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The Smokehouse Kitchen Project is a six-month pre-employment/employment training program that offers cook "Level One Curriculum". This curriculum is designed to set participants up with the relevant prerequisites to “ladder” into a entry level position in the hospitality industry, pursue further culinary training, or continue on with a more streamlined academic focus(grade twelve/hospitality management).

The Smokehouse Kitchen Project will now be made up of three distinct but interrelated components; Culinary Arts, Baking & Pastry Arts and Theory.

SmokeHouse Kitchen Contact Info:
Allan O'Reilly, Coordinator
Phone 250 564 3568, ext 270
Email aoreilly@pgnfc.com

Culinary:
The cooking part, if you will, will be just that. This portion of the program will operate during the hours of 8:30am until 4pm with classroom time taking place from 8:30 until 9:30 every Friday for testing. The theory components of the program will be two weeks on average (additional time will be allotted if deemed necessary). The Chef instructor will take eight of the participants while the remainder will be attending class with the Pastry Chef. In general students will focus on readying the restaurant for the day and preparing the restaurant for the next. Further, students will be encouraged to utilize the skills they have picked during classroom time in the afternoon.

Baking & Pastry Arts:
This will be comprised of a station that will operate out of the Smokehouse Kitchen. There will be two participants minimum on this station at all times. The participants working on the Pastry station will be responsible for all the baking required for a two-week period. These individuals will be responsible for reading the baking chapters in the ON Cooking text and will write a test on each of the Fridays.

Theory:
The texts used for the program will be On Cooking, the On Cooking study guide and the study manuals. These books contain CD Rom Tutorials and the students are encouraged to utilize the computer room time set aside to view the tutorial, as they are invaluable. The classroom portion would move along in a predetermined logical order to ensure that student have the required tools to move on the next topic. The material covered in the On Cooking text is plentiful and fast paced (two weeks is not a lot of time) students who are truant or miss classes will quickly fall behind. Those who miss three (3) classes will fail that component.

Further Theory:
The PGNFC has developed a partnership with School District #57 Continuing Education in our continual efforts to acknowledge and validate the participant’s training resulted in Continuing Education accrediting the training in the Program as equal to three of five courses toward the Adult Grade 12 Dogwood Diploma. Upon successful completion of work placements, employment preparation activities and attending the Master Students Program, the participants will also acquire credit for the final modules for the CAPA 12 courses, a require for grade 12 graduations. These credits will not only assist the participants in attending the Adult Dogwood Diploma, but they will also help in gaining entry into the Cook Training and the Hospitality Program at the College of New Caledonia.

Smokehouse theory will consist of eleven components, each of which will be two weeks in duration. They will be as follows:

  1. Vegetable and Starch Cookery;
  2. Meat and Poultry Cookery;
  3. Seafood Cookery; Soups, Sauces and Stocks;
  4. Meat, Poultry and Seafood cutting and Processing;
  5. Cold Kitchen;
  6. Baking and Desserts;
  7. Basic Food Service and Kitchen Management;
  8. Egg and Breakfast Cookery;
  9. Safety, Sanitation and Equipment;
  10. Health Care/Cook Chill Cookery

Certificate Programs:
These courses are essential and along with the teachings derived from the On Cooking text, will form the core of the Smokehouse curriculum. Moreover, it will be these courses, delivered in the first two (2) weeks that will set the tone for the remainder of the program. The participants will not commence work in the kitchen without first successfully completing the Food Safe course. Other courses offered are as follows:

  • First Aid;
  • Serving it Right;
  • First Host;
  • Super Host;
  • W.H.I.M.I.S; Work Safe-W.C.B; Cash Register Training

Work Placements:
Two (2) weeks will be spent in a work placement. The work placements will tentatively start in the third week of class on though to the end of the course (this of course will be based on your readiness and availability of jobs). Please advise instructor in advance if there is somewhere inn particular you would like to go.

Fridays:
Information Workshops will be provided by the Employment Unit. These will run most Fridays for the life of the course. Workshops are not optional and must be attended in order to successfully complete the program. Workshops to be taken are as follows:

  • Cover Letters;
  • Resume Writing;
  • Hidden Job Market;
  • Networking Techniques;
  • Internet Browsing; Email;
  • On-line Job Search;
  • Information Interviews;
  • Personnel hygiene and Grooming;
  • Basic Computer skills;
  • Time Management

Examinations:
There will be two (2) exams during the life span of this course. The first will be at the midway point of the course around three (3) months the second at the end of the course. Each exam will be cumulative or based on what you have learned to that point.

In the Kitchen:
At every opportunity I will expect you to be self-starters. There are recipes in your cookbooks, these are entirely acceptable for specials, as well there are house recipes in the office for the menu items; these are called specifications or “specs” .I will outline specials that can be served in the restaurant from day to day as well as any relevant prep work, catering contracts or additional maintenance or cleaning that needs doing, however it will be up to you to see that work is completed.

Stations:

  • Specials/Main Kitchen;
  • Grill/Fryer;
  • Soups/Sauces;
  • Salads/Vegetables;
  • Dishes;
  • Restaurant;
  • Baker

Student Responsibilities:
Students entering the Smokehouse Kitchens Project will be given a New Full time Employee Payroll Package. In turn, students will be responsible for their own sign in sheets, time cards, bank accounts, blank cheques, TD1’s, lates, absences, doctor’s notes, clean uniforms and foot wear. In short you are being hired for a job. What this means to you is that not only can you pass or fail the academic portion but you can be excited or, to coin phrase, fired from the program. Time cards will be your responsibility.

Banquets:
Throughout this program there will be banquets going on. Staffing for banquets will be on a volunteer basis, so it is not mandatory that you assist in any way, but strongly encourage each and every one of you to help out from time to time.

This and That:

  • Mirepoix-4 onions, 2 carrots, celery
  • Mirepoix chicken-2 onion, carrot, 2 celery
  • Bouquet garni-leek leaves, garlic cloves, thyme, peppercorns, marjoram, bay leaf
  • Roux-1lb roux (white, blonde, brown), liaisons, Chicago roux, slurries, buerre manie
  • Soups: Clear, Cream, Consomme, Broths, Chowders
  • Mother Sauces: Tomato, Bechamel, Veloute, Hollandaise, Espagnole
  • Secondary Sauces: See Sauces in cookbooks
  • Stocks: White stock, Brown stock-Chicken
  • White stock, Brown stock-Beef
  • White stock, Brown stock-game
  • Fish stock, Fuments
  • Vegetable stock