The next food trend is for everyone.  I call it “One Simple Truth.”

Earlier this month I was contacted by Mackensy Lunsford.  She wanted to pick my brain about “big ideas” in food trends.  Needless to say, Food constantly is on my mind.  I shared my thoughts in an article for Mountain Express (read the article here).

Her email came at the same moment that Green Opportunities (GO), Asheville City Schools, AB Technical Community College, MANNA Food Bank and Goodwill Industries of NW North Carolina had a meeting of the minds resulting in a training program, which was initiated by Michel Baudouin of Bouchon and supported by the Asheville Independent Restaurant association (AIR).  I have been working on the project for a year-and-a-half, resulting in the adoption of the proposal by GO on December 13.  Today, the project has been formally announced.  GO-Kitchen Ready Press Release

The AIR led initiative is a pivotal event.  In the time I have been working on this project I have learned much and have arrived at a new relationship with Food.  I  learned is that food based training for individuals at risk has been happening for more than 25 years.  Here in Buncombe County, ABCCM and AB Tech have been collaborating for over 5 years, training veterans at the Veterans Restoration Quarters in east Asheville, the project is led by Eric Cox and Rachael Wilson. Culinary training is ongoing at Craggy Prison, AB Tech supports that as well.

The first part of my food adventure was taken up with the creative and the particular.  The second, mature adventure will be about wholesome food for everyone.  It is no surprise that I will be training individuals at risk and working on  cooking based family training. Running a restaurant has many parrellels to both of these endeavors. It is a natural progression.

Wholesome food habits are the foundation of good health.  I mean this is the broadest sense possible – physical, mental, spiritual, and communal.  If I had been lucky enough to be one of the framers of the Constitution, the First Bill of Rights would be access to wholesome food.  Then, you would be free to talk about it (like the French who are either talking about what they are eating, what they ate or what they are going to eat). Culinary training, on many levels, is keystone.

Wholesome food cannot be an exclusive club.

As we are getting ready to launch the GO – Kitchen Ready Training program, I want to thank everyone who has pulled together to make the project happen.  The board of AIR had the vision to support the feasibility study and the formation of the steering committee.  The work of steering committee comprised of Michel, Rick Jackson, Tom Ruff, Sheila Tilman, Kitty Schaller and Jen Waite was awesome.  Allen Johnson, Fletcher Comer and Eric Howard at Asheville City Schools worked to make the William Randolph campus available for the training.  AB Tech is providing instruction and Josh Pierce at Goodwill has been nothing but supportive.  Two chefs – Eric Cox and Jeff Bacon have shared everything they have learned form their own training programs.Giant thanks to Dan Leroy and Dewayne Barton of GO for taking the project on.  There are many others who have stepped up.

As Allen Johnson, Superintendent of ACS said the other day, “it sure is nice to be working on a project that everyone is pulling together on.”  But, best and most humbling are the people I have met who are in training.

Thank you.

-Mark Rosenstein