A Life Restored, Nourishing the Next Generation

The aroma of onions being caramelized and sizzling bacon fills the air, making our mouths water and tummies grumble admidst calls of “Don’t forget to grab the garlic”, “How hot does my pan need to be” and “Have you got any more knives?” bouncing around the newly restored Heritage listed art deco theatrette, now called The Upper Room. This is our very first Junior Master Cooking Class held to connect with our community, in the North Festival of Launceston in October. There’s far more to the story than young people learning to cook delicious Risotto & Eton Mess.

Before the chaos ensued, young participants and some parents sat patiently, within the newly upholstered velvet covered chairs, watching closely the cool looking young Chef, Jack, techniques projected on to the stages big screen behind him. Listening intently to him, explain each step in the process of making a Chicken & Bacon Rissotto, not an easy dish for a foodie let alone young people that have never done this before, as they are going to replicate themselves very soon. What they don’t realise is the journey this young man has been on and the challenges he has faced to get to this point.

We first met Jack in 2013, as we commenced our very first mentoring connection at Brooks High School, he was one of 6 teenagers that entered the room, where 6 nervous (myself included) mentors waited to meet our young metorees for the first time. Little did we realise at that time, for some would result in years of support, friendships and inclusion in signifianct life events, but that’s a story for another day.

Jack and his Mentor, Jamie, said hello and then proceeded to exit the reception area, the students were to take their mentors on a “tour” of their school. Jack and Jamie got about 10 metres from the front door when Jack plonked down on a bench and asked “Can we just talk?”. Jamie sat patiently with this young man as he unloaded the incredibly difficult events that had just happened for him within his family. As time went on in their mentoring relationship, he shared openly about his drug addiction, poor life choices, friend groups and together they navigated life for a season.

When the idea for the Master Cooking Class came up, inspired by the history of our buildings origins, with the Upper Room then being a cooking demonstration area for the Gas Compant, I felt compelled to connect with Jack. I had been following his life journey for some time since his mentoring days, celebrating Facebook moments of achievement for this young man, commencing his apprenticeship and entered healthy lifestyle choices of positive friendships, food and fitness. After Jack learnt about the event he so generously offered his time to prepare all that was required for the food side (which was a huge task).

He created the recipe from scratch, taking into account fussy eaters and potential dietary requirements, calculated all the equipment and food quantities required and even connected with suppliers to source donations of goods to the event. Doppio, generously donated the majority of the ingredients for the dishes which was outstanding through Jack’s efforts. He prepped for a couple of days beforehand, measuring out ingredients, testing recipies.

On the big day all was in readiment due to Jack’s hard work. He presented so well to the young people, keeping his nerves at bay. Chef, Peter Handy of Vertical Pastures was sponsored by the Tasmanian Hospitality Association to aid Jack on the day, interacting and sharing expert tips and safety techniques. The young people had an absolute blast.

There were some added unplanned events, like mass flooding in some parts of the North of Tassie, that saw us having to integrate an on the spot contingency for a participant cut off by flood waters, zooming in to the event, utilising ingredients they had a home and recipe adjustments on the fly minutes before we were due to commence. Another couple of participants had to leave (the budding cook in tears) just as we started to cook as they received an emergency SMS to say they needed to evacuate their home in Deloraine right now!

What we witnessed within the event were many young people from very different backgrounds, varying levels of understanding and skills around cooking and ingredients and some social anxieties, communicating, sharing, learning to multitask, work with different personalities, manage potential conflict, negotiate, modify expectations to work cohesively together and make delicious meals they would eat! Intially, there was awkwardness for some participants, some groups had complete strangers paired together, however by the end, as they sat down to eat the fruit of their labours they were chatting like they’d known each other for years.

The parents present were then allowed to participate, as their children prepared the table settings, plated their dishes and proudly served them Rissotto and a delicious Eton Mess (which they had to whip the cream by hand using whisks, for many they had no idea you could even do that!). Selfie moments ensued and then as they settled down to eat, Jack shared his story with them, warts and all. In the words of one young person post event, “I learnt from Jack that no matter what has happened to me in life and the choices I have made in the past, it doesn’t have to be the end story. I can have a better life, I can choose to.”

Peter, shared his career story too, that has taken him around the world and even cooking for various celebrities. He shared all the career opportunities available to them in the Hospitality Industry, there were far more than just cooking including wait staff, baristas, administration, management, marketing just to name a few. As he stated the Hospitality Industry also helps many people with employment to gain funds to get through Univeristy and Tafe.

The event sold out within 1 week of advertising, the first North Festival event to do so. The comments from family members and young people that were there, showed how much they enjoyed themselves, have encouraged us to continue with this offering into 2023 a few times in the year. Jack has generously offered his services to give back to young people for all the help he has received from amazing people with the Launceston community. On a final note Jack has been offered the Sous Chef position at the Metz and has earnt his place as one of two Tasmanian representatives in the “Proud to be a Chef” learning experience in Melbourne.

If you would like to know when the next event is on or other events that Teen Challenge Tasmania have coming up please keep an eye on our Facebook page events or Website events page as we finalise and upload 2023 events.