For students in Wilma W. Stephenson’s culinary arts classes at Frankford High School in Philadelphia, cooking is more than a skill. “It is the key to their futures,” says Stephenson. She’s not exaggerating. In the 11 years her graduating seniors have participated in the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) Cooking Competition for Scholarships, Stephenson’s pupils have racked up more than $3 million to be put toward paying for college, earning $637,000 in 2009 alone.
“A lot of these kids in the beginning do not see themselves doing much of anything [as a career],” says the 64-year-old schoolteacher. Stephenson explains many don’t even consider education beyond high school. Some come from broken homes; others are accustomed to financial hardship. Yet when they leave her class, many go on to college and careers where they hold titles such as executive chef and pastry chef at restaurants all across the country.
“My students are successful because they have the motivation to succeed; they have that drive,” says Stephenson who has taught at Frankford her entire 41-year career. But their success is also due in part to the impact of the dynamic woman who runs her classroom like a boot camp. Yelling like a drill sergeant, she presents her classes with a laundry list of rules, including: “You have to be on time, you cannot chew gum, and you cannot wear big earrings.”
For some students, her tough demeanor is off-putting at first. “In the beginning I felt intimidated,” admits Lasheeda Perry, a former student. “She was tough, straight to the point, and didn’t take any mess.” As hard as it may have been under Stephenson’s direction, Perry earned an $80,000 scholarship to Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, to study baking and pastry arts. The 24-year-old is now a pastry cook at the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas.
But the students also see another side of Stephenson, whose take-no-prisoners teaching style is the subject of a documentary directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker called Pressure Cooker (www.takepart.com/pressurecooker [3]). They see the side that buys a student a winter coat, the side that gives out her cell phone number so students can call her when life gets complicated outside the classroom, the side that assigns personal essays to her seniors and returns the writings as many times as it takes for the students to acknowledge how past traumas have held them back.
The lessons Stephenson dishes out in Room 325 don’t just pertain to cooking. No topic is off-limits if putting it on the table can benefit students. “I think I learned more from her [than from anybody else] about becoming a woman,” says Perry. But inevitably the conversation always finds its way back to cooking. In competition, students have two hours to prepare a three-course meal and clean up. Stephenson wants her kids to be ready. While some students will walk away from it with enough cash to further their education in the field, all leave knowing the value of hard work, emotional honesty, and discipline. Stephenson is certain that cooking is a way they build pride.
This article originally appeared in the May 2010 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.
Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label competition. Show all posts
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, November 2, 2009
Chili on the Circle
Last Friday, Kroger and Second Helpings served served a chili lunch on the southwest side of Monument Circle. This wasn't just any chili. The recipe, Smoky Steak and Chorizo Chili, made by Indiana State Police Sgt. Cedric Merritt and Second Helpings graduate Keith Mays, won a competition among public safety officials and members of the media.
The winners were presented the Golden Ladle trophy for the first-ever event. Second place went to SGT Matt Mount of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Indianapolis Star Editor Dennis Ryerson won third place.
Pictured above are SGT Merritt, Chef Conway, and Keith Mays.
With the authors' permission, here's the winning recipe:
Smoky Steak and Chorizo Chili
(A Protect and Burn Creation)
4 lbs. sirloin, cut into ½ inch cubes
2 pkgs. - Chili seasoning
3 lbs. chorizo sausage
3 medium onions, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
3 cloves minced garlic
8 -10 dried chipotles (processed into medium fine powder)
6 medium dried red peppers (processed into medium fine powder)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp dried cilantro
2 Tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp kosher salt
2 limes, juiced
2 Tbsp olive oil
6-8 dashes Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
2 – 29 oz cans dice tomatoes
2 – 29 oz cans tomato sauce
1 – 15 oz can black beans, drained
1 - 15 oz cans kidney beans, drained
1 – 15 oz cans pinto beans, drained
1 – 20 oz can whole kernel corn, drained
In a large sauté, pan heat olive oil and then add steak and chili seasoning. Sauté meat until lightly browned. Add onions and bell peppers and sauté for another three minutes. Remove from heat and place meat in a stock pot, large Dutch oven, or slow cooker. Return the sauté pan to the heat and add the chorizo. Sauté for five minutes, or until lightly browned, and add to steak. Add the remaining ingredients to the pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes.
