Ensemble Restaurant

Outreach

Mentoring Young Chefs

"Everything is easy when you know how," says Executive Chef Dale MacKay. "It all comes down to standards and process and diligence.  But somebody has to show you.  Somebody has to recognize your passion and your commitment, and provide an opportunity for growth."

 

Sometimes that opportunity is something as simple as opening the door.  For Canadian Chef Dale MacKay, that's exactly how it happened.  Opportunity knocked, or rather he knocked on the back door of Chef Gordon Ramsay's London restaurant - without an appointment or any references - asking to work in the kitchen for just one day.  That was 11 years ago, and Dale was just 20 years old.

 

“If Chef Ramsay hadn’t recognized my passion for food and taken a chance on me, I wouldn’t be here today,” says Dale.  “Truth is, real culinary talent often comes from the most unlikely of places and as accomplished chefs it is our responsibility to find and nurture that talent.”

 

Chef MacKay  went on to become a Ramsay protoge, opening six of his restaurants in the UK, Japan and New York. After moving back to Vancouver, MacKay opened two restaurants in Vancouver for Daniel Boulud.  Now that he has his own restaurant, ensemble, he is more passionate than ever about mentoring young chefs - male and female alike.  The ensemble kitchen isn't big enough to do much mentoring in-house, so Dale follows the need.

 

In Vancouver, that need led to the Culinary Arts Program at Templeton Secondary School, on the city's eastside. The program is well-known for the high-level of skills training, work experience, and preparation students receive, and for the calibre of iconic guest chefs and mentors it attracts and has access to.

 

Last year, a young grade 11 female student, taught by department head Margo Murphy and mentored by Dale, won gold medals at both the BC and Canadian Skills Competitions, in the cooking category.  A grade twelve male, took silver for baking.

 

"I only wish that I had the opportunity to participate in something like the Culinary Arts when I was in high school," says MacKay.

 

"For so many reasons, the program is amazing.  All kinds of kids with all kinds of interests and issues go there and they learn discipline and teamwork, and respect for each other and themselves.  And they learn a marketable skill in a real commercial kitchen."

 

The Culinary Arts Program is joined at the hip to another of MacKay's favourite organizations - the Boys Club Network for at-risk youth. Several Boys Club youth have graduated from or are enrolled in Culinary Arts and have truly found their opus.

 

Not only are they loving to cook, but they are staying in school, staying out of trouble, and learning a trade.  "Being a chef these days is considered to be a pretty cool thing to do," says MacKay." Even tough guys are drawn to it."

 

About the Boys Club Network

Started in 2007 at Templeton Secondary School, what was then known as the Boys Club, and sometimes as the Goodfellas Club, has five years worth of good works under its belt and is ready to spread its wings a bit beyond its eastside neighborhood and into other areas of the Lower Mainland and eventually,  straight across the country.

 

Founders Jimmy Crescenzo and Walter Mustapich wanted to know their model worked on a sustainable level, before proposing it to other schools or districts.  "In the end, what you need to make a Boys Club Network 'work' is simple: more than one school environment with a critical mass of at-risk male youth, at least one passionate teacher and incremental access to several compelling and non-judgemental role models," says Mustapich.   "The Boys Club Network operates independently of the school and the school district, but also with its blessing. The relationship is symbiotic."

 

"We found, based on feedback and calls for support from other school districts that, these pre-requisites exist pretty much everywhere, regardless of socio-economic conditions.  They might look different on the westside or the northshore than they do on the eastside, but the fundamentals are the same - young men at risk due to lack of positive mentoring and moral guidance, access to educational inspiration - and hope."

 

A Boys Club works with about 25 at-risk youth per year, engaging them at anytime from grades eight through 12.  The retention rate is over 95% and almost all of the youth, who joined or were recruited due to poor grades, non-attendance, gang-related issues or trouble with the law, have graduated. "Our mentors made a huge difference in the lives of these boys, turning the tables of dependance and creating positive, high-school graduated, contributing members of society.  We do whatever we possibly can, within our means and that of our mentors and sponsors, to provide value-added basics for these boys."  Namely:

• Hope
• Opportunity
• Mentoring and Moral Guidance
• Education

"The acronym says it all," says Mustapich.  "For many of these boys, we are home. We meet formally once or twice a week after school, we feed them and check-in with each and every one of them to see how they are doing at school and at home.  We mediate with teachers and hold the boys accountable.  They don't get to come to the Club if they don't honour their academic obligations and respect their school, their teachers, their mentors and their fellow students."  And the reward is great:

 

Boys Club members have access to a priviledge that nobody else in the city does.  They have closed-door, confidential meetings with some of the most powerful and influential men in the country (Frank Giustra, Francesco Aquilini, Mayor Gregor Robertson and Chef Dale MacKay to name a few, plus NHL hockey players, well-known journalists, actors, physicians, etc).  They can ask them any question they want in total confidence.  They hear personal stories that nobody else gets to hear, and they hear what they most need to ... that the strongest steel goes through the hottest fire, and that they are not alone in their struggles.  They learn that they can accomplish almost anything they set their mind to, regardless of circumstance.  They learn that someone cares about them enough to show them the way, to be tough on them when need be, and to hold them accountable.

 

"Almost all of our Boys Club alumni have gone on to meaningful post-secondary lives.  They are contributing, tax-paying members of society.  They are not the burden on the social system that they might have been, had they not received mentorship and hope."  The model works and it is time for us to grow the Boys Club into a Network."

 

A July 4, 2011 fundraising event here at ensemble restaurant officially launched  the Boys Club Network.

 

Funds raised were used for non-administrative purposes only; in part to benefit Boys Club members enrolled in the Culinary Arts Program at Templeton Secondary, who wish to participate in culinary education excursions to Europe, or need financial assistance with post-secondary culinary training.

 

Inquiries regarding the Boys Club Network or the Culinary Arts Program  are welcome via email for forwarding and follow-up, or visit the BoysClubNetwork.com website.

 

A second fundraiser, scheduled for February 9th will be held at our sister restaurant ensemble Tap.  For details please visit the event page of the ensemble Tap website.