Cooking with gas, sometimes

  • Sarah Koenig<br>Enterprise writer
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 11:42am

In the culinary world, chefs make due with what they’re given. They even consider that a challenge, said Charles Drabkin, chef instructor in the culinary arts program at Edmonds Community College.

But making due with 25-year-old equipment that keeps breaking down may be more frustrating than instructive for students.

Diners at the café students run on campus have waited 45 minutes for an entree because the oven zonked out again. Students have reached into the ‘fridge for eggs and found them frozen.

That’s why the Edmonds Community College Foundation is trying to raise $100,000 to renovate the culinary kitchen. It’s also seeking funds to equip a new theater facility, fund science lab equipment and increase scholarships on campus.

In September, the culinary department moved from Brier to Woodway Hall.

“(The move) put a lot of stress on equipment,” Drabkin said. “It shocked it into realizing it was 25 years old.”

Before the move, equipment would be fixed as needed. Now things break that can’t be fixed, said Traci Edlin, culinary arts department chair.

This quarter, one oven gave out repeatedly. Students would turn it on, put in their dish and come back later to find it partially cooked and the oven off. As a result, students had to offer free desserts to diners who waited 30 to 45 minutes for their meal.

The oven is no longer used, leaving five others for students to share.

In a commercial restaurant, students would have to share oven space, but the situation at the college has been a challenge, Drabkin said.

“It affects student learning,” he said. “Some learning takes place around it, but I would rather have something more consistent.”

In addition, pilot lights on the stoves often go out, meaning they have to be lit manually. A refrigerator that froze milk and eggs has since been fixed, Edlin said.

“A few weeks ago I was over there (at the kitchen) after the fire trucks had left,” said Anne Cassidy, executive director of the Edmonds Community College Foundation. “One of the pieces of equipment had been leaking this greenish gunk, and they weren’t sure if it was toxic.”

Lack of state funding is the root of the problem, said Michele Graves, public information officer for the college.

State funding and student tuition pay only half of the college’s operating and capital expenses.

The college has reined-in spending over the years, and that has meant, among other things, not replacing old equipment in the culinary department, Graves said.

If the foundation can raise the money, the culinary program will get new state-of-the-art equipment, Drabkin said, and the program will be expanded. “(The equipment) won’t be 25 years old. It will work properly,” Drabkin said.

In 2008, the program will move back to Brier Hall and a renovated kitchen with two to three times more space than the current one. There, the program could serve 100 to 125 students. The current enrollment is 60 students, Edlin said. A new pastry program could be started as well.

The foundation has a year and a half to raise the $100,000, said Cassidy.

Until 2008, students will continue to share sparse counter and oven space and come up with a different recipe if the eggs freeze again.

But resourcefulness is part of what makes a chef, Drabkin said.

For example, the cable TV competitive cooking show “Top Chef” gives chefs surprise challenges, like cooking over an open fire on the beach, he said.

Drabkin himself gives students a test he calls the “black box.” They’re asked to make a dish from three surprise ingredients. Duck, risotto, polenta, crab, chicken and winter squash have been used in the past.

“They never give me what I would’ve done with it — always amazing stuff,” Drabkin said.

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