By Kaden Boock
The Grand Rapids Community College culinary arts program will be hosting a guest chef all the way from northern Italy next week. Chef Luigi Gondola and his wife Camilla will be visiting GRCC on Feb. 7-8 to help students learn more about international cuisine, while also preparing some delicious dishes for the Heritage Restaurant.
Gondola has been cooking for practically his entire life, and enjoys teaching anyone how to cook, even at his restaurant in northern Italy where he provides lessons for guests.
Bob Schultz, a GRCC culinary professor, explained his excitement to have Gondola as a guest and the incredible skills he would be bringing with him.
“He’s a vibrant and excited chef.” explained Schultz. “He’s extremely passionate about what he does.”
Schultz also described the importance of providing opportunities for his students to learn about how to prepare food from a variety of cultures, and what makes Italian cuisine so unique and special.
“All countries have their unique style of cooking, but one of the beautiful things about Italy is that there’s different regions, and each region represents a specific kind of cuisine,” Schultz said. “What’s also cool is that our students are required to do an internship, and (Gondola is) willing to host any of our students to come and work there this summer. In our department we have scholarships available for them to travel for the internship which is a paid internship, and he would help them find housing, but then they could work and learn from him for the summer.”
The GRCC culinary program is consistently looking for new ways and opportunities to expose students to various cooking styles and backgrounds. “The goal is to continue to keep bringing chefs in to give our students hope and show them what’s out there,” Schultz said.
If any of these opportunities interest you, check out the culinary program on GRCC’s website for more information, or the Heritage Restaurant if you’re interested in enjoying Gondola’s cooking while he’s here.
