Kids & Family

Rye's Apawamis Hosts Future Chefs

A future “Top Chef” may well hail from Port Chester or another stretch of the Sound shore community in Westchester, thanks to a popular program out of the Don Bosco Community Center.

At Café Alma, teens involved in the center meet with local chefs to learn kitchen skills from cutting with a knife to full culinary training. The 10-class program is designed to prepare the students for real-life cheffing and class sizes are kept small to preserve one-on-one training, according to a press release issued by the center.

“We began this effort in 2010 to provide meaningful job skills training to our youth in the Port Chester community,” Ann Heekin, a board member at the center, said in a press release.  “Through the generosity of the Westchester and Greenwich communities and the Food Network, we have a solid culinary education program in place and a waiting list of students for the program.”

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Café Alma (or “Café Soul”) was the centerpiece of the center’s recent 3rd Annual Fusion of Flavors Gala, held at the Apawamis Club in Rye. That event featured food from the restaurants of Chair Chef Rafael Palomino, including Bistro Latino, Greenwich, Sonora, Port Chester and Palominos, Larchmont, alongside of Bar Taco and others, according to the release.

“We have begun classes with our first group of local teens, and we are pleased to have them here tonight to help with this fantastic event,” Fr. Richard Alejunas, who heads up the effort at Don Bosco, said at gala.

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