Charles Jarvis, a graduate of Providence Culinary Training, says there are a million ways to make a dish-- and a life.

Below is the speech given by Providence Culinary Training graduate Rosemary Scott, who came back to address students at our most recent PCT graduation earlier this month. Rosemary is pictured above as a student at PCT, when WXII News 12 came to visit our program. Center row, third from the right. “Hello everyone. I’m Rosemary Scott and I graduated with Providence Culinary Training’s class CC50. I’m currently a chef at Old Town Country Club, and I will have been working there

The word around the kitchen is that Chef Vanessa is strict and no-nonsense, maybe even a bit of a taskmaster. But after each Providence Culinary Training graduation, the graduates line up to hug her and thank her warmly… every time. “I knew nothing about cooking,” Vanessa Lanier confesses, remembering back 11 years when she was a student herself at Second Harvest Food Bank’s Providence Culinary Training. “I had cooked for my family, but I had no skill worth mentioning to anyo

The following blog post was contributed by Daryl Myers Jr., owner of DJ’s Cheesecakes and a graduate of Second Harvest Food Bank’s Providence Culinary Training: I am a child of God, a father of three, a soon-to-be husband, and the owner of DJ’s Cheesecakes, LLC. I am also a proud graduate of Second Harvest Food Bank’s Providence Culinary Training (formerly known as Triad Community Kitchen). My past choices in life have lead me on many detours, but Providence helped make a pa

Great Grandma Ginny’s coconut cake was what you call “small town famous.” Tara Madison remembers her great grandmother’s table being covered with coconuts. Ginny would pour out the milk and scrape the flesh into large bowls. The phone would begin to ring a few weeks before Christmas with people from throughout the county placing orders for the cake. Even back then, Ginny could sell the cakes for $25–a pretty penny for a small Southern town in the 1980’s. Tara remembers her mo

Jacques Moore, a graduate of Second Harvest’s Triad Community Kitchen program, has always had a passion for cooking. He was 8 years old when his grandma taught him how to make cookies for the first time. Ever since, he has enjoyed sharing his love of cooking with his friends and family. After working as a shoe buyer at Nordstrom for some time, Jacques started attending culinary classes at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, doing a steward program. In the midst o

It wasn’t that long ago that we saw Terrell Anistead receive his diploma and knives, the customary gift to students who are graduating from Second Harvest’s Triad Community Kitchen program. Now, nine months later, he is back in the TCK kitchen classroom standing in front of a twelve burner stove, with vegetables and steaks sizzling behind him. “You get used to being burned,” he says with a smile, pointing to a few scars on his forearms as he rolls up his sleeves. Terrell is l

If you can find your way through the maze of food pallets stacked floor to ceiling in the lofty warehouse of Second Harvest Food Bank, you’ll find a classroom of happy students watching a demonstration by a local chef. Push through the double swinging doors beyond the class, and you’ll find a state-of-the-art kitchen where instructor Janis Karathanas, herself a trained chef, spends her days teaching culinary job skills to the 60 to 80 students who graduate from Triad Communit