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A gift of chef's textbooks Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell New textbooks will be the foundation of South Medford High School's culinary arts program. The books - worth $60 each - were presented by American Culinary Federation of Southern Oregon. Leslie Ashcraft, director of South's culinary program, said "It's like a gift from heaven." By JONEL ALECCIA Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, the axiom goes. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. True enough, agrees Leslie Ashcraft, director of the culinary arts program at South Medford High School. But what if you show the man - or woman - how to cook the fish properly and serve it in a nice tarragon-butter sauce? Federation information The American Culinary Federation of Southern Oregon includes many of the top chefs in the Rogue Valley. Member chefs donate time and energy toward education and promotion of the culinary arts among students and the public. For more information, contact President Janet Crager at 776-0817. At the very least, you'll guarantee a lifetime of lovely meals; at best you'll inspire a fledgling chef in a career of cooking for others. That's exactly what Ashcraft expects from a gift of professional-quality textbooks from the American Culinary Federation of Southern Oregon. On Monday, chefs from around the Rogue Valley delivered 10 copies of "Cooking Essentials for the Professional Chef" to Ashcraft and her most advanced students. At $60 apiece, plus shipping, the books represented a considerable financial donation, but their practical value is worth much more, the teacher said. "I haven't had a new textbook in years. It's like a gift from heaven," she said. "If the kids have a professional textbook, it makes all the difference in the world." The glossy text, a condensed version of the prestigious "The New Professional Chef," goes far beyond traditional home economics texts, said Jesse Bartyzal, a chef at Rogue Valley Medical Center and treasurer of the local culinary group. Skill center is part of bond measure State-of-the-art culinary programs are part of an expanded vision offered by the Medford School District's proposed $40 million skill center. The center, which would serve up to 1,000 students at a time, possibly in two shifts, would move about 20 vocational programs to a centralized site, representing a major restructuring of local education. District officials hope to finance the center through an estimated $70 million bond measure in 2002, which also would pay for a new middle school and improve the two existing high schools. If the bond measure passes, the skill center is set for completion in 2004. District officials contend that the skill center would relieve overcrowding at traditional high schools and allow concentrated focus on core curriculum while also providing vocational training that provides real-world skills for students. The culinary program is one of several that would markedly increase the level of skill. Leslie Ashcraft, program director at South Medford High School, has said it means the difference between traditional home economics classes and commercial-level culinary experience. "It's more about food and what you need to know at the professional level," said Bartyzal, who last year coached South Medford cooks for a state competition. "It doesn't build the house, but it's the foundation." Ashcraft, whose program comprises 250 students, had no funds for new cooking textbooks. She bought a single copy last summer, figuring she'd come up with lesson plans based on it. Then she talked to Bartyzal, who encouraged the chefs' group to use proceeds from the Julie Tummers Educational Scholarship Fund, which honors Tummers, a longtime Rogue Valley chef. "Her whole thing was education and chefs and chefs being professionals," said Bartyzal, who was mentored by the veteran Tummers. But there's a larger motive to the group's generosity. If student cooks have tools to become better trained, it will boost the quality of the Medford School District's proposed vocational skills center, set to open in 2004. In turn, it will benefit Rogue Valley restaurants and the industry in general. "This school will be the icing on the cake," said Janet Crager, a chef at Medford's Horton Plaza and president of the local chef's group. Student chefs could become proficient enough to compete regionally, nationally and even internationally, Bartyzal said. First, however, they need to begin with the basics. And with the use of the new cooking texts, those basics - and the entire culinary curriculum - will change. "It's not just going in an cooking biscuits and playing with the girls," Bartyzal said. "Now, some of them don't know the difference between Romaine and head lettuce, between a chicken and a quail." Soon, however, they will. And that will be a boon, according to student chefs Stephen Williamson and David Lewis, both seniors. "It's going to help a lot," said Williamson, who began in Ashcraft's program as a freshman and fledgling cook. He now plans to pursue a college business degree and a career in restaurant and hotel management. That's a far cry from the easy-A foods classes many parents remember, Bartyzal said. "The program has been home economics," he said. "Now it's becoming professional." Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.