WSU Executive Chef Jamie Callison often uses locally grown and produced foods in his 258 Culinary Fundamentals Class and will showcase those foods in his cookbook. (Photos by Linda Weiford, WSU News)
PULLMAN, Wash. – Not many chefs can boast of having a cattle ranch, orchard, creamery and organic farm in their back yards.
But Washington State University’s Jamie Callison can.
Callison, an executive chef and instructor with WSU’s School of Hospitality Business Management, is so enthralled by his edible backyard that he’s writing a cookbook that illuminates its offerings.
“I want to showcase the foods produced here on campus and on the Palouse in a big way, and a cookbook seems a good way to do that. We have an amazing array of bounty here,” he said, wearing a crisp white monogrammed jacket while seated inside the school’s Todd Hall dining room.
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Katie Carlson, a human development and psychology
major, prepares to roll out a pie crust. Callison, in the background at left, is never far from his students. |
Whether Callison is teaching students in his 258 Culinary Fundamentals class how to make poached pear salad or preparing braised beef tenderloin for WSU’s Feast of the Arts sold out dinner series, “I use as many ingredients grown and produced in this region as I possibly can,” he said.
Plateful of Palouse
Callison’s cookbook will be published by WSU and released next year. Among the WSU foodstuff he’ll sing the praises of? Cougar cheese made at the creamery; tender beef from the Ensiminger Beef Center; ice cream churned at Ferdinand’s Ice Cream Shoppe; fruit picked at the Tukey Horticulture Orchard; and vegetables grown at the Eggert Family Organic Farm.
And regionally? Lentils, of course. Given that the Palouse is one of the largest producers of lentils in the world, and that they are protein-laden and easy to prepare, the humble legume should play a bigger role in soups, stews, salads and side dishes, he said.
“There’s no reason that lentils shouldn’t become one of our regional culinary specialties,” said Callison, who came to WSU in 2006 but whose passionate history with food began as a teenager in 1983 while working as a dishwasher at a diner in Carnation, Wash.
“I remember looking around at the cooks chopping vegetables, frying chicken and pressing hash browns into the griddle and thinking that what they did was meaningful and creative,” he said. “I realized, ‘Hey, that’s what I need to be doing.’ ”
By serving as an apprentice under “several encouraging chefs who recognized my passion,” Callison rose through the ranks, working as a sous chef at the Seattle Yacht Club, running a large catering business and teaching a culinary apprenticeship class at Seattle Center Community College.
After meeting rigorous cooking and business skills requirements set by the American Culinary Federation, Callison became a certified executive chef and, later, an inducted member of the American Culinary Association (ACA). Lots of ingredients go into becoming an executive chef; they typically oversee large kitchen operations and staff in restaurants, hotels and schools, according to the ACA website.
Chef’s table, your table
Too often, executive chefs’ cookbook recipes are thickly larded with ingredients that we common folks aren’t likely to have – annatto oil and anchovy paste, to name a few. What’s more, elaborate instructions require heaps of concentration and patience. But expect the recipes in Callison’s cookbook to be down to earth, he said.
Not only will ingredients be easily accessible, “but I’ll use recipes that readers can relate to. Sometimes chefs talk down to readers in their cookbooks. That’s just not my style.”
Nor is it his style to yell or embarrass his students in the kitchen when things are, well, heating up. As French pastries baked inside rows of stainless steel ovens one recent afternoon, the kitchen was a flurry of 20 white-jacketed students whisking pastry crème, stirring pumpkin filling and rolling out pie crusts.
Amid the spilled flour, irregularly shaped éclairs and one cut finger, Callison zigzagged from one cooking station to another, instructing and reassuring.
“I’ve never heard him raise his voice, and sometimes it gets hectic in here,” said Lauren Devine, a pharmacy major who signed up for Callison’s culinary class as relief from her heavy science load.
“I’ve never heard him raise his voice, and sometimes it gets hectic in here,” said Lauren Devine, a pharmacy major who signed up for Callison’s culinary class as relief from her heavy science load.
He has taught her that cooking with simple ingredients can result in some not-so-simple, delicious dishes, she said.
Perhaps few people know this more than Jud Preece who, as senior associate director of WSU’s Alumni Association, enjoys Callison’s culinary wizardry each fall at the university’s Feast of the Arts dinners.
“Believe me, I feel lucky to have a seat at the table with Jamie’s creations in front of me,” said Preece of menus that include grilled fingerling potatoes seasoned with thyme (grown at WSU’s organic farm) and poached honeysweet pears (picked at WSU’s orchard) stuffed with Rogue blue cheese. “He’s got access to all of these great local ingredients and energetic students, and he knows how to bring out the best in both.
“Great food isn’t limited to high-end restaurants,” Preece said. “The people who get his cookbook will see that.”