New kitchens are a great training ground
Pedestrians walking along Arlington Street stop and stare through the big windows into a sleek kitchen filled with stainless steel, high work tables, trendy lights, a modular wine unit, a massive hood over a 5-burner gas cook top, and an indoor grill. Whatever's going on there, the place is as stylish and streamlined as a Martha Stewart set.
In fact, it's a kitchen where everyone is welcome, part of the new Boston Center for Adult Education. In another gleaming room next door, instructor Diane Manteca is teaching students to knead pizza dough. "Make a dimple in the middle and then fold in the sides," says Manteca, as her own dough begins to turn silken. Around her are a second set of shiny new appliances, from a warming oven to a 36-inch refrigerator with shelves that adjust at the touch of a button.
When the Boston Center moved to this Bay Village building in March from a crowded Commonwealth Avenue mansion, the cooking program got a major boost. Food and wine classes already made up about one-third of the 11,000 yearly enrollment. But the kitchens in the old location were dark, cramped, and short on equipment. "We wanted to completely upgrade our capabilities," says Susan Brown, the center's executive director. The center had owned the Arlington Street location since the 1980s and used it for storage and some studio art classes. They gutted and rebuilt it into modern studios and kitchens with appliances from Dorchester-based Yale Appliance and Lighting. One kitchen is outfitted with Gaggenau, a high-end German manufacturer, the other with more moderately-priced Thermador, an American company. Together, the two kitchens cost about $100,000 to design, build, and install.
Brown points to a 15-inch counter device that can steam and boil simultaneously on two levels, a steam wall oven that can dehydrate fruit as well as proof bread, a built-in wok, and an induction cook top that can bring water to a boil in 30 seconds. Two built-in wine units each holds up to 70 bottles with separate temperature zones for whites and reds. The center offers courses toward professional certificates in wine, spirits, and bartending.
For teachers like Manteca, the new classrooms make their jobs easier and encourage socializing, a major part of the center's mission. In her pizza class, she pours wine and students chat about where to get their favorite pies and why they're taking the class. "I really want to learn to cook more on my own," says Jim Curran of Holbrook.
Manteca, who is a private chef and has a line of sauces called Sassy River, says the Yale Appliance team solicited the opinions of several regular teachers to come up with the kitchen plan. "The architects spent time with me and [colleague] Lars Liebisch, asking what we needed for counter space, what equipment would help," says Manteca. The build-out took less than two months. The finished kitchens "just blew my mind," says Manteca.
Yale Appliance became involved with the project because owner Steven Sheinkopf had taken some classes at the center. The company donated the equipment. "We get our name in front of 11,000 students," says Dennis MacDonald, director of sales at Yale, "and there's the long-term potential that those people may need appliances." Some, like induction cook tops, are fairly new to the market and customers may not know advantages such as energy efficiency, safety, and rapid cooking times. Brown imagines people who work in the area walking over to take a class during lunch. They can eat it on the spot or take it home for dinner, she says. The big windows put the kitchen on display. "People are starting to come in off the street to see what's going on," says Brown.
Once inside, they'll be pleasantly surprised.
Boston Center for Adult Education, 122 Arlington St., Boston. 617-267-4430; www.bcae.org 