NOCCA stirs culinary interest in students in N.O.

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jun 24, 2009 by Emilie Bahr

Every weekday morning for close to two weeks now, 20 students from high schools across south Louisiana have filed into the kitchen at the Ritz-Carlton hotel on Canal Street for an intensive, hands- on lesson in the culinary arts.

The day begins at around 10 a.m. when the young chefs in training are bused from the Bywater campus of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts to the downtown hotel, where they head to a conference room for an hour's long lecture on a particular cuisine or cooking technique given by Chef Michael Makuch, an instructor in the culinary program at Johnson and Wales University.

From there, the students collect aprons, hats, knives and other supplies and head to the kitchen to prep and cook a meal. Whatever they cook, the students will eventually eat as part of a critiquing session at which they receive feedback on recipes, techniques and taste.

Later, the students clean the kitchen and, at around 4 p.m., take the bus back to NOCCA and head home or to dorms at the University of New Orleans.

The three-week program, which runs through June 26, is in its third year, the result of a partnership between The NOCCA Institute, Johnson and Wales, The Ritz-Carlton and The Emeril Lagasse Foundation.

Like all NOCCA offerings, the course is tuition-free and competitive. Participants are required to submit a two-page essay explaining their interest and submit to an interview. A $100 supply fee is the only cost involved for the student.

For now, the summer culinary program represents the extent of culinary arts training available through NOCCA.

"This is what NOCCA can offer currently because we do not have professional training kitchens on our campus," said spokesman Brian Hammell. Eventually, the school intends to develop a four-year culinary program, but such a move would require an expansion of the school's facilities, he said.

Alvin Noggerath Jr. is participating in the summer culinary program for the third year.

"It's a really awesome program if you're someone who likes to be in the kitchen, someone who likes a little pressure and someone who's really passionate about culinary arts and cooking," said Noggerath, 19, who Makuch tapped this year as his sous chef.

Likewise, he said, for those who may not have spent any significant time in a professional kitchen, the program can be a good way of measuring interest in a trade whose demands are notorious.

Noggerath, for one, has every intention of pursuing a career as a professional chef. He said his love of cooking dates back to when he was 7 and began spending significant time in the kitchen with his mother and grandmother.

After he graduates from Pearl River High School next spring, he said he hopes to attend Nicholls State University's John Folse Culinary Institute in Thibodaux and to eventually open his own restaurant.