learn your way around a
JOHNSTON COMM
By RANDY CAPPS
SMITHFIELD — Whether your cooking knowledge is limited to throwing frozen things in the microwave, or you make Christmas cookies that are the envy of your friends and neighbors, there’s always something new to learn in the kitchen. Robbie Carver, community programs coordinator and head of Johnston Community College’s Culinary Arts program, is here to help. “What we’re doing at JCC is a culinary class that’s called Career in a Year,” he said. “It’s a 21-week course (taught in English and Spanish) that breaks up between Culinary 1 and Culinary 2. The Culinary 1 also includes the ServSafe and Sanitation course.” Carver, a 1994 graduate of Wake Tech’s Culinary Arts program, spent more than 26 years cooking in restaurant and corporate settings. But his
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Chef Robbie Carver works with a student in Johnston Community College's Culinary Arts program.
first day in the program was a bit of an eye opener for him. “I always wanted to cook because my aunt was a chef,” he said. “She was part Italian. She
was part Jewish. She lived in the Bronx, and she took me (in the kitchen.) But when I stepped into culinary school, I didn’t know what was going on. “My professor at Wake Tech, Richard Roberts, and my chef, Fredi Morf, always told me there’s two fields you should get in. Eating, because people have to eat, and the funeral business, because people are going to die. I chose the food business. I figured I could work with that a little bit better.” Apparently, his class offers a similar experience for first-day students.
“The restaurant equipment is totally different from what you have in the house,” he said. “I can tell a student, ‘Mary, go get me a braising pan.’ The first thing you’d need to know is what is a braising pan. So, we kind of go through that.” Like his professors pointed out, the culinary field is constantly in search of new recruits. “I’ve received a lot of phone calls, even before COVID but during COVID, too,” Carver said. “(People) are looking for help. Johnston County has grown tremendously. People are looking to get into restaurants and go out to eat on Friday and Saturday nights, but they don’t want to drive to Raleigh. What these restaurants and chefs are looking for here is people that are capable of jumping right in. People who know how
Photos courtesy of Johnston Comm
