Chef training prepares community members for a culinary future

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At the beginning of each new year, many make new personal goals to become the best version of themselves. Chef Jesse Perez is no different, except she wants to help her students reach their goals of becoming culinary arts professionals with love and compassion.

“I want them to succeed, to be honest, and I want them to be able to make those goals. I want them to be able to open that restaurant. I have a few that want to have a catering company. I have a few that already spoke to me about getting together and doing events with me, so they can have those skills, and I’m willing to help them so they can get to that level,” she said.

After feeding many at the Salvation Army’s Boston Kroc Center in Dorchester for more than a decade, Perez is working hard to make this goal a reality with her promotion to a culinary arts manager for the Boston Kroc Center Culinary Arts Training Program, which she received in the fall of 2024.

The program is a nationally recognized 10-week course that provides students from Dorchester and Roxbury with a solid foundation in culinary techniques. It combines expert instruction, real-world kitchen experience, and personalized mentorship to help students master the art of cooking and food preparation.

Once the students complete the program, the Salvation Army Boston Kroc Center helps connect them with local food industry employers for job placement.

The Boston Kroc Center provides the foundation for a successful culinary career. With access to state-of-the-art kitchen facilities and a focus on sustainable and ethical practices, the program creates hands-on experiences and teaches students the skills to pursue their goals and aspirations.

Chef Jesse Perez (far right) runs the Dorchester-based Salvation Army’s Boston Kroc Center Culinary Arts Training Program. PHOTO: The Salvation Army Massachusetts Division

From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Perez is hard at work with her students, running the latest session of the program weekly until March 21, training them with different recipes.

Along with the culinary skills, Perez is making her mark on the program by adding a life skills component in which students learn how to write resumes and other important lessons to help them achieve their goals.

Community members traditionally apply to the program via its website or fill out the paper application in person at the Kroc Center.

Once potential students apply, the staff will schedule an interview with them and conduct a background check.

Perez said she is changing what she is looking for in the students when they apply in this new year.

“This year, I want to switch it a little bit. I want to focus more on [the] goals of people that want to learn, people that want to open restaurants or catering and stuff like that. …We have students that apply just to get the cooking section. But I want to be able to help the community to build … [if] they want to open a restaurant, they want to open a catering company or food truck. We want to help them [with] those elements,” she said.

She also talked about the importance of having the program available for community members.

“It’s a great program, and it’s a help. I think it’s a way of serving the community and its needs. It’s just basically building them up to have better opportunities in life if they want to,” she said.

While the program has been in place for a couple of years, this is the first time that Perez is taking over and she plans on bringing in a fresh overview. This includes infusing her culture, as Perez grew up in Puerto Rico, and some of her favorite recipes include traditional Puerto Rican meals that were passed down in her family.

“I’m happy, excited. I have new ideas. … If I get a chance, I want to also build a section just to help the Hispanic community as well, and that’s what I’m working on right now because I want to do a section in Spanish in September. I’m looking forward to that, hopefully we get done, but that’s my main goal right now,” she said.

Perez is determined to help each of her students with their goals of becoming culinary arts professionals — by any means necessary.

“We have people that are enrolled for the program and getting close to the section, they want to back away and not do the program, so I make goals and stuff like that [with] the students with … a lot of personal issues. Some of them — they have kids. Some of them, they go through domestic violence and stuff like that, which is some of the stuff that is happening now. So I make some phone calls, and I told [those] students, ‘Just work with us, and we’ll work with you, so you could just finish the program.’ I don’t want [them] to say, ‘Let me give up and not do it.’ I [say], we’ll find solutions where you could commit to finishing the program. I could work with you on staying in the afternoons, you know, so you can make up that credit,” she said.

Allowing students to make up hours if they need to is an additional new component to the program under Perez’s leadership.

“If they miss an hour because they can’t make it in the morning because they have to drop off their kids to school, we have in place [that] they can stay in the afternoon for an hour to make up that credit,” she said.

Perez also shares what she has learned from her students during her first year of running the Boston Kroc’s Culinary Arts Training Program.

“Besides being a little bit patient, I think working as a team, and we all need each other … we’re all learning something new every day. … Being supporters [of one another] because you know they could come in the class, but if they don’t have the support to finish the program, what is the point for them to sign up for it if we are not going to give back those resources that they need?” she said.

Lastly, Perez hopes to influence the community positively through her leadership of the program.

“I want to impact the community, the way the community impacted my life. When I got here, I was just like, ‘Okay, let’s do this.’ But I didn’t realize the amount of impact that it was going to have on my life, walking in, dealing with members, dealing with staff, dealing with everyone in here, and the same way that I have the skills I want to give it back to the community,” she said.