The St. Pete Culinary Center’s inaugural class passed their accreditation test on Friday and all the students have been offered jobs at Centerplate in Tropicana Field.

  • St. Pete Culinary Center inaugural class graduates into jobs
  • Five students offered jobs at Centerplate in Tropicana Field
  • Program provides cooking skills to underprivileged youth

“I’m extremely proud,” said Chef Ted Dorsey, co-owner of The Mill. “The most amazing thing about this program is that we positively impacted these young individuals’ lives in a great, great, way.”

Dorsey said the goal of the program is to provide professional cooking skills to underprivileged youth from St. Petersburg’s Southside, so they can better themselves and the community. The 16 week program taught by Dr. Michael Lynch started off with 8 students and 5 ended up graduating.

“We didn’t know what to expect coming out of the gate,” said Dorsey. “To only lose three people, that’s a healthy attrition rate. I can handle that.”

The five students who graduated, Dejuan Poole, 25, Ardeja Quaterman, 20, Tyzkerja Wiley, 24, Matthew Leaks, 26, and Dyshane Holmes, 23, had to prepare a meal for an evaluator with the American Culinary Federation to be certified culinarians.

“Sanitation is one of the biggest parts of this whole examination,” said Certified Executive Chef and evaluator Joaquin Alcocer. “If these guys are making sure that they’re clean, that they’re not cross contaminating their carrots with their chicken and things of that nature.”    

The students passed the test and were grateful for the opportunity to participate in the program.

“The class has been great as far as helping me with my career and bringing me success in my life,” Holmes said. “As soon as I heard ‘free’ and ‘culinary arts,’ I thought who would not take that up? And they have job placement.”

Dorsey said they raised more than $40,000 to make the program free of charge.

“It costs us anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000 per student,” he said. “We’ve supplied their knives, their cutlery, all the food, their uniforms, everything. This is truly a project that we wanted to give back to our community.”

The City donated kitchen space at the Child’s Park Recreation Center for the classes. Centerplate, the food service provider for the Rays, offered all the students jobs.

“Great idea to give back to the community,” said Centerplate Exec. Chef Marcelo Miranda. “Young blood, take people really eager to work and we have a lot of opportunities to make them better.”

Chef Miranda said with about 30,000 fans at home games, the students will learn a variety of styles of cooking.

“I think the volume, the customer service, the variety of the food,” he said. “We have all kinds, from hot dogs at the ballpark, to nice lobster, filet mignon.”

Dorsey said he hopes to get 20 students for the next program that will begin in August.

“I mean the fact that not only are they learning a trade that they can go and do anywhere but they’re taking that trade home,” he said. “They’re cooking healthier meals for themselves, their families, and their young ones.”

Upon completing his test, student Matthew Leaks gave Chef Dorsey a big hug.

“Thank you for the opportunity, man,” Leaks said. “We’re going all the way with it.”