Chef coats and cow pastures 

That was the first question Mary McMillen posed to a group of 19 culinary students, from the Charlotte, N.C., Johnson & Wales University (J&W), as they stood in their brand new chef coats under the barn at Back Creek in Mt. Ulla, N.C.

No hands moved.

“How many of you have ever eaten a hamburger?” Mary asked next.

All hands stretched high in the air.

“They all eat hamburgers. They all know what a good hamburger or a good steak is,” Mary explained. “So that was the point of entrance into engaging them in what we were going to do. We had to interact with them in a way they would understand.”

Mary, CAB public relations director, continued the conversation by asking what makes that hamburger or steak stand out. She answered for them this time.

“It’s the beef.”

During a busy summer, full of events both in Wooster and afar, this one to Back Creek’s Angus Farm wasn’t exactly planned.

“It was a quick turnaround, a spur of the moment,” Mary said. “Two of the J&W staff went on our chef tour in May and came back charged up. One called me and said, ‘This is amazing. I want to take some students and faculty to a farm right now.’”

The next month the group was standing on one, just an hour outside of Charlotte.

While it’s typical for CAB to host staff from the esteemed academy to educate them on beef quality and production, working with students was a first. Having just begun their culinary expeditions, many questions were posed – and then answered through first-hand experience.

“It’s a special thing to catch them as they’re starting their careers,” Mary said. “These students had only been in their classes for two weeks. One kid had literally just graduated from high school. So it was a good thing.”

I’d tend to agree.

Thanks for allowing us to tell your story,

Laura

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