crops too. I mean, you hear of, you know, certain crops,
00:34:49.520 --> 00:34:52.440
it wasn't a good year and prices are going up on that.
00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:57.840
So I think as experts in the culinary industry, we're always adapting and working
00:34:57.840 --> 00:35:03.150
through ways to keep costs a little bit lower so that it's a little bit more survivable.
00:35:03.750 --> 00:35:08.434
So you're always shifting your menu items depending on what's pricey or where you have to go.
00:35:09.044 --> 00:35:13.763
That's, that's just how the industry goes. Yeah. I don't, I think a lot of people don't realize how.
00:35:14.623 --> 00:35:20.120
Small profit margins are for most restaurants, bakeries, all these establishments,
00:35:20.619 --> 00:35:26.703
that it takes a lot of effort and creativity to be able to shave out a little
00:35:26.703 --> 00:35:29.693
bit and still deliver something that people want to buy.
00:35:29.693 --> 00:35:33.283
Yeah. So it's not about, it's not necessarily, I want to say it's cutting corners.
00:35:33.283 --> 00:35:39.253
It's just trying to be the most efficient that you can with the product that you have.
00:35:39.253 --> 00:35:43.023
Right. So it was like tomatoes recently, like in the last two months,
00:35:43.023 --> 00:35:45.483
there was massive crop issues down in the States from where we,
00:35:45.803 --> 00:35:51.297
I mean, at least for us, where we source our tomatoes and they've jumped like 40, 50%.
00:35:51.477 --> 00:35:55.232
And it's like, suddenly if that's a period of time where that price increase,
00:35:55.545 --> 00:35:59.433
you're simply not going to see it on the, on menus. Like restaurants will,
00:35:59.433 --> 00:36:02.819
they'll have to take it off, right? Because you can't just eat that much cost.
00:36:03.190 --> 00:36:06.570
Or another big one was romaine. This was, I think last year,
00:36:07.243 --> 00:36:10.473
you might've noticed, I don't know if anyone noticed, but there's a lot of restaurants
00:36:10.473 --> 00:36:15.103
that switched to spinach for their Caesar salads because romaine jumped crazy
00:36:15.103 --> 00:36:18.673
and it's, and a lot of it comes down to crops and yields, right?
00:36:18.987 --> 00:36:22.933
So a lot of little things like that, that people might not think about or realize
00:36:22.933 --> 00:36:27.123
that go into it. And I mean, yeah, you look at prices on menus and it is shocking
00:36:27.123 --> 00:36:29.751
sometimes, right? It's unfortunate.
00:36:31.167 --> 00:36:35.724
I also think social media has definitely evolved over the years too.
00:36:35.724 --> 00:36:41.134
So, you know, it's, you see something on Instagram and you're like, oh, I want to make that.
00:36:41.134 --> 00:36:45.334
But there's a lot more that goes behind the scenes on social media than what
00:36:45.334 --> 00:36:50.734
you're seeing on a daily basis in your Instagram feed or TikTok or whatever's
00:36:50.734 --> 00:36:54.574
popular. So food's going through, I think, more rapid trends as well.
00:36:55.054 --> 00:37:00.054
So as that's evolving, artificial intelligence has become a hot topic lately too.
00:37:00.374 --> 00:37:05.684
So I think that's probably prevalent in most industries. How does AI figure
00:37:05.684 --> 00:37:07.492
into the culinary world, if at all?
00:37:07.852 --> 00:37:11.354
Well, on the teaching side of it, with me running boot camps,
00:37:12.294 --> 00:37:16.134
you often have to come up with recipes, right, and build out plans.
00:37:17.008 --> 00:37:20.004
So in my experience using AI, I've actually been able to use,
00:37:20.004 --> 00:37:24.924
I'll feed it a recipe and I'll have it convert it to the size of recipe that I want.
00:37:24.924 --> 00:37:29.474
Nice. Right. So instead of me having to go through each percentage of every item, right.
00:37:29.474 --> 00:37:33.464
I can simply give it a yield that I want and then you still have to check it.
00:37:33.464 --> 00:37:36.404
It's we're nowhere near the point where you can just, you know,
00:37:36.404 --> 00:37:40.074
ask it to do something and then just wing it. Right. But it definitely shaves
00:37:40.074 --> 00:37:41.574
down a lot of time for sure.
00:37:41.594 --> 00:37:44.514
As long as it's not telling you to put their salt in the sugar or something. Yeah.
00:37:44.974 --> 00:37:48.794
In, in, within the industry, I don't know if there's a lot of application.
00:37:48.794 --> 00:37:52.874
I mean, I'm sure on the, more than likely, it's more about distribution side.
00:37:53.214 --> 00:37:58.404
So if like companies like Cisco, GFS, they're probably using it to try and like.
