Chef Instructor - Cooking Matters

Save to Favorites

The Chef Instructor will serve as a teacher and role model, teaching key skills and inspiring participants to cook healthy, inexpensive meals at home.

Responsibilities:

• Assist in planning and preparing weekly menu
• Teach low-income participants the basics of food and kitchen safety, food preparation, and making healthy choices and substitutions when cooking, according to the highlighted objectives of each lesson.
• Facilitate class discussions on each cooking or food safety message, allowing participants to brainstorm how they might put new behaviors into action, discuss barriers to adopting new behaviors, and share ideas with their peers for overcoming barriers.
• Assign participants kitchen tasks that allow each individual to gain hands-on practice and improve their cooking skills.
• Supervise participants in the kitchen, encouraging proper technique and gently correcting as needed.

Skills/Experience Required:

• We welcome qualified chefs from restaurants and hotels, instructors and students from culinary schools, personal chefs, caterers, home economics teachers, restaurant owners and managers, food sales and marketing representatives, non-profit kitchen managers, retired foodservice professionals, and avid home cooks.
• Interest and comfort in working with low-income individuals from diverse backgrounds.
• Comfortable speaking in front of groups (average class size is 12 participants).
• Ability to travel to class location (will generally be located in the county the volunteer resides).
• Willingness to be trained on CM curricula, to work as a team with volunteer nutrition educator, and to adhere to program policies and team decisions.

Time Commitment:

• At least 2-4 hours for training and orientation to Cooking Matters before teaching your first class.
• At least 3 hours per week for each Cooking Matters class: ½ hour for class set up, the 2-hour Cooking Matters class, and ½ hour for class cleanup. Participants spend approximately ½ hour each week preparing for class independently, outside of class hours.
• Must commit to all 6 weeks of the course