New class for Wilmington students meant to spark interest in culinary arts

Karl, who is a student at D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy in Wilmington, said he’s learned some cooking skills from his dad. But he wants to take it further.

“He makes good shrimp and good fish,” he said. “But I want to be better than him.”

After school hours, Karl is one of six students enrolled in a unique pilot program at DREAMS Center for Arts Education in Wilmington. The nonprofit focuses on equitable access to arts education and asked that the StarNews use only the students' first names.

Now, on Mondays, there's a new cookbook club that's a part of SPARC, or Students Preparing Artisanal and Regional Cuisine. Jeremy Malanka, of manna restaurant in downtown Wilmington, is leading the class. He learned about DREAMS though the organizations 25th anniversary fundraising efforts and is now on the board.

"My eyes lit up when I saw this kitchen,” he said.

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The Landfall Foundation donated a professional kitchen to the DREAMS space at 901 Fanning St. He worked with Lizz Wells, program director, to work out the details of this first class, and to discuss possibilities of where a culinary program could go.

"It really is meant to spark an interest in culinary arts, as a possible vocation or just an important life skill," Malanka said.

And he got others involved. manna is a sponsor and usually there’s a volunteer from the restaurant helping him each class. The Half sandwich shop sponsored the cookbooks, the James Beard Award-winning "Where Cooking Begins" from Carla Lalli Music.

“I love this book,” Malanka said. “It starts with all these different techniques and then has these beautiful, easy recipes."

The copy that Malanka is holding has a few recipes dog-eared, ones that students expressed an interest in making. They’ve already made an aioli and skin-on fish during the previous weeks and have been practicing different egg preparations from shirred to preserved in soy sauce, with ingredients from Eagle Island Fruit & Seafood, another sponsor.

During one recent class they were cutting up pre-prepped pieces of broccoli, cauliflower, peppers and onions (with the help of safety gloves) for a fried rice recipe they’ll be serving with fresh local shrimp. Carl is the student one who liked the idea of shrimp and fried rice. Today, manna chef Zach Smejkal is helping the students and walking them through the steps and their individual dishes. He then cooked whole local shrimp with a butter pan sauce for the students to plate up.

Some of those in the class also attend culinary courses at GLOW Academy. For Jayden, the plating is her favorite part, and you could tell by her final result, with chopped fresh herbs and a sprinkling of collard flowers for garnish and a generous pour of sauce over the shrimp.

“I already cook at home,” said Siyah, another student. “My favorite food is chicken alfredo. Well, my recent favorite food is ribs.”

She said she’s not necessarily a fan of shrimp and fried rice, but she’s willing to learn. Malanka is also encouraging the students to develop their own ideas for a restaurant concept. Siyah's is to have a restaurant that serves food from all over the world.

“We get to do that,” Smejkal said, referring to the different pop-ups that manna hosts throughout the year. “We can think about the kind of restaurant we want to be for a day.”

“We’d like to continue this with their own concepts,” Malanka said, adding that it's something they can incorporate with skills learned in other classes at the center, such as creating a logo through graphic design, or making plates and bowls in ceramics.

"I hope that the program can expand," he said. "We'd like to grow into a summer camp first and them a deeper culinary program, with maybe an internship... I like to think that in three or four years, we'll look back and not believe it started with a cookbook club."

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Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington, NC, chefs lead students in new culinary arts class at DREAMS