NEWS

Recipe for a career

Former student returns as chef for culinary arts program

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 11/16/22

Austin Irons knows what goes into making a good charcuterie, his favorite dish. It takes a combination of meats, cheeses, nuts, olives, jams, vegetables and an assortment of other delectable nibbles. …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in
NEWS

Recipe for a career

Former student returns as chef for culinary arts program

Posted

Austin Irons knows what goes into making a good charcuterie, his favorite dish. It takes a combination of meats, cheeses, nuts, olives, jams, vegetables and an assortment of other delectable nibbles. It’s a dish he will introduce to culinary arts student at the Warwick Area Career and Technical Center later this academic year. 

Irons follows in the footsteps of his mentor, Chef Ray Depot who ran the program with Eva Niosi teaching baking and pastry when he was a student at the center. Niosi now works with Irons as her boss.

Charcuterie wasn’t on the luncheon menu on a recent Thursday.

Rather, lunch started with a zesty carrot soup. It was followed by a salad with apples, walnut s and an apple cider vinaigrette dressing and a mushroom Swiss cheese sandwich on a bulky roll with the artistic flare of a sailboat as the entrée,  

That’s what culinary students at the Career and Tech Center prepared Thursday under the tutelage of Chef Irons for patrons of the Tides restaurant, the second opening of the student-run restaurant this academic year.

Irons is working on the menus for future luncheons at Tides, which is open to the public for every Thursday for sittings at 11:30 a.m. and noon. Menus can be viewed on the WACTC website and reservations can be made by calling the center at (401) 734-3161. Menu items range in cost up to $12 for a meal including entrée, dessert and beverage. In addition to running the restaurant, culinary  students  fill from 15 to 20 faculty take out orders three days a week.

Irons, a 2012 graduate of Toll Gate High School and the career center, was appointed in August to succeed Depot, who has retired.

It’s the perfect job in the community that he loves.

“I kind of always knew where I wanted to end up,” Irons said Thursday looking up from a jar of loose change, bills and receipts. He was double checking the accounting of that day’s sales that is all part of what culinary students are expected to learn.

Irons, 28, is Warwick to the core.

He attended Greene School, Gorton Junior High and would have completed high school at Vets had he not taken the path to culinary arts at the center that is part of the Toll Gate complex.  After earning his diploma he went on to graduate from the culinary program at Johnson & Wales University in 2015 and to earn a masters degree from Bridgewater State University in 2019. His first job with Warwick was a special education teacher at Toll Gate. His most recent post before learning of Depot’s retirement and applying for the job was teaching first grade at Oakland Beach School, which he said was “a good time.” But, he adds, “This is where I belong.”

Irons looks for this students to develop “a kitchen finesse” which he explains as understanding what is happening around them, anticipating needs and solving problems. He understands not all graduates of the program will choose a career using the skills learned at the center. Nonetheless, they will have the ability to cook for themselves and their families and know how to safely store food.

From the sound of it, Irons spends a fair amount of time in the kitchen at home. He and his wife, Tina, a graduate of Vets when it was a high school, are foster parents to three children. 

Irons, recipe, career

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here