Josh Boucher isn’t sure he would be where he is now without the Eudora culinary program helping him grow as a cook.
The high school’s unique program provides students the opportunity to enter the food service industry in whatever capacity they want.
Boucher, Andrew Blazo and Conner Bryant all graduated from the program and have started their careers in various parts of the industry.
Culinary instructor Jack Low’s goal is to train students to go immediately into the industry or into culinary school, he said. If there’s one thing he hopes to leave students with, it’s a good work ethic whether that’s in the culinary industry or not.
Boucher only graduated a year ago, but he’s worked in kitchens all over Lawrence. Shortly after graduation, he got a job as a line cook at Shadow Glen Golf Club in Olathe.
During his day-to-day routine, he makes a minimum of 10 to 15 dishes at his station, whether that’s Chinese stir fry or Jamaican jerk chicken. As a saute cook – the highest level of cook in the kitchen – he could make every item on the menu if required. He also helps prep items to make service time less chaotic.
When he’s not working full time in the kitchen, he’s also attending culinary school at Johnson County Community College. The balance is nothing short of “crazy,” he said. Since the club is closed Monday, he has all his classes then, with Thursday being his only day off.
His three years in the culinary program, combined with jobs at Jefferson’s, Black Stag Brewery and J. Wilson’s, gave him a leg up on his resume and helped get him the job at Shadow Glen.
Boucher said Low’s good attitude and teaching helped make the experience as helpful as it was. In the first year of the program, students learn the basics, how to work with people and eventually get to work events. The fast-paced atmosphere of cooking for events and the assembly-line-like feel had him already prepped for the restaurant business, he said.
“Doing the events, it helps a lot because it starts to show you what an actual kitchen is going to look like. Because when we’re in class learning, it’s not very fast paced, or like we’re not repetitively making the same thing over and over again,” Boucher said.
Because of the school’s size, Low gets to know students and guide them along their own path, Boucher said.
“I think Chef Low – he really gets into it with each student. He sees where they need to make progress and like where their faults are and that type of stuff,” Boucher said.
By the third year of the program, Boucher was able to help lead the team and make sure events ran smoothly.
Looking back at the program, the mentality you need for a kitchen was one of the most important things he learned, he said. The intensity of the kitchen during service is something that takes some getting used to. He also isn’t sure he would have been able to move into a more upscale restaurant like J. Wilson’s without the program.
“I think his level of hardness is nice because it’s not absurdly aggressive, but it does sort of give you a view of what it’ll be like working,” Boucher said.
He also learned about crafting cuisine from all over the world. One of the key things Low taught him was how to pull flavors, ideas and techniques from different countries to help dishes come together. The palette he left Boucher with was a major upper-hand, he said.
At JCCC, Boucher will learn how to be a chef, but also everything from culinary cost accounting to menu planning. With his experience at Eudora, he also was able to test out of some classes, like the ServSafe certification he got in the program and a hospitality class.
With all this experience, he hopes to one day be a head chef of an upscale restaurant – as long as he can have the freedom to make what he wants.
Blazo graduated from De Soto High School in 2019, and was involved with Eudora’s culinary program his junior and senior years.
After COVID-19 shut down in-person culinary school at JCCC, Blazo decided to take a step back from the industry and pursue selling cars.
After three years of sales, he decided he missed working with food and got a head chef position at Big Mill in Lawrence where he stayed for several months until recently.
He got engaged during his time working at Big Mill, and decided he wanted to change his priorities for the time being.
Because Low taught all aspects of the industry, Blazo knew he could combine his two former jobs – sales and food. About a week ago, Blazo started a job at Sysco, a food distribution company.
As a sales consultant, he works with Johnson County restaurant head chefs or kitchen managers to earn their business in hopes of providing the food for their restaurants. He sees himself staying in this job for a while since it gives him more time for his personal life, but still allows him to do something he loves.
He worked in restaurants since he was 15, and always knew it was the industry he wanted to be in. Low’s program showcased there is more to the industry than just working behind a grill, he said.
A big thing he learned was how to cost out and order the materials they were using in the program, and without that knowledge he wasn’t sure he would have gotten the head chef job at Big Mill, he said. The industry is hard, but it’s rewarding work, he said.
Low’s connections in the industry are strong, and he is very connected to the food scene, which is a huge help to his students, Blazo said.
“He just knows everybody and he has so much experience that I mean, I probably haven’t even tapped into it,” he said.
For future culinary students or those in the program now, he said “just dig in.”
“And if you’re interested in a specific facet of the restaurant industry, tell them because he will help you,” Blazo said.
Bryant knew he wanted to go into the restaurant industry after growing up cooking with his grandpa. Eudora’s program was just an added bonus to help get him there.
What started as just seeing his grandpa cook turned into him taking a liking to it. He learned a lot from him, he said.
“They’re of that old generation, so they’re like, ‘Cooking will get you a woman,’” Bryant said. “But as time went on, he just learned that I liked it, it just grew on me.”
Now, Bryant is a prep cook at Q39 in Kansas City. He spends his shifts cutting and cooking veggies, cooking wings and doing whatever needs to be done for the line cooks.
Bryant finished the culinary program and graduated in 2022. Getting to do a project that involved designing their own restaurant was something that really stuck out as practical knowledge, he said.
The biggest misconception about the program is that it involves only cooking. Bryant said there is a lot of cleaning involved, as well.
He also highlighted the international food studies as something important to his experience in the program. Low also helped students stray away from the parts of the industry that can be bad, he said.
He hopes one day to be an executive chef, but he isn’t sure what kind of restaurant he’ll want to be at.
The alumni all agree on one thing – the program is a great one, with a great chef at its helm. Low’s industry experience is extensive, and his approach to teaching all the facets of the industry is an important part of the experience, they agreed.
Students are able to learn practical kitchen experience, but also about work ethic and the attitude needed to work in a real atmosphere, Low said. Being able to communicate with co-workers and customers is also at the forefront of his curriculum. Time management and cleaning are also important components, he said.
He gears the program to feel just like a job, and encourages students to think about their grade as a paycheck. He said he tries to mold students into what he would want if he were still working in the industry and looking for new hires.
Low said he is proud of Boucher, Blazo and Bryant. He stays in regular communication with them and many other former students. Whether it’s just catching up, showing what they’ve been working on, coming to their new jobs or helping them get jobs, Low is happy to continue being a mentor to them, he said.
“Very happy that they’re going on to do stuff that I helped them to do. Usually they already have a love for it, so I can’t take credit for that, but maybe fanning that flame. It’s definitely something I can say that I’m happy about,” Low said.
He’s happy to help students, whether it serves a large part in their lives or something they don’t do in the next 10 years. He hopes his students inspire others to do what they do, he said.
“When they contact me, it tells me that they still see me as a mentor or see me as someone who can give them advice or help them out and it’s always very – it makes me happy, and it makes me proud,” Low said.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected].
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