‍

The first Apprenticeship cohort at the Apprenticeship Kick-Off Event, August 2023. 

Do you feel like you're at a career crossroads and constantly looking for opportunities to share your creative skills? I have been there—and I’ve found a solution that could work for other artsy souls out there, too! 

My name is Ella Rochelle-Lawton. I am an artist and educator from San Francisco and have recently joined Culinary Artistas as a Project Manager and Outreach Specialist to create our new Artistas Apprenticeship Program.

This past summer, our Head of Education, Alicia Faris, the Culinary Artistas team, and I developed our Artistas Apprenticeship Program to equip our cohort of classroom and event educators with resources to become engaging storytellers and connected professionals. The program features a year long guest speaker series, mentorship programming, and networking opportunities and teaches passionate aspiring culinary educators to foster inclusivity and creativity in the classroom.

If you’re curious to learn more, read on.

My Journey From Nonprofit Arts to Culinary Education

When I first met the Culinary Artistas team, I was inspired to find so much cohesion between their culinary classroom goals and my work at the arts nonprofit, Scrap. As a Teaching Artist at Scrap, I work within their Scrap in a Box program to deliver subsidized art lessons to San Francisco’s Bay View and Mission public schools. 

Working as a teacher at so many different schools, I have learned that the key to creating impactful lessons is through community connectivity and local stories as examples. At Scrap, I find curriculum plans that emphasize the works of Bay Area artists have given students the opportunity to connect more deeply with public art in their own community and have helped create lasting lessons. 

I wished to translate this into the Artistas Apprenticeship and was so excited to have found that our Head of Education, Alicia, holds similar values from her own non profit culinary arts education work in the Bay View. Not unexpectedly, our program visions were entirely aligned.

Creating the Culinary Artistas Apprenticeship

I first connected with Culinary Artistas through their Spring Soiree Networking Event. Immediately, I was taken aback by the incredible food and company. I met so many inspiring professionals and through all of my conversations, I found that when introducing myself as an arts educator, everyone responded with a longing to practice their own art. People would say “ ugh I wish I kept painting!” or “ I love dance, but never pursued it professionally.” 

The Culinary Artistas team picked up on similar sentiments and after a few follow up conversations about their education goals, I quickly jumped onboard to help develop a program that gives opportunity to practice artistic skills and to gain support in transitioning into creative industries. 

The Apprenticeship cohort and guests at Culinary Artista’s Harvest Happy Hour Networking Event, August, 2023.

Through the Apprenticeship program, I feel that I not only have the opportunity to help foster creativity within our current Culinary Artistas network, but to extend this network to my local arts and service industry communities. Having worked in bars and coming from a San Francisco family of service workers, I often find there's a gap in professional development support in the field. 

My desire to invite local communities who may not have access to similar networking events, led us to make networking events a key component of the Apprenticeship. Our events are made up of professionals from a diverse range of fields and we hope that by connecting our Apprentice cohort, we can expand opportunities for learning and connectivity within our studio space. 

Similarly, our team works to further provide opportunities for lasting networks through our Speaker Series. This Speaker Series covers topics in agriculture, recipe publishing, restaurant management, business and more. Through this series accompanied by hands-on culinary and education training, we help Apprentices create roadmaps for their own careers while strengthening their demonstration and communication skills. 

Interested in Exploring Your Own Culinary Career?

We are so excited to welcome our first cohort and eager to learn from unique perspectives of those on our team. 

With ingredient education and sourcing support from our team, we hope to show Culinary Apprentices how to cook creatively and sustainably. This two sided education program helps keep our Culinary Artistas classrooms full of excitement and curiosity for educators and students alike.

Our ultimate goal is to provide impactful and innovative lessons within our after school partnerships and to give Apprentices the skills needed to create similar programs founded on values of education, community, and artistry within their future careers. 

‍

The 2023 Apprenticeship cohort received culinary education training at the Apprenticeship Kick-Off from Head Chef, Alicia Faris, August 2023. 

Moving forward, we are excited to continue expanding our after school services to low income schools within our Artistas Everywhere Program. We hope that through our Apprenticeship Program and Artistas Everywhere we can share quality culinary education across San Francisco. 

‍We are accepting Apprenticeship applications on a rolling basis. If you are looking to join a passionate community of creative educators, practice your kitchen skills, network with top culinary professionals, and gain personally catered career support to make your next move, we encourage you to apply. Learn more on our Culinary Artistas Apprenticeship Page.

‍