By: Morris Peterson, Father-Founder-Director
©2025 Chef William Peterson Foundation

“Everyone needs a mentor.” ~ Chef Emeril Lagasse

In full transparency, I have no politically motivated agenda, nor culinary credentials that magnify my insistent advocacy for talented young men and women enrolled in secondary and post-secondary public school culinary arts & sciences programs. I wholeheartedly support their aspirations to pursue careers as culinary professionals.

In fact, the concept of creating career opportunities and mentoring the next generation of talented youth to become culinary arts & sciences specialists and professional chefs was not my idea to begin with, it was my son Will’s. Chef Will was on an incredibly successful culinary career trajectory when the Lord suddenly called him home at 31 years of age. So I begrudgingly with unchecked love fell into this job. I strive every day to be the man of good character Will grew to be, furthering his commitment to the back of the house culinary profession, to the best of my abilities. So I have a lot to live up to! That’s saying a lot for an executive now starting a third professional career focused on a mission to help youngsters succeed in life!

I come to my advocacy role at Chef Will’s Foundation simply due to being the proud, humble yet broken father of a joyful, kind spirited, remarkable human being, gifted cook and dedicated chef who relentlessly practiced his craft with passion, innovation, professionalism and excellence.

Career Technical Education (CTE) and Non-Profit Organization Research

As I write this short article, I have now invested fifteen months of hard work and due diligence setting up Chef Will’s Foundation’s mission and culinary arts support programs for secondary school students that merit a shot at success. Culinary arts is a unique profession, as everyone that’s made a commitment to being “all-in” realizes there are no trophies given for participation. I have had the unique opportunity to listen to and dialogue with many students, culinary arts educators, school administrators, professional chefs, restaurant-owners, and non-profit experts about how we can make a difference in the lives of students. Daily, I learn more and more about the many “gaps and shortfalls” that adversely affect and hinder culinary arts students’ ability to succeed entering the workforce pipeline or moving on to higher levels education or specialized culinary training.

Today’s secondary school culinary arts students face challenges on many levels in an extremely tough and demanding profession. Some challenges are societal, some educational, a number are personal and the most difficult may be financial. Students and parents from underrepresented communities look at these challenges as potentially insurmountable. We believe much progress can be made through strong vocal advocacy on behalf of students with CTE schools, and stakeholders in the culinary and hospitality industry.

Culinary Arts Program Challenges in Public School Systems

Secondary school culinary arts program difficulties are not unique to any one public school system anywhere in America. Specifically, program performance impediments tend to be greater or lesser depending on a combination of:

• Local politics
• School funding (*CTE versus traditional education graduation metrics)
• Qualified culinary arts educators and resourceful teacher assistants
• Modern curriculum, externship opportunities and hands-on entrepreneurship training
• Adequacy of cooking equipment and teaching facilities
• Scarcity of consumable supplies, produce and protein resources
• Parental involvement
  Mentoring from educators and industry professionals
• Adult work life skills preparation
• Culinary arts career counseling for readiness and workplace success

Interestingly our findings thus far from our Chef Ambassadors Corps reveals that secondary school culinary arts programs are “the most under-resourced” of all CTE programs. Certainly, public-school culinary arts programs rank well below support for higher paying trades with arguably better work conditions (e.g. IT, healthcare, construction, manufacturing, automotive and even cosmetology). This in my mind is a bit of a paradox understanding that no one is happy about paying premium prices, for a mediocre meal at a high-quality restaurant! We would like to think that all concerned (e.g. parents, administrators, educators, and, employers) have the students’ best interests in mind. However, given the current poor to fair state of affairs in hard pressed schools, the existing situation is difficult to accept.

Parenting and Counseling the Culinary Arts Student

Mothers and fathers, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances and single parent households have a demanding job being the best parent they can be for secondary school aged children. For those students that choose culinary arts as a career path, the parents’ job (in my opinion) is to ensure their child understands the affordability of a good culinary arts education; how long it will take their daughter or son to achieve their culinary educational-training goal; how they will make a living while pursuing that potentially elusive culinary dream; and where will they land a good job with living wages? This is where secondary schools play a greater and very influential role managing the “real-world” expectations in the minds of impressionable students moving into adulthood.

The job of parenting is compounded by trustfully putting the future of their children in the hands of public-school boards, administrators, educators, and guidance counsellors. Broadly speaking, the majority of these educational and CTE training professionals are doing a really good job, annually producing positive student graduate employment outcomes.

Now we feel a need to advocate for culinary arts programs where aspiring student futures as culinary professionals may be at certain risk. Schools with under-resourced programs, with over-worked and under-paid teachers or inexperienced staff, using curriculums in need of updating, need advocacy to better inform administrators, school boards and the greater parent and local culinary community. Programs requiring augmentation, enabled by external resources to better prepare and train culinary arts students to modern performance standards in the hospitality and restaurant industries should be the objective, and ultimate student career success our goal.

Culinary Arts and Science Training & Education Tracks

Aspiring young culinarians have well-defined career pathways for career readiness and workplace success. A timely well-informed decision must be made by students with their eyes wide open.

• Public school CTE culinary arts program
• Armed Forces culinary career field for Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airmen: US Army 92G, USMC 3381, US Navy 0013
• Apprentice cook (formal restaurant apprenticeship or informal OJT food service operations).
• Vocational trade school courses
  Community college certificate programs
• University arts or sciences four-year degree program

As to the many fictional external influences, it is important to re-shape the thinking of impressionable students’ false illusions about shortcuts to success by being the next hot celebrity chef. Moreover, high school career guidance counselors need to refrain from overselling culinary arts students into believing he or she will graduate and figuratively step right into a $75K to $100k executive chef position not long after they graduate. This is as disingenuous as a sports coach telling talented high school athletes they will go to the NBA or NFL and make millions of dollars. Telling the truth is important and establishes realistic culinary career expectations or fosters a different, more credible career path choice.

Advocacy promotes truth, brings reality to light, and positively changes minds of those needing to make well informed decisions for the community’s student population. Be that person a student, parent, educator, administrator, restaurateur, or hospitality hiring manager. Culinary arts and sciences need advocates from all sectors to better the industry and help today’s secondary school youth succeed in an honorable and rewarding profession serving others.

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