Thursday, March 14, 2013

Gone Fishin’



How does your food go from this...

It’s not what you think. We’re not kicking back with a line in the water, or nursing a hot toddy over a hole in the ice. And there’s no catch and release policy. It is ‘Catch and Kill’ day at Liaison, and there is not much nostalgia involved.

It is a city kids’ fishing trip, as our students trek over to the nearby Asian market, a cooler full of water in tow. The merchants might think we are strange (they have never said), but are always happy to scoop a dozen or so tilapia from their live tanks and deposit them unceremoniously into the cooler. They handle live fish every day, so this non-event is a contrast to what lies in store back in the classroom.

One by one, the students, with varying degrees of trepidation, dip into the cooler to catch a fish with their bare hands, while trying to avoid the spiny back and dorsal fins. For most, it is the first time they have ever handled a whole fish, dead or alive. Some are repulsed at the prospect of knocking it on the head to kill it: others find filleting to be the greatest challenge.

The chef-instructors focus on the latter, but there’s a secondary message that they want to relay. Every piece of meat, fish or poultry that budding cooks and chefs will serve to their customers was at one time, a living, breathing being. We must respect and honour that life, and the process involved in bringing it to the table. 
......to this?

Visit our Facebook page for the whole story in photos.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Building a strong foundation with food...


At Liaison Hamilton, we’re all about food. For other businesses, what’s cooking in the kitchen comes second to what’s up in the workplace. But some companies know how to mix food and fun, and build a strong team in the process. Last Friday, staff and board members from The John Howard Society joined Chef Greg and some of our students in the kitchen for an afternoon of cooking and corporate team building. You can find one of the recipes here on our Recipe page. For more photos of the event, visit our Facebook page.