Wisconsin Foodie

This week on Wisconsin Foodie

ProStart is a high school program. It basically gives them the basic skills to be able to work in a restaurant or in a restaurant environment. More so, it just gives them the basic life skills to cook food at home. We are headed to Turtle Creek Farm. They'll be talking to you about the different produce and things that they do at the farm so that you guys can kinda come up with some ideas about what you're going to be doing on Monday for your challenge against each other. You wanna help with the gate? Well,

you might get-- - Student

Aw, nah. Does anybody want cow poo on their feet?

Student

No. This is where I get to say, hey, this is all where it comes together. This is where they show me that they've learned something in these two years. This is-- I love it. This is something we do professionally. We'll do different textures and different flavors to build a dish. These look great, guys. Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank

the following underwriters for their support

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin. Who foster a proud history with generations of family-owned dairy farms. Working to sustain the state's economy through job growth and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. Every product tells a story and every story starts with a seed. Your story, your product, your company all started with an idea. Illing Company ensures you have the right packaging to help you proudly take your harvest to market. Illing Company is dedicated to packaging your vision. American Kitchen Cookware is proud to support Wisconsin Foodie and helping food lovers everywhere embrace their own culinary adventure. With cookware manufactured right here in Wisconsin, we're working every day to make people's lives better in and out of the kitchen. Employee-owned New Glarus Growing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made. Milwaukee's landmark art deco hotel offers luxury accommodations, legendary hospitality, and world-class dining. Award-winning chef Jason Gorman's contemporary take on cuisine, paired with the hotel's "Roaring 20's" vibe, makes the Ambassador a must-experience destination. Society Insurance, small details, big difference. Edible Milwaukee magazine. Also, with support of the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.

fast upbeat music

car whooshing by

chickens clucking

beverage bubbling

crunching

sizzling

guitar music

the following underwriters for their support

conversation in background

the following underwriters for their support

Good morning! - Hi. Being that this is your last day of doing these things in ProStart, each team's gotta come up with one dish. These are your ingredients. These are ciabattas, ciabatta roll. We have scallions. My name's Dan Jacobs. I'm the Chef/Owner of DanDan Restaurant and Esterev. I'm also one of the chef mentors for the ProStart program at Washington High School. ProStart is a high school program. It basically gives them the basic skills to be able to work in a restaurant or in a restaurant environment. More so, it just gives them the basic life skills to cook food at home. We have arugula. We have pork chops for you guys to use. That's gonna be your protein. There's so many different things you can do, but you guys have to talk as a team together and come up with an idea. How much time do we have to do a dish? One hour. - You guys have one hour. You guys have tons of time. Here you go, Team One, Team Two.

students talking among themselves

the following underwriters for their support

Have fun, guys. My moment, this is where I get to say, "Hey, this is all where it comes together." This is where they all show me that they've learned something in these two years. This is-- I love it. Working with the chef mentors in this last year, these students have really taken what they've learned with me the first year and just honed down those skills with the chef mentors and just taken it to a whole 'nother level. It's been wonderful. Trevor Bartolotta approached me last year about this idea of ProStart. We kind of were finding a shortage of people working in restaurants right now. Everybody wants to hire but there's nobody to hire. That was my main point for getting involved. Our goal is to take junior and seniors in high school and give them the same luxury of hope that the rest of us enjoy. I'm Jennifer Bartolotta. I'm in charge of special projects with Bartolotta Restaurants, and for the last 18 months I've been a loaned exec to MPS in helping them envision and develop and launch a hospitality workforce development program. By showing them and exposing them not just to the world that is food but the endless possibilities in terms of employment that are in that arena. I like it. I like the grilled stuff especially. I really like grilled asparagus. Today we're making some food to be served at a farm tour. We've got a couple different cuts here. We've got chuck, we have some arm roast. These are all from Janet at Turtle Creek, and then some of these are from Todd and the gang over at Strauss. Look at that. Gorgeous! So I treat these guys like briskets. Smoke 'em low and slow, finish them off with barbecue sauce. Kinda treat 'em like pulled pork, almost. This is for Washington High School students. A little picnic over at Turtle Creek Farm. It's all part of the ProStart classes that we start in the fall. This is kind of like the culmination of the school year right here. It'll be some of these kids' first experience on a farm, and I think it's gonna be really eye-opening. Super fun to watch their reactions to stuff like how vegetables are grown

or even cows and pigs

how they're raised, smells. We're ready to go to the farm.

