Tomorrow's head chefs training in Jackson today

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-“I make a wicked cacuicco,” Heidi Yoder boasted to her classmates on Monday in the quiet kitchen at the Four Seasons Resort in Teton Village.

In front of Yoder and about 10 others, all wearing kitchen hats and white lab coats were containers of creamy mayonnaise and tartar sauce sat the laboriously whisked fruits of labor and experimentation from the morning class of the new Central Wyoming College Culinary Arts Program.

While Yoder, a personal chef who trained in Italy for six months, can make that cacuicco, a red fish stew from Tuscany, she lacked a background in classic French cuisine that so dominates a conventional culinary arts background. So last spring, she became a member of the first-ever class of Jackson Hole student culinarians at Central Wyoming College. She joined to expand on the training she received  in Italy.

The class started with stocks, sauces and soups in French Cuisine 101. This semester they are studying Garde Manger, preparing and presenting cold foods in the classic tradition, from sandwiches to pâtés and even ice sculptures.

Henry Cittone – who considers himself semi-retired – directs the program. He also teaches business know-how, including pricing and marketing. He wants to provide skills to people interested in the culinary arts so they can “learn and get out of minimum wage and become professionals.”

Cittone was born in Istanbul and is fluent in several languages, including English and French – appropriate for a foodie who has worked from Switzerland to Lima. He began working with CWC three years ago, helping to conceive the program.

Paul Cherrett, at the time the general manager of the Four Seasons Resort in Teton Village, offered to let the school use two of its three kitchens.

“He said we have many high school graduates who want to go to the culinary arts and they go out of town and out of state,” Cittone recalled. In the coming spring, the program will offer Jackson Hole High School students the opportunity to earn credits toward an associate’s degree or a culinary arts credential at the school. The ultimate goal, Cittone explained, is to build a brick-and-mortar facility for the culinary school and develop it into a destination program.

Jackson Hole is known for its wide food offerings – from pan-seared fois gras and upscale Western-continental fusions, to fish tacos and bacon cheeseburgers – and the crack staff it requires to prepare them. It makes sense that an area with so many kitchen employees and a seemingly insatiable demand for more could support a vibrant culinary arts program.

Joey Beighly, a tattooed New Yorker who works as the lead line cook at Teton Springs in Victor, Idaho, is partly sponsored by his employer to pursue certification through CWC.   “I want to get my degree and go on and be a master chef,” Beighly said, offering that he might like to attend a Le Cordon Bleu school to further his culinary education.
The cuisine he hopes to interpret and prepare when he’s out on his own one day?
“Italian,” he said.  “I’m from New York, man.”

Not all of the students are involved in restaurants. Deborah Henry previously worked as a customer service rep, but she developed tendonitis from the repetitive motions of working in kitchen over the summer.

“I just wanted to check it out and see if I was right for the kitchen,” Henry said. “It’s very hard work – and physically, not just mentally.”

To learn more about CWC Culinary Arts Program, contact Cittone at 733-4211, or email hcittone@cwc.edu.

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Tomorrow's head chefs training in Jackson today | Planet JH News Article: Restaurants And Dining

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