Tools of the Trade donates kitchen equipment to NMTI

Ken Stewart, right, general manager of Tools of the Trade from Guam, presents $900 worth of kitchen equipment to Northern Marianas Technical Institute president Agnes McPhetres. Dennis B. Chan)

Ken Stewart, general manager of Tools of the Trade from Guam, has donated about $900 worth of equipment for the culinary arts program of the Northern Marianas Technical Institute.

Some of the equipment includes chef’s knives, cutting boards, and chef’s attires, among other things.

Stewart is also known as the “Guam Food Guy” and reviews food stops at www.guamdiner.com. He sells culinary equipment to hotels on island. One thing he’s gleaned from experience is the need to train young people to be job-ready for the culinary field.

“The best way to do that is to have tools of the industry…to have things that are going to help them achieve the work they are going to have to do,” he said.

The Victorinox Forschner knives he donated are all industry quality, he said. The cutting boards are also color-coded for sanitation.

The 12-piece knife set is an executive chef knife kit used by culinary students at the Guam Community College.

In Guam, he said, Tools of the Trade usually sell culinary program-required equipment to GCC students at reduced prices.

This is the first time the equipment has been donated, he said.

NMTI president Agnes McPhetres expects their students to be happy that they will have access to tools they need for their program. Each of the students will have a set of the knives and a cutting board, she said.

“We’ll be working with Ken to make sure our culinary program is a top-notch program,” she said.

The culinary class’ current instructor is a chef from Hyatt Regency Saipan, according to McPhetres.

She said NMTI hopes to expand their programs into high schools hopefully by spring.

Right now, they have a program at Kagman High School under the Public School System, she said.

“Eventually we will be carrying it out in other schools so that more students will be prepared. Especially for those that don’t attend college right away. At least they have the skill, and at the same time they will have a job when they graduate,” McPhetres said.

This fall’s culinary program starts on Nov. 12, according to her.

Right now students are going through drug tests and other health paperwork before classes start.

Ten have enrolled in this year’s program from all over Saipan, she said.

“It’s a good start,” Stewart said.

McPhetres said some of them are high school graduates while some are dropouts.

“We’ll pick them up. We give them placements tests in English and math, and we give them accelerated programs in those areas too. Because they need mathematics for cooking, and they need to learn how to converse [as part of a hospitality career],” she said.

This year’s program was postponed, according to McPhetres, as renovations for NMTI’s culinary facility was still ongoing. The facility is finished, and more equipment continues to be purchased, she said.

Classes will be in the evening for two and a half hours daily, she said.

The program, beginning this month, ends in January.

Stewart said he hopes this behooves all the hospitality businesses and hotels on island to work with NMTI to train the local workforce.

“It’s going to be benefit tourism. It’s going to benefit them having people who are job-ready come in to work,” he said.

It has to be a partnership, he added. Businesses have to invest in Saipan, and invest in the future, he said.

Right now NMTI only works with Hyatt but McPhetres said she intends to go to all the hotels on island to ask them to be part of the program.

“Everyone should be involved” from Coral Ocean Point, Pacific Islands Club, to Fiesta Resort, according to Stewart, in training cooks who understand sanitation, portion control, and cooking temperature, for example.

“Those are important things. That’s what partnering with this training is [for],” he said.

Ken Stewart, right, general manager of Tools of the Trade from Guam, presents $900 worth of kitchen equipment to Northern Marianas Technical Institute president Agnes McPhetres.