bouncy jazz

or even cows and pigs

We are headed to Turtle Creek Farm. They'll be talking to you about the different produce and things that they do at the farm, so that you guys can kinda come up with some ideas about what you're going be doing on Monday for your challenge against each other. Check 'em in. Shanice? Check your phone in. Starting out, many students don't-- they think that-- They're like, "Are we gonna be cooking out of a box?" and, "Well, what are we going to be doing?" And I show them that we're gonna be cooking things from scratch and the importance of fresh ingredients, and they're going home and they're sharing that experience with their little brothers and sisters, their parents. They're gonna actually use some of the produce from this farm, and they're gonna actually take that and transform it into a dish. We call it the Chop Challenge. Hi! - Hi. Hello, hello, hello. Nice to meet you. - Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Janet. - Hi, Janet, I'm Sabrina. Hi, Sabrina. - What's up, guys?

students respond with various greetings

or even cows and pigs

Janet actually grows a bunch of vegetables for us at the restaurant. Janet's one of the farmers that we buy directly from. You're 100 percent organic, right?

Janet

Yes, so we're certified organic farm. It's a label that means that we don't use any synthetic chemicals on our fields, so you're not gonna get any pesticide residue or chemical residue in the food. The food that you're gonna be making today is all coming, primarily, from the farm. The meat that you'll be using today are from cattle that were raised on this land, so you'll make that connectivity between what you're gonna be working with and how we're growing it on this farm.

Steve

Here we go. Turtle Creek Gardens is an 80-acre farm and we specialize in vegetable production and rotational grazing, so grass-fed beef and pasture-raised hogs. And I think the farm plays this really important role in providing a living classroom. You can learn about all sorts of aspects of life just coming and visiting a farm, from your health perspective to the environmental and how humans are interconnected to that. Bringing people out for the first time, especially inner city children, it's so new and it's this new world that opens up and I love experiencing that. I love seeing them experiencing that.

Student

I'm scared!

Dan

What are you scared about?

Student

Can I go pet one?

Sabrina

No. No, you may not. Dan, you wanna help with the gate? Well,

you might get-- - Student

Aw, nah. Does anybody want cow poo on their feet? No! - Really? No volunteers? What do you think of the smell? It's not too bad. - It's not that bad. It's funny; I used to live in the city and I drove past a dairy barn every day to school, and I'd like this all this time.

Sabrina laughs

you might get-- - Student

Now it's on my feet, it's on my clothes, it's under my fingernails. It's wonderful. Just kidding.

laughing

you might get-- - Student

I don't know about under the fingernails, but yeah. We've got 30 acres back behind this fence over here. We grass-feed these animals on a rotational system and the whole idea is, I don't really worry about raising cattle as much as I worry about raising good pasture. The progress that the kids have made over the course last year is really been nothing short of extraordinary. We have demonstrated that you can take kids who, despite some really challenging circumstances at home, and have somebody from the community come in and really help also support these kids and be yet another bridge for them to help lift them out of situations that are pretty-- pretty desperate. These guys are so much cleaner than you would see like a normal-- in your mass-produced production-like cattle farm. This is the way a cow was-- Cows were made to eat grass. They weren't made to eat corn or grain or anything like that. This is about as natural as it gets for them. Beets, lettuce, chard, romaine, more spinach, more lettuce. This stuff'll be ready to harvest in about a week. In case you haven't seen lettuce in the field or peas or spinach or beets or chard, it's kind of pretty, huh?

Sabrina

Yes it is.

Dan

How many of you guys would actually want to be farmers? I don't know if I could do it, but I do like animals. It's a tough life. I mean, this is tough. I always thought it'd be kind of fun. I don't think I could do this. I like city.

Sabrina

Yeah, I'm more of a city person.

Dan

So these are my favorite. I love the pigs. What, are you guys afraid of the pigs? Oh man, they smell fine! This is how your bacon and pork chops begin! They come out 'cause they think it's food time.

Dan laughs

Dan

Smells great; Come on! The cattle smell better!

laughing

Dan

These guys smell great! This is great! When I was a kid, when I was little, my aunt had a horse farm and they raised pigs too, and she would tell us that if we fell asleep or got knocked over and knocked unconscious, the pigs would eat us. - Really? So I was scared to death of pigs for most of my childhood. Now I-- These guys are so happy. They're good piggies. Good piggies.

pig oinks

Dan

If you don't mind getting poop on you, go ahead. Watch that bottom line there.

Steve

Yeah, don't touch the wire. Can you step over that or not? Argh! I got a zap! Oh, my God!

Dan

Did you get zapped? It's hot! I told you it was hot! There you go. Just stay on the hay. Stay on the hay, pretty much, and you'll be okay. It's a little soft in here. Wanna meet my new friend here? Wanna meet my new friend? This is Kyle. Come say hi. I've had Herefords a lot.

I get a lot of compliments

How come your pigs taste so good? I raise 'em with love. Right, we raise 'em with love. We feed 'em all the vegetables they could possibly eat, and they get a lot of attention. A friend of mine over at LotFotL Farm, Tim, calls this Pig TV. Just come and watch the pigs, you know.

