Catherine Brown, culinary arts instructor at Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico, works with Pei Chi Chang, center, and Anna Sysko, right, both employees of Morning Glory Farm in Bethel, which partners with the culinary arts program. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Catherine Brown is the culinary arts instructor at Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico and in her second year of teaching at the school. She is a graduate of the New Hampshire Culinary Institute, part of White Mountains Community College in Berlin, New Hampshire, where she received her baking and pastry arts degree as well as a culinary arts degree. Continuing her education, she completed her bachelor of science degree in dietetics. Brown is also proud to be a Marine Corps veteran. She was active duty from 1987 to 1992 in Twentynine Palms, California, and Okinawa, Japan, achieving the rank of sergeant.

This year at Region 9 she is teaching 11 students in her first- and second-year classes. Region 9 accepts students from Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, Dirigo High School in Dixfield, and Telstar High School in Bethel, as well as students who are home-schooled and registered through one of the high schools.

We caught up with Brown recently to talk about her broad approach to the world of culinary arts, a “seed-to-plate” and “nose-to-tail” education and, well, good food!

Name: Catherine Brown

Age: 54

Lives: Errol, New Hampshire

Besides learning and working inside the classroom, your students began working on gardening outside on the school property starting with four raised garden beds last year. How and why did that come about and what kinds of plants did you grow? My vision for the culinary arts program at Region 9 is to include a full seed-to-plate experience, meaning students will get to plant, grow, harvest and prepare dishes utilizing ingredients they’ve grown. Prior to my embarking on culinary arts professionally, I grew rare and heirloom vegetables, herbs and edible flowers as a small-scale market producer – and I still do! The increased variety in produce availability and educational opportunities that stem from growing your own plants onsite is unbeatable. Students graduate with first-hand experience in horticulture, plant recognition and whole-plant utilization.

Last year we grew annual herbs like Genovese basil and cilantro, biennial herbs like parsley, and perennial herbs like Greek oregano, English, German, and lemon thyme, common chives, garlic chives, lavender, rosemary, mint, and sage.

As a schoolwide project and part of your coursework, you and your students are helping raise five piglets. What will students learn by having piglets involved in their studies? In addition to a seed-to-plate structure, a nose-to-tail experience is equally important – particularly when learning how to prepare an omnivore diet. In raising our own meat animals, students get a clear understanding of the life cycle process that culminates in a pound of bacon or a round of sausage. Our approach is one of reverence for the life that was sacrificed for the dishes we are learning to make. There is an equal amount of science, responsibility and devotion that goes into raising meat animals. I feel a culinary arts program is much more dynamic and enriching when raising meat animals is included. It is also an opportunity for collaboration with other trades here – building construction, metal trades and fire science, for instance. Each can contribute to the housing construction and care rotation of the animals.

Currently, we do not kill or butcher meat animals onsite, but deliver them to a USDA-inspected facility for processing. We do, however, receive whole halves for use in an extensive meat fabrication demonstration. This allows for hands-on exposure to primal and sub-primal cuts of meat. Butchers are in high demand statewide.

Going out in the community with your students and doing things like picking cranberries at an organic cranberry bog have been part of your classes. Why was this activity good for students and what did you make with the cranberries? Another goal of mine for the culinary arts program is for students to recognize the role and power they have in contributing to a thriving and sustainable local food system. By mapping out our local growers and producers, visiting and purchasing from these farms, students get to shake hands with the community members making their living (at least in part) by bringing food to market. They get to explore the differences first-hand in small-scale organic production versus commercial production.

They get to see the importance in building relationships with local food growers and how supporting these businesses contributes to strengthening our own local food supply.

With the cranberries we picked at Birch Bog Farm in Unorganized Territory of South Oxford, we made cranberry sauce (of course!), cranberry apple muffin cakes, cranberry coulis (a smooth fruit sauce), cranberry vinaigrette, candied cranberries, cranberry white chocolate and pistachio fudge, cranberry chutney, cranberry orange scones, cranberry sage focaccia bread and cranberry swirl cheesecakes. That’s a whole lotta cranberry deliciousness!

What are some differences between what you teach your first-year students and your second-year students? First-year students get a lot of practice learning basic food safety, knife skills, equipment and ingredient identification and proper usage, how to read and follow a recipe, how to eat seasonally, and basic cooking and baking skills. They learn how to plate and present themselves and their dishes for evaluation to our administrators and/or faculty. First-year students are also given the opportunity to earn the ServSafe Food Handler certificate.

Second-year students take these skills further by also learning product cost analyses, product marketing and packaging, customer service, menu and recipe writing, table setting, international cuisines and more advanced cooking and baking skills. Second-year students are also given the opportunity to earn the ServSafe Food Manager certification (often required to work in many restaurants).

Both classes also write about their experiences and processes, stay current with food news, learn the STORY behind the food we make, explore influential chefs through both video and in-person visits, engage in discussions about environmental, social and political food issues, learn the value of teamwork, dive into the nutrient contents of the foods we make and how best to fuel ourselves for optimal performance, participate in full-scale production of value-added products like Smoke
Bomb hot sauce, and are given opportunities to compete in statewide competitions.

What do you think are some of the foods and recipes that your students enjoy making most? I’m learning my students truly enjoy making just about anything from scratch – and particularly comfort food that includes ingredients we sourced, harvested and/or grew ourselves: crunchy herb-roasted potatoes, creamy leek and spud soup, soft garlic rolls, rosemary focaccia bread, pasta of every description! Also, many students are thrilled to discover they truly enjoy something they’ve either never tasted before or thought they hated – kale, Brussels sprouts, avocados or parsnips for instance. I also love seeing the intense satisfaction and pride that comes from students making and plating an elegant entrée or dessert from scratch. Learning how to cook is a game changer!

What kinds of foods do you like to make and eat the most? I am a passionate food lover! The foods I enjoy the most are in season, simplistic and prepared in a way in which the ingredients are still identifiable – a chunky salsa over pan-seared salmon, ANY composed salad, desserts that include dark chocolate and fruit. . . . I could ramble on indefinitely here!

My classes will fill up FAST. If this program is something you think your 10th-, 11th- or 12th-grader should get involved in, I encourage you to get an online application submitted soon and/or send me an email at cbrown@region9school.org to schedule a visit. Through food, we all may find our passion!

Catherine Brown, culinary instructor at Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico, works with her students while making focaccia bread. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal