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To Radford Cook, cooking is more than a hobby, a passion
or even a calling — it is a skill that is essential to life. He
adopted this outlook on his future career while travelling
through Europe (and working odd jobs to pay for the trip) after high
school.
"I realized that if I knew how to cook, I could always
have a job and I could always eat," he says. "Cooking is
a life skill. It's something you can do everywhere and everyday."
With this in mind, Cook enrolled in the Culinary Management
program at George Brown College after he returned to
Canada from his year abroad. He completed the two-year program in 1982.
Now
as a hospitality services teacher at Brother Andre
Catholic High School in Markham, Ontario, Cook is helping
his students learn this important life skill which they
can use everyday regardless
if they choose cooking as their profession.
Many of his students are interested in becoming chefs
and go on to the George Brown Chef School. Cook encourages
them to take this route based on his own experience.
"I thought the program was excellent and gave a good
foundation in the industry," he says.
To give his students firsthand exposure to his alma mater,
Cook brought them to the first annual Chefs in the
City™ event,
hosted by the Chef School in March 2006. "It was great,"
he says of the two-day event that included several cooking
competitions for high school students and cook apprentices.
"Everyone was very warm and welcoming." Cook's students fared
well against the other high school teams,
winning Gold in the Knorr Ready Set Cook and Win Culinary
Competition.
Chefs in the City™ is designed to give students hands-on experience
in the kitchen — something that Cook remembers fondly from his
days at George Brown.
"My most memorable moment from the program was preparing
a dinner for Francis Ford Coppola, Margot Kidder and
her date, Pierre Trudeau. My job was to keep the ice
sculptures steady in the back of
the truck on the way to the dinner hall," he says with
a laugh.
The knowledge and experience that Cook gained
from the program helped him move quickly through the
ranks once he graduated. While apprenticing at the Royal York, he
started out as the roast cook
and by the end, had been promoted to night cook.
Since graduating, he has worked at George's Spaghetti
House, Encore Catering and most notably, he established
the Wing Machine chain in
the 1990s. After opening 14 locations, Cook had to
sell the franchise as the recession was taking its
toll on the business.
After closing that chapter of his career, he
decided
to attend the University of Toronto for a teaching
certificate. "Teaching was my first choice 10 years
earlier but then I had an idea for the Wing Machine,"
he explains. "So basically I went back to where I was
going in the first place." Cook loves helping his students
learn an important skill and discover their passion for culinary arts
but he admits that his inner entrepreneur is always
cooking up new
ideas.
Read more stories from George Brown Graduates...
We encourage you to visit the Alumni Association.
To learn more, visit the George
Brown College Alumni page.
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