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Quick cuts keep class cooking

By NICOLE SERVICE
The Daytona Beach News-Journal Staff Writer

N-J Photo/PETER BAUER Hilmar Jonsson, a master chef originally from Iceland, displays a fish dish Feb. 7 at Deltona High School.

N-J Photo/PETER BAUER Senior Jesse Frary samples master chef Hilmar Jonsson’s fish dishes Feb. 7 at DHS.

DELTONA — For Hilmar Jonsson, slicing and dicing food in the blink of an eye is just one of those things.

However, for a group of culinary arts students at Deltona High School, it was an amazing feat to behold. Many gasped and a few winced as they watched Jonsson dice a variety of vegetables while rarely looking down at his fingers or his razor-sharp knife.

“When you are good, you can do this,” Jonsson teased, looking up at the class of seniors while dicing.

The students chuckled, fully aware that having a master chef give them a demonstration Wednesday in their own Wolf Pack Inn kitchen was a rare honor. A master chef certification is the highest degree a chef can earn. In Iceland, where Jonsson is from, he said it takes at least seven years to achieve.

“It was good to see him,” said Brittany Soto, 17. “We get to see just how good we can be if we really work at it.”

Soto watched Jonsson’s slice-and-dice act, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I could never do that, at least now, and not without sacrificing a finger or two,” she said.

Soto is one of several students in the class who plan on becoming chefs. She said her focus will be mainly on making desserts and she plans to attend Johnson & Wales University in North Miami.

Jonsson’s visit to Deltona High was arranged by Diane Mahoney, the school’s culinary arts teacher. She said she met Jonsson about 15 years ago, when she was working as a culinary buyer. She gave it up last year to become a teacher for the same reason she invited Jonsson to the school.

“I wanted to inspire the students,” Mahoney said. “I wanted to see what they could do and encourage them with their education.”

Jonsson said he accepted Mahoney’s invitation because it’s what he does. As a corporate chef for Icelandic USA — a U.S. frozen seafood company — Jonsson travels frequently doing seafood seminars for other chefs, salespeople and culinary students.

“I like to encourage students where I can,” Jonsson said.

Jonsson seemed to gain a few new fans Wednesday, from one student who wanted him to cook at her wedding to Alex Nelson, 17, who wanted to pick his brain about the food industry and what it has to offer.

Nelson said he will be going to a Le Cordon Bleu academy in the fall.

“It was good to have him here,” Nelson said of the chef. “I liked it.”

Mahoney said Jonsson is so busy it took six months to arrange his visit. Jonsson showed up wearing his full white chef’s outfit adorned with various medals. He also brought with him 400 pounds of fish, from salmon to pollock, and treated the students by cooking six different sauces to go with the fish.

He told them if they learn nothing else, they should know fish should never smell bad.

“If it does, take it back,” Jonsson said.

Perhaps what will stick with the students more than the dicing display was the taste of Jonsson’s sauces. Several students went back for seconds or thirds.

In fact, Mahoney had a hard time getting some of them out of the kitchen, even after class had ended. They crowded around the food, tasting and mumbling, “This is so good.”

Did You Know?
Le Cordon Bleu, the famous culinary academy, was founded in Paris in 1895.
*The expression “cordon bleu” (blue ribbon) originates from the 1578 foundation of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit.
*Today, there are 26 schools internationally that bear the Le Cordon Bleu name.
*The late TV chef, Julia Child, earned her toque — starched white chef’s hat — from Le Cordon Bleu.
SOURCES: Compiled by News Researcher Karen Duffy from cordonbleu.edu, yahoo.com

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