Culinary Arts

In the quest for knowledge of foods and flavors, instruction can take many forms. For some students in Drexel University's culinary arts program, that means studying one aspect of their chosen vocation literally from the ground up. They are currently sowing, tending and harvesting many of the vegetables that will be cooked and served in their kitchen classroom and student-run Bistro. Under the tutelage of William Woys Weaver, about 10 students each semester participate in the Kitchen Garden - otherwise known as Culinary 425 or "Weeding 101. " Through this elective course, they gain hands-on experience in organic gardening, awareness of heirloom vegetables, and appreciation for the flavors and textures that fresh and varied foods bring to the table.

"Oooooh!" said Donald Hudson. "I think I heard it click!" said Robert Messina. "Keep going," Ron Lalusis told Messina. A steel-encased bank vault at a 200-year-old Mount Holly building now owned by Burlington County College was being cranked open by Messina, the college president. Lalusis, the hired vault-cracker extraordinaire, had arranged in recent days to have an 18-inch-wide opening drilled through the side wall. A man had just entered the hole and was working combinations at the vault's 24-bolt, foot-thick steel door from within.

The recently enacted legislation allowing the creation of charter schools has spawned five proposals that could begin to alter the face of public education in Philadelphia. One would be the ultimate consumer high school, offering medical care and social services, plus a solid academic load to city students who have been expelled or have otherwise fallen through the cracks. Another would cater specifically to drop-outs, getting them back into the classroom and at the same time giving them on-the-job training in construction.

MAYS LANDING, N.J. — Lined up in clean chef's whites and paper toques, five teams competing Monday in Atlantic Cape Community College's Academy of Culinary Arts annual Student Iron Chef Competition — the school's version of the popular television show — were nearly breathless waiting to find out the secret ingredient. Would it be clams? Squid? Or scup, the decidedly unglamorous bottom-dwelling fish species known around here as porgie? Porgie it was. And by the end of the six-hour exercise — in which the teams of five students each were judged on communication, presentation, and other skills — about 20 dishes had emerged from the kitchens, all featuring the firm, mild-flavored white fish.

When the culinary students at Montgomery County Community College learn the difference between fricassee and flambe, the stovetop is 25 miles away. The future chefs are taught theory in Pottstown and practice in Plymouth Meeting. But that will change next year when the culinary-arts program moves into a 15,000-square-foot headquarters in Towamencin. The college's new Culinary Arts Institute will house kitchen and classroom. Officials broke ground Friday at the future site of the Towamencin Town Square complex on Forty Foot Road and Sumneytown Pike.

The needs of a generation of adults who never learned to cook at home have spawned a wealth of cooking classes around the country, a stream of televised cooking shows covering basics - How to Boil Water - to sessions with gourmet chefs. Face it, when a whole cable network is devoted to one subject, it's definitely in. But cooking classes these days serve more than educational needs. Health concerns attract many to classes focused on low-fat foods, lighter meals and vegetarian cuisine.

Students with Burlington County Institute of Technology's culinary arts department have been cooking up delicacies for Friday night's International Food Festival to mark the high school's 50-year anniversary. Many of the school's career majors will be contributing to the event, from banners and tickets produced by the print shop to a student-produced DVD to show the variety of the school's offerings, which have grown from machine shop and office skills to choices like performing arts, entertainment technologies, and public safety and more.

Albertson's Cooking School, P.O. Box 27, Wynnewood. 610-649-9290 ( www.albertsoncooking school.com). Authentic Vietnamese, with chef David Boyle of Davios, at Madsen Center, 2901 Springfield Rd., Broomall. Oct. 25, 6:30-9 p.m., $45. Atlantic Cape Community College Academy of Culinary Arts, 5100 Black Horse Pike, Mays Landing, 609-343-4829 ( www.atlantic.edu/aca ). Degree programs and continuing-education classes available. Avalon Restaurant , 312 S. High St., West Chester, 610-436-6100 ( www . avalonrestaurant.

If the Weinstein Brothers were still flush with Disney cash and running Miramax, the documentary Pressure Cooker would have been gobbled up and turned into a sappy feature. It happened with Small Wonders , the nonfiction portrait of a music teacher in hard-pressed Harlem schools: Presto, change-o, Music of the Heart , starring Meryl Streep. So, there's an upside to the cutbacks that have hit Hollywood - and the now-struggling Weinsteins. Audiences can discover the real uplift in a story of high school students inspired to cook - yes, cook - their way to a better future.

Students with Burlington County Institute of Technology's culinary arts department have been cooking up delicacies for Friday night's International Food Festival to mark the high school's 50-year anniversary. Many of the school's career majors will be contributing to the event, from banners and tickets produced by the print shop to a student-produced DVD to show the variety of the school's offerings, which have grown from machine shop and office skills to choices like performing arts, entertainment technologies, and public safety and more.

