International Flavors with Chef John Barton

The following images are from a unique event I was fortunate enough to be invited to document. Culinary guru Chef John Barton, an amazing instructor at New England Culinary Institute, brought his class of high school students enrolled in the culinary arts program at Northwest Technical Center in St. Albans to visit NECI's Montpelier campus and interact with his B.A. Mod 6 students as they prepared final projects for their Asian Foods class.

Chef John Barton is an intensely articulate and dearly loved instructor with a fountain of knowledge that he passionately shares with his students.

At first the high school students were a bit shy, but with some mild prompting and introductions they felt more at ease and began to ask the B.A. students questions and a natural interaction followed.

I have to admit, it was a joy to witness the high school students come out of their shells and begin to develop a rapport with the BA students, get involved in the preparation, and experience a meaningful field-trip.

The high school students were able to get a glimpse of various steps in Asian food preparation and also meet some of NECI's international students.

The visiting high school students had a first hand opportunity to experience NECI's mantra "where you learn by living it" in action.

A collage of some of the various dishes prepared as final projects in Chef Barton's Mod 6 Asian Foods class.

 Shrimp Rolls: the Chef's Choice winner by Stefan

A duo of shrimp: the People's Choice winner, by Kimberly

At the end of the day, Chef Barton observed: "In the heat of the moment the students don't often see the quality of their work or the progress they have made. Nine weeks ago they knew next to nothing about Asian cuisine, now they are integrating specific cuisines into their cooking."

"The photos look great," he said. "Thanks for your involvement and expertise it brings these types of student events to a new level and allows the students to reflect on what a great job they did."

You're very welcome Chef, thank you for the opportunity to document the event..