Students get hands-on experience at Dodici’s

WASHINGTON — Members of a Mid-Prairie culinary class served their own food for a fundraiser at Café Dodici Monday night, after spending weeks planning and days preparing hors d'oeuvres ahead of time.

Students modified a list of recipes suggested by their teacher — replacing lamb meatballs with pork, for example — and plated them up for guests at the event.

“It was an irreplaceable experience for them,” Mid-Prairie FCS Teacher Glenda Seward said. “They were able to be involved in the entire process, to the point of seeing the guests be able to eat those items.”

Seward said the guest chefs were more than a little nervous going in, but found the evening fun as time went on, and especially enjoyed a group meal among themselves and kitchen staff before serving began.

She added that it was good to see the fruits of her class realized in an environment outside of school.

“Not every student who comes into a culinary program in the high school is going to be interested in planning a career in culinary or hospitality,” Seward said. “But there are so many skills they’re able to get, teamwork and the ability to think on your feet and troubleshoot as you go, and life skills, employability skills for our future workforce.”

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Dodici Executive Chef Tim Howard worked with the students for the night. He said it was the kids’ first time seeing a professional kitchen in-action.

Despite the pressure, he said they thrived. The group narrowed down six appetizer options to three, but Howard said that decision came purely from a question of preparation logistics, not a question of any of the food’s quality.

“They exceeded my expectations from the start,” he said. “They literally were all competitive, there wasn’t one (dish) that was better than the other … it wasn’t like a ‘light bulb moment,’ I think the light bulb was already on.”

Howard hopes to see the restaurant hold similar events in the future, potentially with other schools.

He said the possibilities were immense for students of his craft.

“It is an amazing program, (for) people that are trying to enter the culinary industry to actually experience it first, to see what it’s actually like,” he said.

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The fundraiser sent money to the Iowa Restaurant Association Education Foundation, for the nonprofit’s Iowa ProStart program, which provides resources to participating schools like Mid-Prairie.

Foundation Executive Director May Schaben said the night was a blast. While fundraiser dinners like Monday night’s are a tried and true model for the group, she, too, hopes to see them expand around the state, and return to Café Dodici.

“Five out of six of those students said they wanted to pursue careers in the hospitality industry, so we hope with the ProStart Program, we’re giving those students a really solid foundation,” she said. “At the end of the night, those students were super excited about what they had just participated in … it was a really inspirational, motivational experience, I think.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com