Life lessons through cooking
<p>In this Jan. 19 photo, Ashley Tucker, 19, works quickly and methodically at Life's Kitchen in Boise where she spent 16 weeks learning culinary arts from local chefs in an operating kitchen.</p>
BOISE (AP) - Ashley Tucker, 19, considers the new callus on her index finger a badge of honor, proof of entrance into a sorority/fraternity of cooks.
She got the callus from chopping - the onions, the green peppers, whatever else is needed for the gourmet fare at Life's Kitchen, the nonprofit cooking program for at-risk young people.
She's one of four student chefs who graduated recently from the 16-week training program where trainees hone their food handling, soup, sauce, seasoning, knife - and life - skills.
Tucker's teachers and program administrators call her one of the nicest people to be around, even in the crucible-like atmosphere of a hot kitchen.
"She was unsure of herself when the program started, but socially, she's really come out of her shell," said Erin King, administrative assistant and catering planner. As one example of that, Tucker met King's children only once but bought them Christmas presents.
Tucker agrees that the program, which includes social interactions along with the practical lessons about what goes on in a kitchen, has changed her profoundly - even in its brief 16 weeks.
"I was so shy when I started, I couldn't even call a doctor's office to make an appointment for myself, or go to the pharmacy to get medicine," Tucker said, smiling in the flat black cap she and other new graduates wear.
Now, not only did she finish an internship in the kitchen at the DoubleTree Hotel Riverside, she got a full-time job as a prep cook - breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Valley View Retirement Home.
She'll be part of a crew that starts work at 6 a.m., cooking for nearly 300 residents.
Tucker knows the art of cuisine - she's now perfecting her recipe for a beef and tomato "soup/stew," trying to get the seasoning just right - and cooking runs in her family. Her dad cooks for fishing and factory crews in Alaska. Despite the genetic leg up, Tucker has had to contend with tough times.
Medical problems and two surgeries kept her out of school during her entire ninth-grade year. Her health improved, but she wasn't getting along with her family. Rather than going back to school, she went to work instead.
She got a job at a local pizza restaurant and made shift supervisor. Her bosses failed to promote her each of the four times the assistant manager job opened up, and she got impatient.
"I started looking for something better to do," Tucker said. Her ambition was the pizza store's loss. She excelled and earned loyal fans at Life's Kitchen.
"Ashley is reliable. She listens," said kitchen trainer and chef Maggie Kiefer. "You ask her something, you know she's going to do it right."
The program is challenging, and quite different from the world of professional cooking glamorized on reality television. Students are likely to be put to work chopping 35 pounds of onions at one sitting, or cleaning grease traps, Kiefer said.
The program isn't for everybody. It is for someone like Tucker. She may have been shy once, but she never shied away from work.
During her job at the pizza shop, and ever since, she has had an evening job selling tickets and ushering at Qwest Arena. She's keeping that job, even though she's working full time now. She has big things to save for.
She and her fiance just bought their first house, and they're planning a wedding for the fall of 2011.
"Life is coming together," Tucker said.
She hit another important landmark: On the same day she passed her Life's Kitchen culinary test for graduation, she took the final test to earn her GED.