Omar Mitchell won his first cooking competition as a high school student at Detroit’s Golightly Career and Technical Center, which eventually led him to a full scholarship to culinary school and a lifelong career.
Today, the successful Detroit chef owns Table No. 2 in downtown Detroit as well as restaurants in Royal Oak and the Dominican Republic. Today, participation is down in the Detroit Public Schools Community District culinary program that cultivated Mitchell’s passion in the early 1990s and its success isn’t as certain.
“The participation is down but I’m looking to hopefully bring more insight and increase that,” Mitchell said.
To raise awareness about the culinary programs at Detroit public schools and show support, Mitchell is hosting a “Black Excellence Culinary Symphony,” a seven-course dinner on Feb. 5. Proceeds will go toward the cost of uniforms for 25 students in the DPSCD’s Golightly and Breithaupt culinary programs. The event will feature 23 Black male chefs and two Black male beverage experts and take place at Mitchell’s Table No. 2.
“I’m a proud born and raised Detroiter. I went to Detroit public schools and also Golightly vocational center where I learned all of my culinary techniques from the beginning,” Mitchell said.
“My goal is to continue to give back to the community…to make sure that those students have the funding that they need and the support to continue to compete in competitions and have transportation to these events,” added Mitchell, who is president of the culinary board for Golightly and Breithaupt.
Mitchell said multiple chefs in the lineup also graduated from the two Detroit culinary programs.
In the ‘90s, Mitchell recalls there being hundreds of students in the Golightly and Breithaupt programs. Today, there are 67 culinary students between the two schools, according to DPSCD spokesperson Chrystal Wilson.
Wilson said the district funds transportation for students to go to events and is making changes to increase participation in the program. When construction on Pershing High School is finished and the legacy school reopens, the Golightly culinary program will move there, she said.
“We believe that by embedding the program in a neighborhood school we will increase program participation and access,” Wilson said by email. “As we redesign our high school schedules and programming, we plan to place more students in our local colleges and universities through dual enrollment which will include culinary programming.”
Nationally, there is a demand for more chefs amid a shortage of workers in the food industry. Job growth for chefs and head cooks is expected to be higher than the average for all other occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median annual wage for these jobs is $56,520, the labor department reports.
Last year, Wayne County Community College launched a new culinary program with a certificate and degree option to address the shortage of food hospitality workers, with Chef Lorenzo Spratling at the helm. Spratling, one of 23 chefs participating in the Black excellence event, said culinary school is an important option for young people.
“You can always fall back on that skill. The one thing about being a chef, and I tell culinary students, ‘you’ll always have a job,’” Spratling said.
Before leading the community college program, Spratling was a culinary instructor at Breithaupt for more than two decades and noted enrollment across Detroit’s public schools is generally down. He’s participating in the Black excellence event to work with other great chefs while supporting Breithaupt students.
“You always have to give back,” he said. “It’s very important. We all have to help each other out along the way.”
This month another event put the focus on Detroit’s young culinary students. Corktown pizzeria Grandma Bob’s launched a monthly charity Detroit-style pizza series and for the first event the donations are going to the Detroit Food Academy, a nonprofit that empowers youth through culinary arts and food entrepreneurship.
Breithaupt and Golightly students will be at the Feb. 5 event, helping plate food and interacting with diners to share more about their culinary journey.
In March, Mitchell is doing it all again, but will feature Black female chefs for Women’s History Month.
The full lineup of chefs for the event is: Omar Mitchell, Jermond Boze, Maxcel Hardy, Mike Ransom, Mamba Hamissi, Frankie Brooks, Maurice Wallace, Lloyd Roberts, Davante Burley, Greg Sims, Alex Farhat, Lorenzo Spratling, Shawn Loving, Lamar Nolden, Tony Jackson, Godwin Ihentuge, Kevin Frank, Xavier Jaramillo, Phil Jones, Chris McClendon, Jeff Tatum, Lavaughn Calhoun and Gabriel McNeil, with beverage experts Chuck Jackson and Andre Sykes.
Too many cooks in the kitchen could be stressful for some, but Mitchell said the fun part is the challenge and he is confident the chefs will come up with “magnificent” dishes.
“With 23 executive chefs in one kitchen, I’m sure we can handle anything,” he said.
Tickets for the event are $125 per person and can be purchased online by making a reservation at Table No. 2. The menu is still being finalized.
Wow! This is going to be a spectacular event for a great cause!