Dan

These guys are very happy, as far as pigs go. These are very happy pigs.

Steve

They're a happy, content pig. Once you guys have washed your hands, you wanna jump on the other side of me? I'm gonna wash my hands and then we're gonna mix up some coleslaw. All right, let's scoop some cabbage into the bowl. You don't need to scoop all of the cabbage into the bowl, but I think you should scoop some. How are we gonna scoop it? - With your hands. You just got your hands clean. Now you wanna scoop some carrots in there. The way I look at coleslaw, I like half the amount of carrots to what I have of cabbage. Now dig that whole thing 'cause we like chives. Chives are delicious. You guys wanna dump all the radishes or you wanna--

Student

Not all of 'em.

Dan

That's it?

several students talking

Dan

Wait, you don't know what a radish is? Taste it. Yes, you guys. Now you guys all gotta eat a radish.

Sabrina

Everybody taste it. That's a miracle; Corey said it was good. When the kids came into the program, we had kids who legitimately didn't know what carrots were. I'll never forget, the very first day of the program, two girls leaned over the counter and they said, I know what the onion and the celery are, but what's the orange thing? And it was a carrot. I had two groups of girls who had never seen an oven work before. And the first time we baked cookies, for 12 minutes they stood in the oven window like this and watched their cookies bake. That's magic, right? They didn't grow up with Easy Bake ovens.

Dan

We have buns. You guys can make little sandwiches. I highly recommend putting the coleslaw on the sandwich. And remember guys, at least try everything, okay? What did you guys think of today? It was good. - Yeah. Are you thinking about going to MATC, too? Yeah, I got accepted already. Nice. - Congrats. So these kids are gonna be job-ready or college-ready no matter where they end up once they leave MPS and they leave our program. What we're really doing is we're leveraging the discipline that is hospitality to teach these kids how to have a job. If ten percent of those kids end up in our world as skilled labor, that's awesome, so if nothing else, what we've done is we've shown them that there's this whole big world out there of possibility that they're gonna have to work for, nobody's gonna give it to them, but there's possibility for them. There's hope for them. And I think when they have the opportunity to work with some of the stuff next week in the classroom, it will bring them full circle, and they will understand the value and the joy that you get from that. And it is a joyful thing. Here, taste. - It's good. It is good. I like the brown stuff. What's this gray stuff? I don't know.

laughing

Sabrina

Okay, that's your start time. But you're gonna be ready to judge

and ready to go at 11

30. So one person shouldn't be the only person chopping up. You guys, I'm sure you have your phones on you. Look up some recipes. Let's get something going. Oh, we can use our phones?

Dan

I have to admit,

I'm gonna throw it out there

Pinterest is kind of like-- I'm a visual guy. I like to go by pictures. If I'm stuck on something, that's where I come up with an idea. Ooh, we found one, y'all! Where the pasta?

Dan

In the beginning you have all these grandiose ideas that you're gonna be like Robin Williams in Dead Poet's Society or something. You very quickly realize that these are high school kids, and I think then you have to go back into your memory of what you were like as a high school kid. I wasn't the best student. I almost dropped out of school. I almost just went for a GED. Pull those, guys. Those guys are ready to go. Cooking, I think, gave me the structure and made me the adult I am. I do think food has that ability. I'm really passionate about food, and these guys, food is just something they eat. Some of them move towards enjoying cooking. I think for a lot of them, it was like, "Ew, I'm not trying that, ew." And then forcing them to try things and them being like, "Okay." What's up, grill master? I never really tried asparagus. This is actually my first time cooking it. I really want to know what it's gonna turn out to be. I like what we're doing here. Make sure to let them sit. Let them get a nice color, and then serve 'em, especially with the pork chops. What'd you guys put on the pork chops? Did you guys use the lemon that was in the basket? Yeah. - Nice. Many of our students don't-- They don't have that component of Grandma anymore in the home. They're not seeing that where they're getting fresh produce and seeing the idea of cooking things from scratch. Many students, they're not having a home-cooked meal at home. They don't have that mom at home. Mom is forced to actually have to work, and so they're having to take care of little brother, little sister, but they don't have that component of having to prepare a meal. Yep, needs seasoning. Know that you have to have four servings. The timer is set for 20 minutes. When it goes off, you have ten minutes left to plate. All right? That's when you should start plating.

sizzling, students talking in background

Dan

Oh, my goodness! Wow, that looks fabulous. The lemon, okay. I'm Darienne Driver. I am the proud superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools. I've been in this position for almost three years now. Very proud to say that some of my first jobs were in restaurants. Having my students have this opportunity is really important to me. These are the types of skills that you will have for a lifetime, and I think all the time about the skills that I had when I was working and serving tables, and I use them today still. So this is a pecan-crusted pork chop?