MAYS LANDING, N.J. — Lined up in clean chef's whites and paper toques, five teams competing Monday in Atlantic Cape Community College's Academy of Culinary Arts annual Student Iron Chef Competition — the school's version of the popular television show — were nearly breathless waiting to find out the secret ingredient. Would it be clams? Squid? Or scup, the decidedly unglamorous bottom-dwelling fish species known around here as porgie? Porgie it was. And by the end of the six-hour exercise — in which the teams of five students each were judged on communication, presentation, and other skills — about 20 dishes had emerged from the kitchens, all featuring the firm, mild-flavored white fish.

When the culinary students at Montgomery County Community College learn the difference between fricassee and flambe, the stovetop is 25 miles away. The future chefs are taught theory in Pottstown and practice in Plymouth Meeting. But that will change next year when the culinary-arts program moves into a 15,000-square-foot headquarters in Towamencin. The college's new Culinary Arts Institute will house kitchen and classroom. Officials broke ground Friday at the future site of the Towamencin Town Square complex on Forty Foot Road and Sumneytown Pike.

"AMERICAN IDOL" host Ryan Seacrest will be at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia tomorrow to launch The Voice, a closed-circuit, multimedia center that his charitable foundation has funded. The event is open only to the hospital's patients and their families. The Voice, housed inside the main hospital's Colket Atrium, provides patients the ability to engage in activities related to radio, TV and new media, such as broadcasting like a DJ and playing songs, to watching performances and conducting interviews.

The aromas aren't there yet, but the sparkling, literally "stainless" steel kitchens are enticing, primed for the unveiling next week of a new culinary-arts center in downtown Mount Holly. The $9 million center - inside a nearly 200-year-old bank building and annex - is Burlington County College's newest venture. Elizabeth Dinice, a chef whose resumé includes work at two of Philadelphia's finest hotels, is in charge. "The thing that gets me most excited is we have a demonstration theater, and we will have a restaurant right here in the middle of a thriving town where we can work with other restaurateurs," Dinice said.

Mike Stollenwerk offers refined takes on seafood at Little Fish in Bella Vista and Fish in Center City. So at his new pub in (appropriately) Fishtown, he will not be a fish out of water. Fathom Seafood House (200 E. Girard Ave., 267-761-9343), across from Johnny Brenda's, has that old-time corner barroom look, including a 24-seat, concrete-topped bar. The comfort-food menu includes peekytoe crab fritters, marlin tacos, tuna-noodle casserole, fries topped with crab gravy and cheese curd, lobster grilled cheese, and riffs on traditionally non-seafood classics: cod pierogis and swordfish schnitzel.

Albertson's Cooking School, P.O. Box 27, Wynnewood. 610-649-9290 ( www.albertsoncooking school.com). Authentic Vietnamese, with chef David Boyle of Davios, at Madsen Center, 2901 Springfield Rd., Broomall. Oct. 25, 6:30-9 p.m., $45. Atlantic Cape Community College Academy of Culinary Arts, 5100 Black Horse Pike, Mays Landing, 609-343-4829 ( www.atlantic.edu/aca ). Degree programs and continuing-education classes available. Avalon Restaurant , 312 S. High St., West Chester, 610-436-6100 ( www . avalonrestaurant.

Sylva Senat is right on time. Sous chef by 25, chef de cuisine or executive chef by 30, "and by the time I'm 40, I want to own a place," says Senat, 33, the chef de cuisine at Stephen Starr's stalwart, Buddakan, in Old City. He is a study in contrasts, this ambitious but inherently humble sophisticate who presents a striking appearance with his chiseled jaw and long dreads. A French-speaking Haitian native with Manhattan fine-dining sensibilities, Senat is a kitchen-trained, not culinary-school-educated chef who learned from some of the absolute best: Andrew D'Amico when he was at the Sign of the Dove; Marcus Samuelsson, who made Senat his sous chef at Aquavit; and Jean-George Vongerichten, who made Senat chef de cuisine at 66 Leonard Street and the Mercer Kitchen.

How many surprises can one culinary-arts teacher and a group of her budding chefs take in one day? At last count, at least three. TV host Rachael Ray was in town yesterday to unveil a new kitchen she gifted to Frankford High teacher Wilma Stephenson, a no-nonsense instructor with a loving touch. Then there was barely a dry eye in the room when Ray announced that each student, all of whom are seniors, would receive a $5,000 scholarship from Ray's Yum-O! Foundation. "She needed it so bad," a tearful Stephenson said as she hugged a smiling Selena Brown, who accepted a certificate from Ray. Later, Ray called on fellow chef, TV personality and restaurateur Bobby Flay to christen the kitchen, and he whipped up the dish Chicken Chasseur for students.