Summertime With C-CAP Job Internships

August 17, 2017

C-CAP Summer Internship program — Chef Stephen Yen speaking with C-CAP Job Training Students in Lower Manhattan

The Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) helped teens sharpen their culinary skills and get them ready for summer jobs in local restaurants and foodservice venues. In the current job market, with teenage unemployment rates over 30 percent, this was an opportunity of a lifetime for the C-CAP students, who will be considered culinary professionals in the eyes of their employers.

The C-CAP Summer Internship program connected public high school culinary students to the food service industry by providing them with hands-on, “real-life” work experience. Through the Job Training program, the skills that students learned in high school were reinforced to prepare them for the 150 hours of paid internships in some of the best professional kitchens in the Big Apple. These skills include: knife skills, sanitation, timing, speed, organization, and teamwork. In addition, students participated in mock job interviews and worked on their communication, time management, interpersonal effectiveness, and job-seeking tools.

Executive Chef and Creative Director Stephen Yen treated the students to a behind-the-scenes tour of the new City Acres Market, at 70 Pine Street, in the Financial District of New York City. He strolled with them through the hybrid shopping destination and market, which was filled with conventional and natural/organic products provided by a slate of food vendors, including a butcher and cheese shop.

According to Stephen Yen, “Being on the job is the best way to apply the theories you learn in the classroom. Identifying the lessons as theories is the best way to communicate to the students that the learning continues every day on the job. Ask the students to write down each day what they learned. This is the fastest way for them to become better the next day.”

Several chefs donated their time to meet with the students. The chefs included Executive Chef Daniel Eardley and Pastry Chef Kristen Moorer from American Cut, and Chef Eugene Law from City Acres Market. C-CAP alumnus and Sous Chef Silvestre Moran, from Irvington Bar & Grill, attended the C-CAP Job Training Interview
session.

Please support C-CAP by visiting all of the wonderful restaurants. Similar job training programs took place this year in Arizona, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

C-CAP wishes to thank the 58 industry supporters committed to hiring and mentoring a student for the summer program: