LIMESTONE, Maine — This week Loring Job Corps students will job shadow at local businesses in Presque Isle, Caribou, Limestone and Fort Fairfield seeking real-world, hands-on experience.
The Reed Commons kitchen at Northern Maine Community College played host to 18-year-old culinary student Keon Montford of Limestone. Montford has been part of the culinary program at Loring Job Corps for the past month and hopes to someday own a bakery back home in Connecticut.
“I like working with my hands and I enjoy making things from scratch,” Montford said.
Montford’s interest in cooking began a few years back and was inspired by a family member.
“My stepmother, she’s a chef, she trained in Rhode Island and cooks all the time. I want to make her proud by becoming a cook myself. She told me how the business runs and that the only way to be successful it to own something because you always start from the bottom,” Montford said.
Montford was working yesterday under the supervision of Lori Hoyt, Aramark food services and NMCC cook. She warned her helper it was going to be a busy day. Hoyt had her apprentice start by making cheese quesadillas, move on to pizzas and help with desserts, “I hope he takes away as much fun as I have here, It’s a great job, he’ll love it,” Hoyt said.
This is the second consecutive year the Reed Commons kitchen has hosted students from Loring Job Corps. NMCC Food Service Director Rob Ottaviano said, “we have a lot of Job Corps students here at the college mostly residential students and I have three former Job Corps students that work for me right now.
“I like the fact that these students want to learn more about the industry and anything we can do to collaborate with Job Corps is a good thing. I would like them to learn about the business behind what they’re doing, such as the arithmetic behind food costs, labor cost, what it all means and dive a little deeper into the industry,” Ottaviano said.
Ottaviano hopes most of all that Montford will take away that he can have a bright career in the culinary industry. “He can stay in Aroostook County if he wants or he can go anywhere in the world and have a marketable job skill.
“I have a lot of interaction with Job Corps students and my experience with them has been nothing but positive,” Ottaviano said.
