EDIBLE EDUCATION

Title: Executive Chef at R Bistro Age: 42

Family: One dog, two cats Favorite thing to cook: Seasonal produce and

Middle Eastern food

Least favorite thing to cook: Liver

Favorite food: “I could eat pizza every day.” What she orders here in Indy: Steamed pork

buns at Rook, salads at Black Market, vegetarian thalis (a set meal consisting of regional delicacies) from various Indian joints First food job: Pizza King in Muncie Dream job: “I’m usually quite content with what I’m doing, but some days I think a dream job would consist of touring with a favorite band and acting as their chef from city to city. I also dream of running a bed and breakfast kitchen, cooking from the garden and barnyard.”

Erin Kem R Bistro rbistroonmassave@indy.rr.com

Edible Indy: How do you spend your day at R Bistro? Erin Kem: Mondays are a mental day, solidifying the week s menu, planning and ordering. Tuesday is more physically demanding, prepping the week s menu and having it ready by service. The rest of the week is lighter prep, cooking on the line at dinner, then starting the planning all over again for the next week s brand new menu! Sundays are a sacred day off.

EI: How did you get into cooking? EK: I cooked as a hobby from my teens into my 20s; after a year in France, I decided I wanted to go to culinary school. I attended the New England Culinary Institute in Burlington, Vermont at age 27 after already receiving a B.A. from Ball State, and I cooked in Germany for six months at the end of my education.

EI: What’s your culinary mantra? EK: Fresh, local, simple. I embrace the French technique, but more Alice Waters than Julia Child. I want the ingredients to shine without distracting frills and gimmicks. EI: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a chef? EK: Balancing professional and personal life is a bear in this business. My family and friends know that my hours suck, so they always have to work around my schedule when it comes to a social life. I have to set aside time when work is off limits.

EI: What are your thoughts on women within Indy’s restaurant scene? EK: At times, I feel like it s still somewhat of a boys’ club. However, there are plenty of local women in charge of kitchens and food-related businesses a remarkable change even from 13 years ago when I moved to Indy.

Culinary summer camp craft s young chefs FUTURE FOODIES OF AMERICA

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARY MCCLUNG

Culinary Campers practice their “mise en place” skills for an evening dinner served to family and friends.

Participants of Ivy Tech’s Camp Culinaire learned a full range of kitchen and food prep techniques each day.

Remember camp? Some of us went to computer camp, some to tennis camp, some to that place with the lake and leaky canoes. Kids today do much the same, but with a new option: culinary camp.

As part of an effort to bring more food education to the next generation, the Hospitality Administration Department of Ivy Tech Community College held Camp Culinaire this summer. The mid-June event, designed for junior and senior high school students interested in learning more about food and future culinary careers, took place at the college’s Indianapolis Corporate College and Culinary Center.

A summer tradition since 2008, Camp Culinaire is the brainchild of Chef Lauri Griffin, assistant chair of the department, and has been overseen and developed by Chef Allen Edwards, Ivy Tech’s instructor of hospitality administration, each year since the beginning. The camp has become increasingly popular with the latest generation of food lovers, and is a great way to keep food skills honed or learn new techniques during those summer months when high school culinary classes are out. After all, no self-respecting junior chef wants a knife to rust from too much rest.

During the camp’s first four years attendees cooked in two sessions each day, as there was only one kitchen lab and one baking lab available. As the years have progressed, so have the amenities; now there are multiple kitchens with the latest equipment, making this camp much easier and more productive to host and learn.

At this year’s camp, about two dozen students from Indianapolis and regional high schools gathered for three days of learning and practice in culinary technique and production. Prior experience in the kitchen wasn’t a prerequisite. Two levels of culinary training were