Mise en place, a French phrase meaning “setting in place, positioning,” is essentially a culinary process in which ingredients are prepared and organized before cooking. While mise en place is derived from culinary work, its application extends beyond the kitchen.
The work happening in the M/I Homes Demonstration Kitchen at Healthy New Albany is providing these practical and meaningful life lessons to New Albany High School seniors through their Senior Seminar projects. Eileen Pewitt, the Healthy New Albany culinary education coordinator, teaches seniors about basic kitchen and life skills, with the spirit of mise en place.
“Food and nutrition are silent sounds of peace that we must bring to the whole world," - William Lambers
The curriculum Pewitt designed starts students off with instruction on kitchen fundamentals. In Pewitt’s class, though, her teaching includes wisdom and practical skills for food and cooking that develop students on many levels. The students have taken a number of opportunities from their time in the M/I Homes Demonstration Kitchen.
Elena Housteau learned kitchen fundamentals and finished her Senior Seminar project by teaching an Italian cooking class at Healthy New Albany.
Sophia Halliday, Salma Mohamud and Lauren Hoffman also completed the Kitchen Fundamentals curriculum to gain confidence in the kitchen. As part of their project, they created recipes and cookbooks in both digital and print formats. Mohamud completed an online cookbook and taught a class at Healthy New Albany on Somalian cuisine that featured her delicious sambusas, a Somali dumpling. Hoffman had her cookbook published and taught a 50 Plates: Cuisine of America class in the kitchen at Healthy New Albany.
Akshay Deora assisted with video recording recipes for the New Albany Food Pantry cooking program and came up with four new recipes of his own to share. He also created a bundle bag kit that contains recipes and all of the necessary ingredients to make the meal. Deora topped off his project by hosting an Indian home cooking class with his mother at Healthy New Albany.
Amanda Nguyen’s project focused on the food pantry’s Tower Garden, growing herbs from seeds and seedlings and providing the herbs to the food pantry for pantry clients. She learned how to dry fresh herbs, preserving them for culinary and decorative use. Nguyen was also generous with her time and herbs, offering an afternoon as a kitchen buddy during a Buddy Up for Life class. She and the rest of the athletes in the Cooking for Life class made dill pickles utilizing the dill that Nguyen helped grow in the Tower Garden.
Alejandra Martinez will be creating a food blog for college students to encourage cooking and meal planning on a tight budget with limited time for cooking. Following her Kitchen Fundamentals course, Martinez will begin her blog work and has plans to share her Puerto Rican heritage during a cooking class at Healthy New Albany in the spring.
Commenting on her work with these students Eileen shares:
“It has been my privilege to help these kids become confident citizens who are willing to share with others. They each do their part to support themselves and others while teaching and inspiring their neighbors through their own actions.”
Pewitt’s work with the students provides a valuable and practical opportunity for our students to learn life skills. Mise en place values process, preparation and presence. Understanding the value of those values in the kitchen and beyond provides important lessons for our Senior Seminar students. Although they are simple words, when practiced, they produce profound results.
Be sure to see what’s cooking in the M/I Homes Demonstration Kitchen: visit www.healthynewalbany.org/programs for details.
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