Student

Yep.

Dr. Driver

Baby, that's wonderful! We have a grilled asparagus to go with it. Wonderful! So, what's the best part about making all of these dishes? It's basically just something that we made all together throughout the year, and just incorporated into one dish. The funnest part about it is making it together. Yeah! So the Culinary Arts Program has been in full swing now at MPS for a year. We're now in four different high schools at Bay View, James Madison, at Vincent High School, and where we are today, at Washington High School. Really, this is the opportunity for over 300 students to be able to participate in a lab setting, so they're actually in the kitchens, and it gives our students a real-time application in the labs learning what it means to run a full-time kitchen.

Dan

Hey guys, let's go.

timer buzzer sounds

Dan

We have, of course, a grilled pork chop with Romaine cheese pasta. We grilled and sauted our asparagus. So we have a pan-seared pork chop with a candied pecan coating, and we have a arugula-pesto pasta with grilled asparagus in a black pepper Parmesan crust. These look great, guys. I feel like the pecans are a surprise. I did not understand what you guys were doing. I thought you were making cookies. It's really good with the pesto. It's like sweet and then you have that garlic savoriness. Both pork chops are really good. I really like the asparagus on this one with the nuts. It's nice and green still and flavorful and it's got a nice little snap to it but it's not raw. Really nice job on that. Thank you so much. - Thank you. Nice grilling. Well done, ladies. Thank you. This is gonna be really hard, guys. You guys made this hard, Good job! These are restaurant-quality meals. The seasoning, the grill on this pork chop is perfect. Both are a professional presentation. I would be delighted to pay 18, 20, whatever for these types of entrees. The asparagus, I felt both of them were very well done, not overcooked, but definitely flavorful. I do think overall, gosh,

laughing

Dan

this was probably the better dish, but it was very close for me. The pesto here is fantastic. That tastes exactly how pesto is supposed to taste. I don't think I could be happier. From where we started to where we are now, the fact that they got minimal direction, they came up with these things on their own, it's pretty amazing to me. Everything about this dish, I like. This, however, takes this to another level. This is something we do professionally. Like, we'll do different textures, we'll do different flavors to build a dish. I feel like a proud parent sitting here. You talk about your dreams for your kids, these are the types of experiences that you really want them to have, so I'm just very blessed that we have such awesome mentors that worked with our kids. I can't wait till next year to see what happens next year. Oh, yeah, by the way, guys, losing team has to clean all the plates.

Sabrina

And the winner is-- Team Two!

applause

upbeat jazz

Sabrina

The biggest thing I learned from Ms. Manuel is try new things and if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it, but just always try something new. Be myself in the kitchen. Don't be afraid to be myself on a plate. At first, I didn't know how to cook at all, so now I know how to do a little more, so I can cook for my family, I can cook for my friends. It's more of a learning experience. He's very fun. He teach me different things that I didn't know and he shows me how to better myself as a person and as a chef. So I didn't really know what to expect when we came in. And for them to go from where they were to where they are now, I think is a testament to you more so than anybody else. This has been great. This has been far more than I've ever expected when I first started this program. This is just...

gasps

Sabrina

Ahh! You're near and dear to my heart, and this is, yeah.

Dan

That's awesome. Good stuff.

upbeat jazz

Dan

Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank

the following underwriters for their support

Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin, who foster a proud history with generations of family-owned dairy farms working to sustain the state's economy through job growth and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. Every product tells a story and every story starts with a seed. Your story, your product, your company all started with an idea. Illing Company ensures you have the right packaging to help you proudly take your harvest to market. Illing Company is dedicated to packaging your vision. American Kitchen Cookware is proud to support Wisconsin Foodie and helping food lovers everywhere embrace their own culinary adventure. With cookware manufactured right here in Wisconsin, we're working every day to make people's lives better in and out of the kitchen. Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993. Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swissconsin and see where your beer's made. Milwaukee's landmark art deco hotel offers luxury accommodations, legendary hospitality, and world-class dining. Award-winning chef Jason Gorman's contemporary take on cuisine, paired with the hotel's "Roaring 20's" vibe, makes the Ambassador a must-experience destination. Society Insurance, small details, big difference. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The Central Wisconsin Craft Collective. Something Special from Wisconsin Rushing Waters Fisheries. FAB Wisconsin. Edible Milwaukee magazine. Also, with support of the Friends of Wisconsin Public Television. For more information about upcoming Wisconsin Foodie special events, dinners, and tours, please go to wisconsinfoodie dot com. There you can sign up for our mailing list to be the first to know about our events and offerings. Also, get connected with us through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.