00:37:59.254 --> 00:38:02.839
Be more efficient with how they run their backend. Right. But I don't know,
00:38:03.315 --> 00:38:06.594
maybe, I don't know about the creative side. Like, I don't know if AI would be very creative.
00:38:06.814 --> 00:38:11.524
Like with the creative side though, I'm noticing a lot of like pictures on social
00:38:11.524 --> 00:38:15.036
media that are unrealistic. I'm like, well, that's AI. Yeah.
00:38:15.454 --> 00:38:21.004
But maybe to an untrained eye, that's people's expectation of things as well.
00:38:21.004 --> 00:38:23.169
So that's definitely rapidly changing.
00:38:23.582 --> 00:38:28.374
But at the end of the day, we're the ones that are hands-on making that product.
00:38:28.374 --> 00:38:32.484
And I don't see that changing anytime soon. Yeah, fair enough.
00:38:33.054 --> 00:38:38.661
Is there any class or portion of the training that involves looking at margins
00:38:38.661 --> 00:38:40.021
or budgeting or things like that?
00:38:40.021 --> 00:38:43.961
Or is that a different class or a different area? We do a little bit.
00:38:44.421 --> 00:38:48.761
I think in culinary we do as well. And then a lot of what students are making,
00:38:48.761 --> 00:38:52.744
we sell here at the Polytech as well. So it's student-made product in our market.
00:38:53.092 --> 00:38:56.357
Everything gets used, so they get to be proud of the product that they're putting out.
00:38:56.705 --> 00:38:59.887
And we have different applications that we use it within our culinary program.
00:39:00.218 --> 00:39:04.261
So they get to see that finished result and they get that feedback from customers
00:39:04.261 --> 00:39:07.745
as well, which I think is really important for them to hear and to see.
00:39:08.130 --> 00:39:11.165
I think it helps build that confidence within our students.
00:39:12.185 --> 00:39:16.451
Yeah, I actually really enjoy, especially when we're in the middle of the school
00:39:16.451 --> 00:39:19.224
year and we fill up the market,
00:39:20.241 --> 00:39:24.491
by the cafeteria there and all the shelves are full and then like three or four
00:39:24.491 --> 00:39:26.781
hours later you go back out there and everything's gone, right?
00:39:26.781 --> 00:39:27.761
Because people have bought it, right?
00:39:28.281 --> 00:39:32.561
And a lot of people get excited about almost basically everything we put out there.
00:39:32.991 --> 00:39:36.801
I know there's the famous donut day that we kind of do usually.
00:39:37.161 --> 00:39:38.381
I need to find out what the schedule is.
00:39:39.921 --> 00:39:43.961
I think it's changed every year, hasn't it? Yeah, I think that's a first for
00:39:43.961 --> 00:39:47.571
this year. Oh, was it? Yeah, so when I used to teach diploma,
00:39:47.571 --> 00:39:50.482
we would do pie sales. We would do different sales.
00:39:50.726 --> 00:39:54.471
This year they did a donut sale, but I usually get students involved with it.
00:39:54.471 --> 00:39:57.601
And they get pretty hyped up and excited about producing that.
00:39:57.601 --> 00:40:00.621
And they see how much hard work goes into it, which I think is important as
00:40:00.621 --> 00:40:05.992
well, because it's more a realistic depiction, I think, of industry. Yeah. Right.
00:40:06.944 --> 00:40:10.031
Just two more questions here. What's your dream after graduation?
00:40:10.031 --> 00:40:12.181
So for the four of you students here.
00:40:13.195 --> 00:40:16.935
Or three students and instructional assistants. Well, for myself,
00:40:16.935 --> 00:40:21.295
I'm excited to continue improving my instructing abilities.
00:40:21.886 --> 00:40:26.325
Being an instructional assistant, it's almost like you have a mentor that is
00:40:26.325 --> 00:40:29.407
the faculty instructor that you're working with or helping.
00:40:29.773 --> 00:40:34.205
So it's honestly a good opportunity to learn a lot. It doesn't matter who you're with.
00:40:34.205 --> 00:40:38.935
I've worked under a couple different faculty chefs now, and you get to see all
00:40:38.935 --> 00:40:42.885
the different teaching and managing styles. You also get to see the different
00:40:42.885 --> 00:40:46.961
paces, depending on what section of the program that you're working in.
00:40:47.536 --> 00:40:52.765
So yeah, after I finish my Red Seal here, just continue on implementing and
00:40:52.765 --> 00:40:55.211
getting better and executing what I've learned.
00:40:55.988 --> 00:41:00.845
I know for myself, once I'm done, I am thinking of opening up my own little
00:41:00.845 --> 00:41:03.487
shop in a small town in Saskatchewan. Okay.