The winners were presented the Golden Ladle trophy for the first-ever event. Second place went to SGT Matt Mount of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Indianapolis Star Editor Dennis Ryerson won third place.
Pictured above are SGT Merritt, Chef Conway, and Keith Mays.
With the authors' permission, here's the winning recipe:
Smoky Steak and Chorizo Chili
(A Protect and Burn Creation)
4 lbs. sirloin, cut into ½ inch cubes
2 pkgs. - Chili seasoning
3 lbs. chorizo sausage
3 medium onions, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
3 cloves minced garlic
8 -10 dried chipotles (processed into medium fine powder)
6 medium dried red peppers (processed into medium fine powder)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp dried cilantro
2 Tbsp brown sugar
½ tsp kosher salt
2 limes, juiced
2 Tbsp olive oil
6-8 dashes Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
2 – 29 oz cans dice tomatoes
2 – 29 oz cans tomato sauce
1 – 15 oz can black beans, drained
1 - 15 oz cans kidney beans, drained
1 – 15 oz cans pinto beans, drained
1 – 20 oz can whole kernel corn, drained
In a large sauté, pan heat olive oil and then add steak and chili seasoning. Sauté meat until lightly browned. Add onions and bell peppers and sauté for another three minutes. Remove from heat and place meat in a stock pot, large Dutch oven, or slow cooker. Return the sauté pan to the heat and add the chorizo. Sauté for five minutes, or until lightly browned, and add to steak. Add the remaining ingredients to the pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Cooks Serving Others - And Themselves
Volunteers who feed the hungry put their best recipes to the test in a cook-off, and pass out checks to continue the good work.
By Dianna Marder
Inquirer Staff Writer
There's a sophisticated air at the annual chowder cook-off in Newport, R.I., and a down-home feel at the West Texas barbecue cook-off in Lubbock.
But here in the City of Brotherly Love, you'd better stand back when local church ladies compete in the annual Soup Kitchen Cook-Off.
Last week's contest, sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, challenged volunteers from the nearly 100 member soup kitchens and food pantries to compete for bragging rights.
Year-round, these church ladies (and a few gentlemen) prepare large quantities of meat-and-potatoes meals using donated ingredients, or they distribute bags of groceries to families in their communities.
But last week they took time out to put their personal best to the test at Resurrection Baptist in Parkside. From North, South and West Philadelphia they came; from Mount Airy and from Germantown, bearing main dishes, salads and desserts.
Pat Davis of the Open Door Sanctuary Kitchen brought a vegetarian taco salad made with seitan; and Curtis Robinson Sr. of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia brought the shrimp scampi that has made him especially welcome at all sorts of gatherings.
Marlene Harley of Living Water United Church of Christ in North Philadelphia set a new record: In the salads category, her signature chicken salad won first place and her potato salad took second.
Renai Ellison, of the MyPHL17 television program Better Philly, judged the first two categories while chef and cookbook author Delilah Winder, of Delilah's Southern Cuisine, judged the desserts.
After that, the contest entries were served for lunch.
There was sweet potato pie, beef tenderloin, honey-barbecue chicken, raspberry pasta, mango salad, fruit pie, double chocolate cake and Doris Shepard's prize-winning Six Layer Coconut Cake.
No broccoli, no spinach, not even any collards.
As they ate, the volunteers chatted about the way eating together and rejoicing in traditional recipes bound their families together - as the lack of food splits today's families apart.
As a girl, Rose Stephens, 87, cooked while her parents and older siblings worked their North Carolina farm. That's where she perfected her rum cake, her chopped barbecue and her sweet potato jacks.
"Not flapjacks. These were jacks," she says, describing a sort of pancake that was folded over like a stromboli and then deep fried. Not a low-cal/low-carb dish, but . . .
"I didn't feel burdened," Stephens said. "It was an honor to cook for the family."
Marlene Felton's corn pudding took first place in the main dish category and her cream cheese pound cake won second place in desserts.
Felton, 56, and her husband Derek, 58, left their day jobs a few years ago to make serving the hungry the family's full-time occupation. Fresh Start, the nonprofit the Feltons founded in Overbrook, gives groceries to 400 families a month.
