STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

There are no Chinese fire drills. But there will be surprise knife skills drills.

That hands-on pop quiz is one of the ploys culinary instructors will use at the new Sun Valley Culinary Institute’s professional school to teach students how to handle stress in a professional kitchen.

Sun Valley Culinary Institute threw open its doors to prospective students who want to learn to be standouts in the kitchen Friday. And a steady stream of prospective students and their spouses and parents paraded through, checking out the kitchen and learning about the hands-on curriculum that sets the new Culinary Institute school apart from other culinary schools.

Dean Chris Koetke beamed under his black face mask as he addressed potential students a year after the school had to put its inaugural year on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“There IS going to be a school this fall,” said the Institute’s Director Karl Uri. “We want local students from the valley and we want outside students—from Twin Falls, Boise, New York, California. We want balance, to bring people together to create a more unique experience.”

Among those who showed up for the open house on Friday were five students from I Have a Dream Foundation, a mentorship program for a select group of students in the valley. Now juniors, students in the program are visiting various job sites in the Wood River Valley with an eye towards what they need to do their senior year to prepare for the life that awaits them beyond high school.

Friday morning those interested in mechanics visited Sun Valley Auto Club. And Monday four girls plan to visit St. Francis Veterinary Clinic.

“We start to ask the kids: What do you like to explore? Also, we explore: What is the path you need to follow?” said the Dreamers’ Program Director Pamela Donoso.

The students watched as Chef Instructor Naomi Everett showed off her professional knives, which are at the core of the culinary program. And they listened as Koetke told how the culinary experience is about passion.

“Find your passion,” he told them. “It’s something that happen inside you and you know it. It’s the passion that helps you be creative.”

School will begin Sept. 27, 2021. The first eight weeks students will spend six hours a day five days a week in the kitchen, demonstrating kitchen safety and sanitation principles, learning about allergens and learning knife skills and plating skills. They will learn to critically taste, butcher meat and poultry, prepare hot and cold sandwiches, soups and salads. And they will learn respect for ingredients and the environment.

An hour before lunchtime they will be given assignments for a communal lunch. They will then enjoy the fruits of their labors with other students and invited guests from the community as they critique the meal and discuss what might make it better.

From Nov. 30 to March 22 they will serve paid externships with such restaurants as Tavern, The Kneadery, Rasberrys, CK’s, Enoteca, Sun Valley Resort’s 20 restaurants and the Ketchum Grill.

They go back to the kitchen at the Culinary institute, which is based in a historic brick building on Ketchum’s Main Street on March 28. For the next two months they will learn pastry techniques, how to execute banquet service and about inventory and other storeroom operations. And they will learn to prepare sauces, pie and pie crusts and frozen desserts.

As slack season segues into the busy summer season, they will take part in a second externship with participating restaurants from May 31 through Sept. 21, whereupon they will graduate, receiving a Federal Apprenticeship Certificate.

Becoming proficient with knives and other tools of the trade build a foundation for the rest of a career in culinary arts, Koetke told them.

“The most important thing is building a foundation like you build a house. If you don’t build a good foundation, you can’t build a good house,” he told them.

Donoso told the kids how valuable hands-on experience is, pointing to her own experience coming to the United States after studying four years to be an interpreter-translator in English, Spanish and Italian in her native Santiago, Chile.

“I thought I was more than ready to practice my English here in Hailey. But the first thing someone said to me was, ’Howdy!’  I said, ‘Sorry, I do not know what Howdy means,’ ” she recounted. “The point is: Not everything is in a book. I learned more English living here in one year than four years in school.

“I think in this valley we really need more broader experience for students, and I love this program because it is very hands on. Some kids don’t really like too much learning of books. They learn faster when they see something demonstrated or they do it themselves..”

Board President Mindy Meads said the food enthusiast classes that have been going on, introducing  international flavors to the valley, will expand come summer and fall. In the meantime, she is excited to see the Culinary Institute take this next step.

“The community is really excited about the cooking classes—they always sell out,” she said. “Now I’m thrilled to get the first 10 professional students in here. And we can expand upon that in the future.”