An example of school-work alternation that works. In the hotel business of Châtillon, Aosta, they open a temporary restaurant entirely managed by the 4C boys. that's how
The kitchen is not just cooking. The kitchen, for the boys of the Foundation for Professional Tourism Training of Châtillon, a few kilometers from Aosta, is pressure, sweat, desire to achieve goals and above all a class affair. Class in the kitchen and class made up of 17 and 18 year old students, students of one of the most avant-garde hotel institutions in Italy.
The laboratory is a temporary restaurant
45 Degrees North, this is the name of the temporary restaurant that the boys have opened and managed for 8 evenings since the end of December 2018.
Raw materials chosen with care, precision, rigor and mastery of gestures. The boys of 4C, followed by the professor (and chef) Alberto Domenighini, technical teacher and didactic coordinator of the project, managed to create in the premises of the Institute a restaurant with authentic flavors, able to cross the high mountains of the Aosta Valley and cross the flavors Italian and international.
Everything, from marketing to the kitchen load, was developed months before the debut by the boys of 4C: we study logos, graphics, menus and nothing should be left to chance.
Cooking and managing the room, but also learning the rigor of a professional kitchen, with joys and sorrows. The service is meticulous, precise and, as in the best kitchens, the orders given must be respected. But this is not a staging or a farce: everything is true. Guests choose the 45 Degrees North and the waiting list to participate in the evenings is very long.
The menu
The menu, a la carte, in English and French, offers sushi with Valdostana trout, purple carrots and strawberries, but also something more classic like a risotto with chicory and egg yolk, vegan lasagna and a sprawling tiramisu that closes the dinner with a coffee granita surprise. Low-temperature cooking and perfectly cooked risottos come to the pass under the watchful eye of Mattia Chasseur, the kitchen coordinator, 18 years of dedication to the kitchen.
Everything, even the bread and breadsticks, have been designed and made by the boys, who during the week have at their disposal local equipped in every detail to learn and improve in the knowledge and transformation of the beautiful raw materials that Valle d’Aosta provides.
In the institute, each raw material finds its own space: laboratories for the treatment of vegetables, confectionery area, but also a room dedicated to mixology and, of course, the classes where the children continue in parallel with the study of classical subjects, which they will use to being able to work anywhere in Europe and the world.
The secret ingredient: passion
But the most important ingredient in the hands of the 4C students is the passion: low head, concentration and desire to amaze are the winning elements of a program, the one that gave birth to 45 North Degrees, which allows children not only to learn in books and in the laboratory a difficult job like that of the chef and the maître de salle, but to work and see the reactions of the customers, understand where to change and where a winning idea can make the difference.
Finally, school-work alternation seems to be a reality and seems to be the right way for children to find their way into the world of work and adulthood.
The 4C dishes seem to come from a starred kitchen.
And if, a few hours before the restaurant opens, tomato jelly seems a brilliant idea, you have to go all the way, because paying is above all the audacity and these guys know it well, because in their hands and in their head there is the initiative and madness that only young fans have.
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