Episode 3 Culinary School

This week on the conversation we will continue where we left off last week. Why Culinary School may not be for everyone especially POC.  We have invited Chef Kevin Mitchell and Chef Cassandra Jones to give us an educator's perspective.

Chef Cassandra Jones

Cassandra Jackson is a graduated of Johnson & Wales University, with honors in the program of Culinary Arts. She has over 20 years of experience in the culinary industry. Cassandra began her internship at the South’s Grand under the guidance of Master Chef Jose Gutierrez in the restaurant Chez Phillpe. After her internship she was asked to join the culinary team of The Peabody Hotel Memphis, at the Peabody she was responsible for large banquets and The South’s Grand famous brunch. Chef Cassandra has been a member of the American Culinary Federation and a Certified Hospitality Educator.

Chef Kevin Mitchell

In December of 2008 Chef Mitchell became the first African American Chef Instructor at the Culinary Institute of Charleston located within Trident Technical College in Charleston, South Carolina. At the Institute Chef Mitchell is involved in designing new curriculum for students as well as teaching classes. Upon starting his position at CIC, Chef Mitchell ran the test kitchen for the Gullah Cuisine cookbook, authored by Chef Charlotte Jenkins of Gullah Cuisine restaurant in Mt. Pleasant, SC., and published by Joggling Board Press. Working with Chef Jenkins, he tested all of the recipes for the book.

Several years later Chef Mitchell became Chef Coordinator for Nat Fuller’s Feast, a recreation of a banquet held in Charleston in 1865 by renowned chef and caterer Nat Fuller. The original feast, held at Fuller’s famous Bachelor’s Retreat restaurant, was the first to bring together both black and white patrons to break bread in a celebration of the end of the Civil War.

In August 2016 Chef Mitchell will begin his graduate studies at the University of Mississippi and graduated in 2018. There he focused on Southern Foodways, the preservation of Southern ingredients and the history of African Americans in the culinary arts.During his time at at the University of Mississippi, Chef Mitchell was a Nathalie Dupree Graduate Fellow of the Southern Foodways Alliance of which he is also a member.