The Center for Great Neighborhoods in Covington graduated of its first group of students from the new FreshLo Chef Fellowship Program Monday night.
Funded through the Kresge Foundation, this program aims to give a hand up and a push forward to home cooks with the dream of creating a food-based business or those already in the food industry who need support to take it to the next level.
The program also focuses on those creating cultural-inspired and/or healthy food and extends a welcome to immigrants and refugees and others with barriers to succeeding in the local food industry.
The chefs of FreshLo Chef Fellowship Program.
This summer the first cohort of ten individuals began Phase I of the program which includes classroom time at the Hellman Creative Center and kitchen time at Trinity Episcopal Church, both in Covington.
In the Trinity kitchen student chefs learn the basics of culinary knowledge from knife skills to the science of cooking.
The program has been well-supported by the local food industry with participation from a number of leaders in the local food scene. Instructors included Justin Dean (Madhouse Vinegar and current Artworks Big Pitch 2018 Finalist), Renee Schuler (owner/chef of Eatwell Celebrations & Feasts), and Danny Bungenstock (Educator and Food Industry Consultant). Our guest panels have included Kate Zaidan (Dean’s Mediterranean Imports), Christian Gil (Boomtown Biscuits & Whiskey), Rachel Desrochers (Grateful Grahams and the Incubator Kitchen Collective), and Julia Keister (Lil’s Bagels).
Our diverse cohort includes a Venezuelan couple who cooks with fire (Firelab), a vegan couple who sells vegan deli sandwiches (Harmony Plant Fare), a young Mexican-American branching out from the family taqueria to start his own restaurant (Gutierrez Deli), a Syrian refugee committed to supporting her family by sharing her food here in America, a woman who started making healthy baked goods to combat her husband’s health issues, a retired African-American couple looking to start a healthy soul-food pop-up, and a local artist with a secret dream of making bread who is turning it into reality.
