Students find Paterson culinary school a place of intense work, but also peace and calm

Students find Paterson culinary school a place of intense work, but also peace and calm

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014    LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY MINJAE PARK
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Tabitha Cannon hopes her five-month training course at Eva’s Village culinary academy in Paterson, on her path away from a life of substance abuse and drinking, will prepare her to work “in somebody’s kitchen anywhere in the world.”

Clean now for the six months she’s been in the women’s halfway house at Eva’s Village, Cannon is focused on a cooking career to provide for her children, who are ages 1 and 11. “I know eventually I’ll be able to make more money,” she said as she smeared homemade spicy mustard on French bread Wednesday morning.

It’s a far cry from her days of drinking and doing drugs — “a little bit of everything,” as she puts it.

The training is rigorous — classwork at 7 a.m., followed by hours of hands-on learning by actually working in the kitchen — but Cannon said she finds it “peaceful and calming” and relishes the good reviews from her happy customers.

“Food makes everyone happy,” she said.

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