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A Hand Up In a D.C. System Full of Letdowns
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"You just watch me, I'll show you how to do it," Brown continued.
"Mmm-hmmm, that's right," Sims grunted again.
"See, he likes it so much he can't even stop chewing for a minute to say anything," Brown said.
Sims started laughing so hard that he struggled to keep the noodle casserole in his mouth.
A Step Forward, a Step Back
In class, Sims learned the difference between poaching and braising, and listened quietly as Swanson and the students shared thoughts on how to avoid the temptation of that first drink. At night, he studied his textbook, to make sure he could remember that hot food on a buffet must be kept at least 135 degrees to avoid bacterial contamination.
"All my life, I haven't really fit in," Sims said later. "At the kitchen, I started to feel like I belonged, that the people around had my back."
One day, the owner of Zed's Ethiopian Cuisine in Georgetown was giving a guest demonstration to the class. She showed how to make chicken infillay, breast sauteed with onions and a red pepper paste.
"Did you wash your hands after you chopped the chicken to avoid cross-contamination?" Sims asked.
"I didn't," Zed Wondemu said. "Good catch."
Not everybody was so successful. One morning six weeks into the training, two men got in a fistfight in the middle of the kitchen. They were tossed out. One came back a few hours later and unsuccessfully begged to be readmitted, smelling of alcohol. Four people either refused to take a periodic urine test for drugs or failed it. They were expelled.
When a person showed up late for class or otherwise misbehaved, he or she put 50 cents in a jar, called "the pig," the contents of which were to be awarded to the person with the fewest transgressions at the end of the 12 weeks.
"We have to be tough," Swanson explained. "The entire focus of the program is to get a job, and if you can't stay sober and show up on time and act respectfully to your colleagues, you aren't going to be able to do that. If we graduate people who fail to do those things, we'll lose any credibility with the employers who take on our students."
