NSCC Strait Area campus to offer course to train ship's cooks

A sea change is coming for the culinary arts program at the Nova Scotia Community College Strait Area Campus in Port Hawkesbury. 

In September, the school will offer a course with a concentration on becoming a ship's cook.

The course is certified by Transport Canada and it's the only one in the Maritimes.

Chris Goyetche, the academic chair of the School of Business, told CBC Cape Breton's Information Morning, it made sense to offer the course, since the school is also home to the Nautical Institute, a marine training facility. 

Good food matters

"Within the last couple of years, we started looking at the culinary arts program and thinking, 'Gee, you know, it's a nice complement and we have the facilities here, we have the marine instructors to do the training,'" Goyetche said.

"Careers at sea tend to have a little better pay scale, so we just thought it would open up a nice opportunity for students."

There is an increased demand for trained ship's cooks, according to Goyetche, because few institutions offer the training and Transport Canada recently developed a requirement for cooks to have higher credentials. 

"When people are at sea, they're out on long voyages and really one of the highlights of their daily lives is a really high-end meal, so we're really trying to accommodate that demand," Goyetche explained.

Chef instructor Brooks Hart agrees.

"I think the work out on the water is hard. You're away from family, so food is that comfort piece and it should be really done well," he said.

As part of the two-year culinary arts program, students learn the fundamentals in their first year and, in the ship's cook concentration, they will also have to take a shipboard galley course and do a 30-day placement at sea.

Transport Canada also requires students to take courses in marine advanced first aid and marine emergency duties, which the school already offers.

Specialty training

Goyetche said they've also built in training around provisioning, planning and storage for long stretches at sea and shipboard cultural considerations.

"Many of the crews on ships are foreign nationals so we feel that our students really need to have a good understanding of customs and cultural related guidelines," she said.

Chef instructor Brooks Hart did a 30-day placement aboard Marine Atlantic ferries to be certified to teach the course. 

He says cooking at sea requires some specialized skills.

"An environment that's rockin' and rollin' back and forth, even just getting your sea legs underneath you; the organization and the mindset on how you execute that is totally different," he said.

No loose knives, no open flame

"For example, you never leave your knives lying in your workspace; they have to be secured. You'll never find open flame on the stoves; everything is electric, using storm bars which actually secure the pots in place."

But he said he thinks one of the biggest challenges for students will be learning how to plan ahead.

"I think the big thing is just the long-term planning and knowing what you're going to be doing," said Hart. "A lot of times it might be three weeks on, three weeks off or even longer and so to plan out menus, the whole storage component to it."

He also says the schedule on a ship can be quite different from land-based institutions and restaurants.

"One of the things that really kind of stood out to me is most of the ships out there are on that 24-hour cycle, so it's not your standardized breakfast, lunch and dinner," he said, "but I was really amazed at the quality of what's offered on the water."