Richard Certuche, a New York City resident, had quite the experience at the Culinary Technical Center before the Coronavirus Pandemic. Everyday, Certuche had the schedule of traveling into Manhattan on the train station to learn some new things about how to prepare food, use kitchen ware and get around other professional chefs. 

Many people have been affected by the pandemic, but Certuche found this opportunity as a way out of his past. Certuche has been incarcerated multiple times and found himself on the wrong path with surrounding himself with the wrong people. This scholarship program in culinary arts provided him with a stable vision for his future, and the pandemic only postponed that vision. 

Before the culinary scholarship, Richard found some brief work for a moving company that helped celebrities throughout Manhattan with their moving situation and made decent income off of that. Unfortunately, being laid off didn’t help his situation but he had to get creative with what he wanted to do in life. So he picked up the phone, and as every son does in a tough time, he called his mother to find out different things he could do. Certuche has always been into food and the business of food, but he never saw it as a practical vision for himself. Finally, his mother found a scholarship that provides people coming out of jail with an opportunity of learning how to become a chef. 

“Basically been learning through school and being hands on with the industrial kitchen,” said Certuche in discussing his daily routine before the pandemic. As many Americans during quarantine, Certuche has found himself bored but trying to keep up with the habits he learned from attending school everyday. Unfortunately, the CTCC (Culinary Technical Center) wasn’t able to get on Zoom and have online classes. Currently, Certuche is stuck in his home trying out different recipes and perfecting the techniques he learned with some chefs that had taken him under his wing. 

Certuche’s biggest accomplishment coming out of the culinary school was simply making bread. Although the process seems easy because of the simple ingredients, Certuche claimed it takes some feel with the oven and the flower to come out with quality bread that leaves people surprised before their appetizer. As many people know, it is nice to sit down at a local restaurant and be served some quality bread to fill us up before ordering the food. Certuche claims it is important that he learns how to master the making of bread, but he can’t now due to quarantine. While being inside his house, Certuche has found himself more critical of the food he eats and makes. 

“It is eye opening for sure, being a chef definitely shows you how to prepare and maintain food that is edible. There are so many illegal things restaurants do to keep their food fresh, but I definitely have taken into account how I prepare my food. It doesn’t hurt when you buy food to just quickly check the label and see what ingredients are actually in the food you eat,” said Certuche. Certuche explains how he is now on a diet and closely watching his weight, even though the best chef’s seem to have the biggest stomachs. In a time like now, Certuche emphasized that it is important to self-reflect and see what he needs to work on for his personal goals. 

For his final project in the CTCC, Certuche had to come up with a five course meal. In attendance were his grandmother and his girlfriend and they absolutely loved Certuche’s cooking. Entitled “Delights from the Sea,” Certuche started with rosemary focaccia bread, the drink, mountain mojito mocktail, the appetizer, seafood chowder, the main course, grilled mexican street corn, crab/shrimp with stuffed lobster tail and quinoa lentil, lastly, the desert, sfogliatelle ricce. “It was quite the time for my grandmother and my girlfriend and I was happy that the course came out a success. I look forward to building off of this course and I’m only getting better,” said Certuche. His progress has made a great impression on chefs already and has been offered a couple jobs, but Certuche says he has a lot to learn and would prefer to only work for himself. 

Certuche felt proud of his work and proved to himself that he was capable of becoming a top line chef with a lot of potential. Certuche recognizes that there is a lot of drama and stress that comes into being a chef because people love critiquing their food. But he is ready to step up to the plate and create his own meals that will be so good that people have to ask who made this? That’s what he aims for because Certuche feels like finally, for once in his life, there is a set plan for him. “I mean it was tough getting yelled at by the chefs at school and they are tough on me and all of the chefs in training. They want us to succeed and I understand. Sometimes when it’s 8 in the morning and class is in session I don’t like getting yelled at, but I suck it up and I envision all the money I can make in the future,” said Certuche. 

Certuche definitely has a plan for the future and his goal is to be a head chef and own a lounge serving appetizers and drinks. He understands that this will be an investment, but he feels that he is going into the middle of his life. Certuche needs to start proving he can achieve his goal, and put a smile on his mother’s face again. “It was tough going to jail all those years and I’ve made some terrible decisions in my life. But I’m turning the page and writing a new chapter in my life. I’ve always loved food, I mean who doesn’t love food. But I’m taking this seriously and am hoping that this pandemic will end soon so I can go back and study and learn from the best chefs,” said Certuche.