[Please note that this article has been taken from the electronic files of the Georgia Straight and so may vary slightly from the published version. Please note that this article may not be reproduced in any fashion without the permission of the author and a credit stating that it originally ran in the Georgia Straight.] by ANDRE LARIVIERE You've likely heard the saying "Give someone a fish and they eat for a day. Teach them to fish and they'll eat for a lifetime." Veteran chef and entrepreneur James Kennedy believes this nugget of survival wisdom should go on to say "Teach them how to prepare, cook, and serve that fish, and they can make sure that everyone eats." Kennedy and his team at the Food and Service Resource Group have turned that adage into community action at a new training facility near their office in the heart of Japantown in the Downtown Eastside. The Cook Studio Café (374 Powell Street; 604-696-9096) has put its freshly painted asparagus-and-garlic logo on what was formerly the Aki Japanese Restaurant, once a fixture of the local dining scene. Beyond the spanking black-and-white tiled floor is a shiny new kitchen where 10 apprentice cooks are making soups, kneading bread dough, and learning other basics of professional cooking under the Youth Options Training program, a pilot project created by Kennedy in conjunction with community-service organizations, including the Emergency Aid Society and the Lookout Society, and federally funded by Human Resources Development Canada. The café project is connected to a newly built community kitchen next door, in what was once a Japanese community centre. It will soon be home to cooking, nutrition, and life-skills workshops supported by Kennedy and his young students. "There are lots of places in this neighbourhood doing important work handing out food to those who need it to survive," he says, "but we're here to help folks learn to feed themselves, and thrive." Kennedy knows a thing or two about teaching people to cook. Although you may find him coaching the café crew wearing his black baseball cap, he frequently sports a tall white toque as chef-instructor and national chairperson of the Canadian Culinary Institute, which administers the Certified Chef de Cuisine program, the top rung of certification for Canadian pros. He expects this new program will not only help some kids (a total of 20 per year) get a fresh start, but launch them into a profession he's passionate about. "Whether they pursue further culinary training or simply go back to finish high school, they'll have improved their life skills," he says. "However, some of them definitely have the talent and determination to have a career in a restaurant kitchen." Many of the teenage trainees are categorized as "youth at risk", a term they don't appreciate, according to café manager Tracy Cooper. "As much as they don't like it, it describes their situation, from lack of education, broken homes, or recovery from substance abuse," she says. "But they're ambitious and they're learning how to produce a wide range of meals for the businesspeople and residents of this neighbourhood." Ambitious also readily applies to the menu for the 45-seat café, set to open its doors in the coming days. With help from chef-instructor Ted Klaver and a full-time cook-coach, the kids in the kitchen will offer more than 20 West Coast-style dishes ranging from Cobb salad (lettuce with bacon, chicken, tomato, egg, and blue cheese) to a tomato-and-bocconcini sandwich on freshly baked baguette to a maple-grilled chicken breast with wild-rice polenta. "The dishes are simple, but with interesting touches, such as the cheese tuiles [wafer-thin baked crisps] on the mesclun-greens salad, or duchess potatoes," says Klaver. "These are things that are simple and inexpensive to do but show the students a lot of different cooking techniques." This kind of fare typically isn't within reach of most neighbourhood residents and businesspeople, a fact the project has taken into account. "Because the students' work and materials are subsidized, we can price all our menu items under $7," says Cooper. "We also hope that the low price will encourage our customers to bear with us, because with students you have to expect a glitch or two now and again." The team's goal is to expand the menu to include a fresh sheet of seasonal dishes and ingredients sourced from local markets. To start, the Cook Studio Café will serve lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and there are plans to eventually open at 8 a.m. to supply grab-and-go coffee, baked goods, and microwave-ready meals for the large number of neighbourhood firefighters and law-enforcement and hospital workers they hope to attract. Kennedy also plans to make the kitchens and community facilities available to any community projects dedicated to bringing nutritious food to the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, head to the café for some Spanish seafood linguine or salmon crusted with sweet potato and yam. At less than $7, that's good fishing. by ANDRE LARIVIERE of The Georgia Straight