Outside of the Classroom: Chris Malloy and Chefs Collaborative
by Chris Malloy
Until I saw the email, my plan was to read in bed.
Hey Chris, Jon noticed a couple of mistakes in your piece on salmon handling. Could you check in with him and see if you can get those corrected?
It was a frosty morning, one that capped a busy week, and I just wanted to sip tea and get lost in a warmer world. Instead, I would be spending the morning in Alaska.
I called Jon, an Alaskan fisherman, and we chatted about salmon—how the fish is bled on deck, how well the different species ship, and how chefs can discriminate when buying. This last bit was of particular importance given the mission of Chefs Collaborative: to inform chefs about sustainable and delicious food choices.
By mid-afternoon, I had updated my piece on the Chefs Collaborative blog. Chefs Collaborative staff post to the blog regarding food news, sustainability issues, member profiles, and so forth. As the Collaborative’s research and writing intern, I post to the blog about my findings—all salmon-related, for now.
The blog posts are part of a larger project. I’m writing a communiqué on salmon, a pamphlet advising chefs on how to handle the fish in a way that benefits the environment and our stomachs. This is the kind of thing that Chefs Collaborative does. They’ve published literature on a wide range of sustainable food topics, including how to go “whole hog” and cooking with heirloom beans.
But Chefs Collaborative does other things, too. Members can host earth dinners, themed meals celebrating responsible food. And Chefs Collaborative holds a yearly national summit, at which members attend and conduct, panels, workshops, and tastings. And that’s just the beginning of what Chefs Collaborative does. Look them up on Facebook and Twitter. Theirs is a good cause to follow, even with the odd morning in Alaska.
This is part of a series of posts from Gastronomy students on how they’re putting their classroom knowledge to work and expanding their education through internships and volunteer opportunities. To write about your own internship, volunteer position or job, send an email to gastronomyatbu@gmail.com.