Food and culture

The Culinary Arts program, part of Goochland Schools’ Career and Technical Education (CTE) department, offers lessons about food preparation, serving, and kitchen skills. On Friday, October 18, Dr. Katie Hoffman and her husband Brett Tiller and visited a class of Chef Dave Booth, head of the culinary arts program, to discuss Appalachian food traditions. The talk was followed by hands on lessons. Attired in kitchen uniforms, the students made basic salt-fermented sauerkraut and fried pies cooked in traditional cast iron pans topped with ice cream made by students in a previous class. They also tasted several varieties of heirloom apples.

Dr. Katie Hoffman 

Hoffman, who holds a PhD in English with a concentration in Appalachian (how you pronounce it depends on where you’re from. Northerners say Appalaychia where those from more southerly realms say Appalaachian) studies. This region, she explained includes parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolinas; Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and all of West Virginia.

Geography, climate, ethnicity, and economic activity played a big part in what kinds of food were eaten, how they were prepared, and preserved for future consumption. Coal mining regions, for instance, attracted European immigrants who brought their culinary traditions with them.

Hoffman used pepperoni rolls, simple but hearty fare that could be prepared ahead of time and carried in a miner’s pocket, and cabbage rolls, as examples of the influence of European coal miners on regional cuisine. Like most traditional recipes, Hoffman said, these have many variations depending on the cook.

Chef Dave Booth, center, explains the day's lesson

Due to geographical isolation of Appalachia, people obtained their food by foraging for edible items including mushrooms, berries like the spice bus whose fruits that could be dried, ground, and used for flavoring and medicinal purposes; ramps, a member of the onion family; greens; and game including  ground hog and squirrel. Meat was often used for flavoring.

 As refrigeration was not available, food preservation methods such as drying, curing, fermenting, and root cellar storage insured that there would be something to eat during long, cold winters. After the invention of the Mason jar in 1858, canning was possible. Fermentation pickles and preserves vegetables and transforms milk and cream into cheese.

Apples, fresh, dried, preserved by cooking into apple butter; and as cider, play a big part in Appalachian traditions. Sorghum was grown and processed into a syrup for sweetener, Hoffman explained.

This class showed that Culinary Arts is far more than a cooking class. (Visit Hoffman's website www.appalworks.com for more insight about this region.)

The culinary arts program recently celebrated GHS senior Jalyn Burns, who was  named one of three finalists for the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging, and Travel Association (VRLTA) state culinary student of the year, and a finalist for the “Rising Pineapple Award” for Outstanding Hospitality and Tourism Student of the Year.

Jalyn’s performance at the Virginia State SKILLS USA competition in April, her leadership as president of the Goochland SKILLS chapter, her participation in the NASA HUNCH competition to design meals for the international space station, her work at both Salisbury Country Club and Drive Shack, and her GHS senior project:  a “pop-up” dinner at Goochland Tech to benefit Sickle Cell Anemia research, earned her the nomination. Booth said this award reflects Jalyn’s performance in and out of class.

“Jalyn exemplifies what hard work and determination can do.  Her efforts over the last four years have produced amazing results and have propelled both her and the culinary program to new levels” said Booth.  “I am proud of the drive she has shown, and it has inspired me to be a better teacher.”