NC State Dining hosted 17 students for the department’s first Culinary Boot Camp at Case Dining Hall August 14-16. Students learned basic kitchen skills while interacting with fellow students and staff members.
Bob Sorochak, food service general manager of Case Dining, mentioned that the camp was a success for this being its first year.
“It was a great situation for students and staff,” Sorochak said. “Both groups learned and added a skill set or built on their current skill set.”
Some of the skills learned at the camp include: Allergen and food safety training, basic knife skills, operate equipment, recipe basics, teamwork, time management, and logistics.
Sorochak discussed how the university, staff, and students all benefit from Culinary Boot Camp. We invest in our students, which allows them to be successful in their jobs. Students also receive training from the Campus Enterprise’s HR department that prepares them for the workforce when they graduate,” he added.
NC State Dining’s goal is to retain students from year to year and build students’ personal portfolio and our staff with retention,” he said. “After Culinary Boot Camp, we invited the students to stop by regularly and give us updates, and over half the class has come by to speak with me or other members of the staff training team.”
From a management perspective, staff members are able to take on new roles, which is beneficial to them because it expands their resume, according to Sorochak.
“They add additional resume builders by helping develop an intensive training program and being part of it at a very busy time of our year as the semester starts, “he continued. ”It gives them hands-on experience with our students. When the semester starts, both groups are better prepared for success including communicating needs to each other.”
NC State Senior Johnny Huang participated in the camp and now works at Fountain Dining Hall.
“The chefs and managers at Case walked us through the regular day-to-day operations of the kitchen,” he explained. “All of the culinary boot camp students were placed into groups and trained under different chefs. We would swap stations every hour or so and learn all of the different jobs in the kitchen.”
Huang said that he learned basic kitchen operations with his favorite being omelet making.
“We learned how to operate certain machinery and equipment that you wouldn’t normally use in your home kitchen, such as a deli slicer and Dynacube, which is a vegetable slicer,” Huang said. “We also learned a good amount of kitchen lingo, which was fun to use after hearing it so often on TV shows like Chopped.”
NC State Dining is always hiring students in its various operations. To apply, visit go.ncsu.edu/ce-jobs. To receive a notification about the next Culinary Boot Camp, visit go.ncsu.edu/culinary-boot-camp.