But Fresh Start is also a resource center, says Derek Felton, who grew up in poverty and remembers going to school without breakfast. He went on to become a chef for Sheraton Inns.
Each of Fresh Start's monthly hot breakfasts features a self-help workshop directed at matching individual needs with existing resources. That way, Felton says, Fresh Start helps get people off drugs, into safe housing, and prepared for new careers.
Pat Davis of the Open Door Sanctuary said she sees more and more families in need of clothing too. It's sobering, she says.
After lunch, coalition officials distributed $140,000 in checks to 98 member food pantries and soup kitchens - a portion of the $250,000 raised at the Coalition's Walk Against Hunger in April. The $140,000 will be used for food, equipment or supplies at each program. The remainder of the money will expand the capacity of the feeding programs and perhaps bring more of the estimated 500 similar Philadelphia-based programs into the coalition.
Read the rest of the story (along with some tasty recipes) here.
By Dianna Marder
Inquirer Staff Writer
There's a sophisticated air at the annual chowder cook-off in Newport, R.I., and a down-home feel at the West Texas barbecue cook-off in Lubbock.
But here in the City of Brotherly Love, you'd better stand back when local church ladies compete in the annual Soup Kitchen Cook-Off.
Last week's contest, sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, challenged volunteers from the nearly 100 member soup kitchens and food pantries to compete for bragging rights.
Year-round, these church ladies (and a few gentlemen) prepare large quantities of meat-and-potatoes meals using donated ingredients, or they distribute bags of groceries to families in their communities.
But last week they took time out to put their personal best to the test at Resurrection Baptist in Parkside. From North, South and West Philadelphia they came; from Mount Airy and from Germantown, bearing main dishes, salads and desserts.
Pat Davis of the Open Door Sanctuary Kitchen brought a vegetarian taco salad made with seitan; and Curtis Robinson Sr. of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia brought the shrimp scampi that has made him especially welcome at all sorts of gatherings.
Marlene Harley of Living Water United Church of Christ in North Philadelphia set a new record: In the salads category, her signature chicken salad won first place and her potato salad took second.
Renai Ellison, of the MyPHL17 television program Better Philly, judged the first two categories while chef and cookbook author Delilah Winder, of Delilah's Southern Cuisine, judged the desserts.
After that, the contest entries were served for lunch.
There was sweet potato pie, beef tenderloin, honey-barbecue chicken, raspberry pasta, mango salad, fruit pie, double chocolate cake and Doris Shepard's prize-winning Six Layer Coconut Cake.
No broccoli, no spinach, not even any collards.
As they ate, the volunteers chatted about the way eating together and rejoicing in traditional recipes bound their families together - as the lack of food splits today's families apart.
As a girl, Rose Stephens, 87, cooked while her parents and older siblings worked their North Carolina farm. That's where she perfected her rum cake, her chopped barbecue and her sweet potato jacks.
"Not flapjacks. These were jacks," she says, describing a sort of pancake that was folded over like a stromboli and then deep fried. Not a low-cal/low-carb dish, but . . .
"I didn't feel burdened," Stephens said. "It was an honor to cook for the family."
Marlene Felton's corn pudding took first place in the main dish category and her cream cheese pound cake won second place in desserts.
Felton, 56, and her husband Derek, 58, left their day jobs a few years ago to make serving the hungry the family's full-time occupation. Fresh Start, the nonprofit the Feltons founded in Overbrook, gives groceries to 400 families a month.
But Fresh Start is also a resource center, says Derek Felton, who grew up in poverty and remembers going to school without breakfast. He went on to become a chef for Sheraton Inns.
Each of Fresh Start's monthly hot breakfasts features a self-help workshop directed at matching individual needs with existing resources. That way, Felton says, Fresh Start helps get people off drugs, into safe housing, and prepared for new careers.
Pat Davis of the Open Door Sanctuary said she sees more and more families in need of clothing too. It's sobering, she says.
After lunch, coalition officials distributed $140,000 in checks to 98 member food pantries and soup kitchens - a portion of the $250,000 raised at the Coalition's Walk Against Hunger in April. The $140,000 will be used for food, equipment or supplies at each program. The remainder of the money will expand the capacity of the feeding programs and perhaps bring more of the estimated 500 similar Philadelphia-based programs into the coalition.
Read the rest of the story (along with some tasty recipes) here.
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