Culinary school launches farm-to-table curriculum in California

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HOG ISLAND OYSTER FARM Student chefs will visit Hog Island Oyster Farm to learn about sustainable seafood. Farm manager Erik Schlagenhauf is shown here flipping oyster racks. (Courtesy of Hog Island Oyster Farm)

Tomorrow's chefs will require a skill set that extends far beyond the restaurant kitchen. They're inheriting a world where terms like "sustainable," "natural" and "biodynamic" fly as fast as knives on cutting boards.

With that in mind, the International Culinary Center has created a new farm-to-table curriculum here in Northern California, where the farm-to-table food revolution began.

The program will send chefs-in-training out into the field -- literally -- to both small and commercial farm operations.

Students will head to Spring Hill Jersey Cheese Dairy and Petaluma Creamery in Sonoma County; to Bolthouse Farms in Salinas, one of the nation's largest carrot companies; and to Hog Island Oyster Farm near Point Reyes and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, both of which focus on sustainable seafood.

The six-month course of studies, which also includes the classic culinary arts, will launch in February at the school's Campbell campus.

The program's creation was praised by industry expert Meredith Deeds, executive director of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, which has selected San Francisco for its 2013 conference, "Dirt to Digital: Real Food in a Virtual World."

"I know many of the top chefs in the country feel strongly that you can't be a good cook unless you understand where the food comes from, how it's grown and who is growing it," Deeds said.

Collaborating with the ICC on the new curriculum was

Karp Resources of New York, which specializes in food sustainability projects.

The International Culinary Center, founded in 1984 by Dorothy Cann Hamilton as the French Culinary Institute in New York, opened its West Coast center in 2011. A number of renowned chefs are deans of the school, including Jacques Pep?n, David Kinch, Emily Luchetti, Jacques Torres and Jos? Andr?s. Details: www.internationalculinarycenter.com.

Contact Linda Zavoral at lzavoral@mercurynews.com.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/dining-scene/ci_21793227/culinary-school-launches-farm-table-curriculum-california?source=rss_emailed

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