Broil, braise, grill, grind, roast, sauté, shuck. All of these words aren’t commonly used in everyday conversation; one might even question the meaning of some. But for senior Melissa Wilkinson, they’re a common language.
At eight years old, Wilkinson’s admiration for cooking came clearly the day of her father’s 50th birthday party when her parents hired a professional chef to prepare the food.
“I was absolutely fascinated with it all. I even remembered the chocolate soufflé and exactly how it tasted. I just knew then and there that I wanted to make food that people would be excited about,” Wilkinson said.
Now, Wilkinson cooks at least once a week for her family and takes independent cooking with practical arts teacher Jill Svejkosky. She has even acquired a stage, or internship, with locally renowned restaurant ‘Niche’ dowtown where she works under Chef Gerard Craft. A small ad for a stage at ‘Niche’ was posted in a local newspaper and Wilkinson submitted her resumé, thinking it would be the ideal experience she needed for working in a professional kitchen.
“I [submitted my resumé] thinking it was a long shot, but the chef replied instantly and asked to meet me,” Wilkinson said.
After a brief, five-minute interview, Wilkinson was asked to join the team at ‘Niche’. She now works Mondays, Wednesdays, alternate Fridays and Sundays.
“[At ‘Niche’] I just do a lot of prep work like shucking corn and preparing mushrooms, but on Mondays I get to prepare salads. I also do a lot of dessert plating.”
Though it’s an unpaid internship, Wilkinson is more than happy to do something she loves. But with steaming hot plates, eight other fast paced workers, shouting out and hungry customers to feed, it can get busy.
“It can be stressful, sometimes [the other workers and I] get yelled at by Chef Craft,” Wilkinson said. “On weekends we sometimes get up to 80 customers throughout the day and we have to get the food out fast. When I go out to dinner now, I know what it’s like being the person who has to get the food out, I’ll never complain about how fast or slow my food gets to my table again!”
All in all, Melissa knows her passion is making food people can get excited about. And she finds practicing with her family, as well as her classmates, to be helpful.
“I think she’s very ambitious,” senior Alison Fiorenza said. “I find her extreme passion for cooking especially admirable for someone our age. It’s obviously a treat [having a class with Melissa] because who can pass up frequently bakes homemade desserts?”
After high school, she plans to attend a college with a very strong culinary program; and hopes to open to her own restaurant later in the future.
“My ultimate dream is to open a swanky, little twelve-seater where I can have an open area and talk to my customers and me and three other people would run the whole thing,” Wilkinson said.
But for now, she’s focused on her stage at ‘Niche’, which will be moving to Clayton in January, and improving on her cooking techniques with Svejkosky in her independent study course.
“I’m very fortunate to have this internship. I could have started at the bottom and worked my way up, but instead I get to start at the top. It’s very cool,” she said. “Chef Craft is a completely innovative person; he focuses on good quality ingredients that are carefully prepared but ultimately simple. I really admire that philosophy.”
