PVCC Culinary Arts Students Bake Up New Skills, Delicious Desserts this Summer
Wander around the Jefferson School City Center halls mid-afternoon this summer, and your nose will be in for a delicious treat. Now through July 12, the students in Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC)’s Culinary Arts program have begun Introduction to Baking.
Nineteen students are enrolled in the two sections of the course this summer and working on quick breads, leavened breads, cakes, pies, pastries, and frozen confections, such as ice cream and sorbet.
Chef Tammy Brawley explained that one of her favorite parts of teaching is that moment when students understand a new concept and everything clicks. “There maybe things that a home cook is a little afraid of or challenged by and we try to move people through those fears,” she explained. For instance, students learn how to make caramel sauce using a wet and dry method so they can understand the qualities of both approaches.
“It’s awesome,” student Alicia Simmons said about the baking course. “How can you complain about baking sweets all day?” Simmons put off entering school a year to be part of PVCC’s Culinary Arts degree program and has found it well worth the wait. “It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s definitely worth it,” she said, adding her dream job is to run her own restaurant and fill the menu with her favorites.
Chef Brawley loves teaching and supporting her students in learning the fundamentals they need to be successful in their future careers. Brawley, who lives in Richmond, has been teaching in various settings since 2007, and also offers recreational cooking classes through her company, The Green Kitchen. “The ultimate goal [for her business] is to be a sustainable cooking school, not a degree program. You come, have a glass of wine, and you learn to do a sauce or a recipe, but the main focus is on eating out of [your] garden,” said Brawley.
After the baking course wraps up the culinary students will enjoy a break until the fall semester begins August 21.
Still Time to Register for Literacy Volunteers New Tutor Training
On July 19, Literacy Volunteers of Charlottesville / Albemarle will host its next New Tutor Training, 9:30am-4:00pm at the Jefferson School City Center. This training provides new tutors with the foundation they need to help adults in the community improve their speaking, reading, and writing skills in English.
“We may be teaching people basic skills, but those basic skills add up to changing a life,” said Executive Director Ellen Osborne. “Our students leave our program better prepared for good jobs and to take an active role in their children’s lives and their communities.”
Literacy Volunteers requires a year commitment and tutors meet with students for two hours each week. For more information or to register for the July 19 training, call 434-977-3838.
African American Heritage Center Continues Its Children’s Summer Film Series
On Saturday, July 19, at 3pm and 5:30pm, the African American Heritage Center will show Khumba (2012). In Khumba, a young zebra, born with only half his stripes is rejected by his superstitious herd and blamed for a sudden drought affecting the land. Teaming up with a sassy wildebeest and a flamboyant ostrich, Khumba sets out on a daring mission across the Karoo desert to find the legendary waterhole where the first zebras got their stripes. Along the way he meets a variety of characters, but before he can reunite with his herd, Khumba will have to come face to face with a menacing leopard to take part in an epic battle.
Tickets are available at the door and the suggested donation is $5.00.
Jefferson School City Center is a voice of the nine nonprofits located at Charlottesville’s intergenerational community center, the restored Jefferson School. We are a legacy preserved . . . a soul reborn . . . in the heart of Cville!
