This week was biggie. Not just for us at COOK but also for the 10 lucky (and very enthusiastic) students who participated in our inaugural class session of the COOK Masters Program. Not familiar with CMP? In a nutshell, CMP is an instructional cooking series taught by some of the city’s and country’s biggest culinary names, for 10 students who are truly passionate about pursuing a professional career in the restaurant industry. The first semester is being taught by Jon Cichon (Lacroix), Joe Cicala (Le Virtu), Peter Woolsey (Bistrot La Minette), Christina Diekwicz (Barclay Prime), Katie Cavuto Boyle (Healthy Bites), Brian Freedman (food and wine writer/consultant), and Michael Solomonov (Zahav, Percy Street Barbecue, Federal Donuts, Citron & Rose).

COOK’s owner Audrey Claire Taichman says, “With the help and generosity of our chef friends, we are working to foster the next generation of Philly chefs. This is such a strong culinary community – and we not only want to make it stronger but we all want to do our part to give back”.

Now that you’re up to speed…Monday, January 7 was the first class of the first semester of CMP, and it was exciting to say the least to finally have all of the selected applicants together in one room, ready to learn, wearing their chef whites and carrying their knife rolls. We were impressed and proud of their professionalism and preparedness. If we had a dean’s list, we’d put each of them on it.

Led by COOK regular Jon Cichon, Executive Chef of Lacroix, the students dug right in, elbows deep in an intimate study in butchery. Class began with Cichon demonstrating the proper breakdown of a chicken and a rabbit. Then right to a pop-quiz–they all had their hand at breaking down two chickens and one rabbit each.

In addition to butchery basics, Cichon provided the students with invaluable insight to “kitchen law.” Example: do whatever the head chef tells you to do. Even if it means using a whisk to break down a chicken. It is the Chef’s method that must be followed, not your own.

Two hours, twenty chickens, and ten rabbits later, the students felt not only more confident of their butchery skills but also part of something special. After all, there’s learning butchery and then there’s learning butchery from the man behind Lacroix.

In closing, two videos for you. The first, produced by the folks at COOK sponsor Foobooz, introduces you to the class of 2013. We invite you to meet Derek Steel, Christopher Ritter, Kevin Mcdevitt, Brandon Zeller, Mike Hatgistavrou, Joshua Holtz, John Boswell, Sandy Trinh, Nana Wilmot and Paolo Rivera.

The second, produced by amazingly talented friends-of-COOK 9.14 Pictures, offers a visual recap of our inaugural class, as well as some face time with Jon Cichon. Always a good thing.

Photos: Yoni Nimrod.