Humber Culinary Success- as published in the Humber EtCetera February 8, 2007

By Valerie Maloney

Many Humber culinary students enter the program with the hope of one day becoming a head chef in a restaurant in the big city, and now they have one more example to look up to.

Jordon Kekewich, who graduate from the culinary apprenticeship program last year, is the head chef at Miller’s Country Bistro and Bar in Toronto which had its grand opening last weekend.

Kekewich created the menu at Miller’s from scratch, and describes it as an upscale casual restaurant. It is a place where you can go to have a pizza and beer, or a rack of lamb and wine. “Just making sure we have something for everyone,” Kekewich said.

“I started cooking when I was young, when I was about 16,” Kekewich said. “It was just something that I have always enjoyed, I have always done it well.”

Chef Francisco Rivera, a culinary instructor at Humber, said Kekewich was a good student, interested and focused on what he was doing.

In order to get to the level that Kekewich has, Rivera said students must be very dedicated, adding it is rare to find students with the level of dedication to get to the level he has so quickly.

The culinary apprenticeship program Kekewich graduated from is an intense one, where a weeks worth of regular classes is condensed into two days, said Rivera. The rest of the week is spent working in the industry to gain more practical experience.

“A lot of people get turned off because it is a tough business, long hours and stuff,” Kekewich said, “just make sure everyone knows what they are doing before they get into it.”

Rivera said “on the first day I tell the students you have to be 100 per cent focused on what you are doing and passionate about food, hard work comes first, glamour comes later.”

Kekewich began his cooking career making sandwiches in a café at Pearson International airport in Toronto when he was 16, he said.

He worked his way up through a few restaurants to the position of sous chef, and then entered the culinary program at Humber because it is “one of the better schools for culinary arts,” he said, “I have worked with people from various schools and I think Humber is superior.”

-30-