00:41:04.082 --> 00:41:10.865
Whereabouts? I haven't decided. I'm kind of thinking like Central Butte or somewhere small.
00:41:10.865 --> 00:41:16.625
Like even Watrous okay just going somewhere small and then maybe having it continue
00:41:16.625 --> 00:41:18.235
through the family if I get married
00:41:18.595 --> 00:41:23.565
that's great I know for me I've always wanted to own my own business but I really
00:41:23.565 --> 00:41:27.365
want to go work for maybe some hotels where I can do the more decorative side
00:41:27.365 --> 00:41:30.294
show pieces the really technical skills,
00:41:30.839 --> 00:41:34.235
like lamination all that stuff because that's what I really find interesting
00:41:34.675 --> 00:41:37.765
so I want to find somewhere I can perfect those skills before I go and open
00:41:37.765 --> 00:41:39.310
my own business somewhere nice okay.
00:41:40.163 --> 00:41:44.470
Yeah, I think right now, I'm just still kind of getting the basics just because
00:41:44.470 --> 00:41:46.000
I am pretty new to the industry.
00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:50.101
So I'm just going to probably take a few years where I am now,
00:41:50.443 --> 00:41:54.570
and then maybe venture out a little bit afterwards. Just got to walk before
00:41:54.570 --> 00:41:56.986
I can run, you know? Yeah, exactly. That's good.
00:41:57.618 --> 00:42:01.610
Any last comments that you want to make? So the question is,
00:42:01.610 --> 00:42:04.900
is there anything that you'd like to share with the rest of us?
00:42:04.900 --> 00:42:09.670
Maybe a secret talent or something that we haven't shared in today's podcast
00:42:09.670 --> 00:42:11.143
that you'd love to share with the rest of us?
00:42:11.346 --> 00:42:13.470
Maybe it's in the culinary world, maybe it's in the kitchen,
00:42:13.470 --> 00:42:15.840
maybe it's outside, maybe somebody rides a unicycle, who knows?
00:42:17.628 --> 00:42:22.208
Well keeping it culinary related a little over a year ago I started making my own bread at home,
00:42:22.759 --> 00:42:27.380
it was one of those skills that took a little bit of effort to learn but after,
00:42:27.880 --> 00:42:31.180
you get used to it you realize that you can save a lot of money making your
00:42:31.180 --> 00:42:36.055
own bread and it can actually be extremely simple and personally I found that,
00:42:36.692 --> 00:42:41.410
making something like by yourself at home can taste a lot better and make you
00:42:41.410 --> 00:42:44.180
feel a little bit better too a little less processed you know exactly what you're
00:42:44.180 --> 00:42:47.760
putting into it so i've enjoyed learning knots and getting better at it,
00:42:49.119 --> 00:42:53.770
similar to carl like i have a sourdough starter that i had gone from a course
00:42:53.770 --> 00:43:00.091
at bootsma that i did and the only ingredients i know that are in mine is water,
00:43:01.224 --> 00:43:08.420
organic all-purpose flour and my starter that's just water and flour yeah and
00:43:08.420 --> 00:43:12.793
it's good tastes nice and i give it to my co-workers for free.
00:43:13.257 --> 00:43:15.080
Amazing. It just keeps on giving. Yep.
00:43:16.186 --> 00:43:19.770
And I think if you're in southern Alberta, you should come check out the culinary
00:43:19.770 --> 00:43:21.462
market at Leftbridge Polytech.
00:43:21.985 --> 00:43:27.820
Come stop by, say hi, come try out some bread, desserts, and come get lunch. Excellent.
00:43:29.556 --> 00:43:32.804
Definitely. Well, it's been a lot of fun and it's just making us all hungry,
00:43:32.804 --> 00:43:35.004
I think, for after this show.
00:43:35.004 --> 00:43:40.584
So this episode featured Chris Hodgson-Bright as host and Chef Kachuk and Carl
00:43:40.584 --> 00:43:43.847
Atkins, third level baking apprenticeship and instructional assistant,
00:43:44.219 --> 00:43:45.873
plus level three students,
00:43:46.297 --> 00:43:50.436
Rachel Warkin, Rowan Desair and Kathleen Klink as guests.
00:43:51.114 --> 00:43:55.347
Donna McLaughlin was our producer and Ryan Robinson was our sound technician and editor.
00:43:56.009 --> 00:43:59.674
Our podcast is funded by Lethbridge Polytechnic and recorded on the traditional
00:43:59.674 --> 00:44:01.291
lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy.
00:44:01.692 --> 00:44:05.465
For more episodes, head to learninginnovation.ca slash podcast.
00:44:05.848 --> 00:44:07.445
Thanks for listening and take care.