TASTE TEST cooking at cole’s bistro
taste test
Cooking at Cole’s Bistro
Students gain real-world experience when they take the reins
of this Maryland student-run restaurant.
By Susan Gross
above: Richard Williams
opposite: Monique Williams, CEC
Richard Williams grew up working in his father’s catering business in North Carolina. Matthew
O’Connell has been cooking since
he was 12. Jasmine Burley had no
prior experience. Now all three are
part of a team of advanced culinary
students running a restaurant under a
cooperative arrangement between Anne
Arundel Community College (AACC),
Arnold, Md., and Jobs Corps, a no-cost education and vocational training
program administered by the U.S.
Department of Labor’s Employment and
Training Administration.
students at the helm
Cole’s Bistro opened in October 2011
and now serves up to 30 guests twice a
month at Woodland Job Corps Career
Development Center in Laurel, Md.
Students plan the menu, cost-out the
items and run the kitchen. The Job Corps’
culinary students help with prep work,
while the program’s hotel management
students handle reservations and work as
hosts and wait staff.
Job Corps has two advanced culinary
programs in the country, and one of them
coordinates facilities with AACC. Only
14 slots are available, so competition to be
accepted to the program is fierce. Students
come from all over the country. Many met
Monique Williams, CEC, who oversees
the Maryland program, through one of
Job Corps’ competitions for its beginning
culinary students.
Williams, who is herself a Job Corps
culinary graduate, aims to convert students
with basic skills into prepared culinary
workers. Some students come to the
program after trying to make a career
on their own, only to learn they needed
certifications to verify their skills in
addition to having mastered techniques.
“For me, I had to change my attitude,” says
Richard Williams. “I thought I already
knew something, but I had to learn to take
what Chef Williams taught and put my
own spin on it.”
promising futures
Through the program, students discover
their passions. For James Allen of
Washington, D.C., and Williams, it’s
catering. Shanequa Chesson of Raleigh,
N.C., loves baking. Burley, a native of
