Harvest Moon 2022 Cookbook: 30 Years of C-CAP AZ
C-CAP Arizona, The First 30 Years
Dear Edible Phoenix Readers,
I started Careers Through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) in New York in 1990 with the idea that, if successful, I would expand it to Chicago and San Francisco. Having taught for and represented Le Cordon Bleu de Paris for 15 years, my idea was to upgrade schools’ home economics classrooms, teach the teachers some French techniques and help their students get jobs in the industry that would lead to meaningful careers.
As the result of some great national coverage on NBC’s “Nightly News” the first year, I received a call from Beth Van Bebber, a teacher at McClintock High School in Tempe, in 1992. Beth wanted to know if I could bring C-CAP to her school. I told her that I needed 15 schools in one area to start a program and asked her if she could work with other schools. A few days later she called me back and said that she could get 10 schools in the Tempe and Phoenix Unified school systems to join. “Would that work?”
“Why not?” I said, and C-CAP AZ was born.
On my first visit, I found the Phoenix/Scottsdale area to be a rather laid-back oasis that was an ideal retirement and family vacation area that also had lots of hotels and resorts suitable for business meetings and conventions. The food scene was basically nonexistent: Christopher’s and Vincent’s were the two restaurants being talked about, head and shoulders above the rest. I met with both chef/owners Christopher Gross and Vincent Guerithault in the hope they would support the program. Christopher was concerned that I would offer the best students scholarships to go to culinary school out of state and that they would never return to the Valley. Early on, Rick Sederholt, the Executive Chef at Remington’s, along with Robert Kabakoff, Shannon Johnson and Michael DeMaria were of invaluable assistance. At the time there was an excellent culinary program at Scottsdale Community College that always had a waiting list, but not much more. Within five years, all that would start changing…
Soon our students were working in hotels and restaurants instead of McDonald’s and teachers were getting calls for more of their students. For-profit cooking schools opened branches in the area and other community colleges started building affordable programs. Many of the chefs from the local American Culinary Federation chapters volunteered as judges and mentors in the program as well. Each year when I returned to observe our progress, new restaurants and their chefs were being talked about. Chuck Wiley, Mark Tarbell, Donna Nordin, RoxSand Scocos and Beau MacMillan became outstanding role models and mentors along with many others. We became a strong but still small program of about 18—20+ schools.
Beth left the U.S. for Hungary after five years and Barbara Colleary a local food educator and historian, became aware of us and agreed to help part-time. C-CAP quickly took over Barbara’s life (as well as that of her husband, Jim) and she tirelessly expanded the program statewide with dozens of schools, many more mentors and a wider array of culinary scholarships.
Before she retired in 2007 Barbara introduced me to Jill Smith, who after changing careers had recently graduated from The Art Institute in Phoenix and was looking for a way to use her talents. C-CAP fit Jill like a glove and she has built the program in AZ into one of our strongest, now working with over 50 schools. Her fledging apprenticeship program has become the model for our programs around the country.
When I started C-CAP, the students who went into the industry usually graduated from “trade schools” like East Valley Institute of Technology and MetroTech. Now our Arizona high schools place students in all aspects of the industry. This couldn’t have happened without the efforts of our overworked, underpaid, underappreciated and dedicated teachers! Every year, teachers thank us for what C-CAP has done for them and their students, and we thank them for what they do for their students.
Nationally, C-CAP is strong today because of the leadership of Co-Chair and Chef Marcus Samuelsson, Executive Director Tanya Steel and her dedicated staff. I look forward to celebrating the success of our AZ alumni (many of whom are featured in these pages) and to being here again in 10 years for our 40th anniversary.
Richard Grausman
FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN EMERITUS
