January brings a bit (okay, a lot) of slowness to Brooks Tavern, which makes it the perfect time for us to take on an intern. Shayla Scott, from Chestertown, is a student at Polytech Adult Education in Woodside Delware, where one of the requirements for her degree in the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Program is an externship at a commercial restaurant. We began talking with Shayla in December and arranged for her to start after the New Year.
Shayla graduated from Kent County High School in 2008, after which she entered Lackawanna College in Scranton Pennsylvania. She returned to Chestertown after a year and began courses at Polytech this past September. At the same time she accepted a position in the dining room at Heron Point, where she works as a server several nights a week. Add a 16 month old baby girl to this picture and you have got one heck of a busy young woman!
So what has she been doing this week, under Kevin's exacting tutelage? The very first day he had her break down ducks...nothing like getting your hands dirty, eh? She very much enjoyed the exposure to that job, and so far says nothing has been too bad. She is looking forward to getting some experience on the lunch line, where she sees the demands of keeping up with orders coming in as exciting and challenging.
Someday Shayla would like to have a restaurant of her own. But not in this area!! She wants to relocate to the D.C. region, or perhaps New Jersey. We wish her great success. If she can get through a month as an unpaid intern in Kevin's very demanding kitchen, she should be able to do just about anything she sets her mind to!
Kevin had Shayla write down the procedure for breaking down whole ducks before she actually started doing it. She didn't wear gloves the first day; the next day she insisted on the gloves, which we pointed out to her weren't really going to do anything to totally protect the dining public so much as keep her hands from getting yicky... Still, it's a practice that is common place, especially in institutional food settings and certainly for handling ready-to-eat foods. Prep - not so much. We emphasized to her that nothing beat proper and regular hand washing, which often doesn't happen when a person is wearing gloves - they think they don't need to!
Here Marlena is helping her with an omelette.
Kevin is demonstrating to Shayla how he wants
her to cut up the lemons for the lamb dish.
It's wonderful having Shayla in the kitchen with us - she brings a willingness to learn that is very refreshing. We'll see how she progresses as the month goes on. There is a lot of monotony in kitchen work and not so much glamor, which is why an internship is a very valuable tool in the education of young cooks. Experiencing it "live" is the best way to get a solid education in preparation for a job in food service.
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