There is a whole lot more being learned in a kitchen than how to cook. And to work in a kitchen, be a chef, or build a successful culinary career takes a whole lot more than technical skills or culinary expertise. It requires a set of soft, or professional skills, that are equally important.
For those who don’t get to see our GO Cook program in action or experience being in a busy restaurant kitchen, it may be easy to assume it’s all about sourcing, preparing, and cooking. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Spend enough time inside a busy kitchen, attend a cooking class with us, or visit our GO Cook program, and you will begin to see what we mean. The skills needed to build a successful culinary career stretch far beyond being a good cook or crafting a tasty menu.
Cooking up a delectable dish demands planning and creativity. Preparing your station teaches the fundamental importance of organization. Working alongside others demands communication, active listening, and teamwork. Executing a delicious five-course meal requires focus and time management. Getting through a busy service takes adaptability, accountability, leadership, and trust.
These are professional skills that matter in nearly every workplace. And for someone building a culinary career, they can be every bit as important as learning how to properly hold a knife, execute a recipe, or prepare a beautiful plate.
Over the past several weeks, we’ve had the opportunity to watch this kind of learning and professional skills development happen in several very different places—from an Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS) cafeteria, to a day at Morven, to our current GO Cook Charlottesville kitchen.
Different people. Different environments. Different goals. But the same lesson keeps showing up:
The kitchen is one heck of a classroom to help people learn, grow, and hone the professional skills necessary for a culinary career—and ultimately, for life beyond the kitchen.
What Are We Really Teaching in GO Cook?
We see the same thing happen every day in our GO Cook programs.
Yes, our students learn culinary fundamentals and professional kitchen operations. They work toward earning industry certifications and gain valuable hands-on experience that can help them build a culinary career.
But watch closely and you’ll see another kind of learning happening at the same time.
They learn and develop soft and professional skills just as much as they gain technical culinary skills. And by prioritizing these professional skills, we are empowering them with the foundations they need to succeed in the kitchen, at work, and throughout their lives.
Students learn how to communicate—listening actively and communicating clearly and confidently, especially when the kitchen gets loud and busy. They learn to prioritize planning and time management when several components of a dish have to come together at once. They learn accountability when their work affects an entire team. They learn adaptability when something inevitably doesn’t go according to plan.
They learn how to ask for help and how to receive feedback. They learn how to solve problems, even if it means pausing to ask Chef Ami or Chef Antwon for guidance. They are asked to lead and follow, depending on the day or task at hand. They learn to make mistakes, recover, and keep moving.
That learning happening each and every day during GO Cook is professional skills development in action. It is the practice and development of core competencies that will serve as a foundation for a culinary career—or really, any career they choose.
But perhaps more importantly, they are developing key human skills. And that distinction matters to us because our mission has never simply been about training cooks.
It is about empowering people and building community in the kitchen.
Sometimes the Classroom Is a Farm
While the kitchen is an incredible vehicle for teaching professional skills, we also try to find creative and valuable ways to expose our students to the broader culinary industry and ecosystem.
So, for our current GO Cook program in Charlottesville, we decided to take students to hang with Fiona FlynnMoore, Manager of the Morven Farms garden—a place where sustainability, culinary arts, and crop cultivation converge.
Our students spent the day outside the CCAB kitchen, learning from the ground up—quite literally. The experience brought them closer to the source of the ingredients they cook with and gave them an opportunity to see firsthand where food is grown.
And that matters. Because for us, a culinary career isn’t simply about memorizing techniques and recipes. It is about curiosity. Respect for ingredients. Understanding where food comes from. Seeing the people, places, work, and systems behind what eventually arrives at your station.
A culinary career connects you to something much larger than the plate in front of you. Farmers and producers. Chefs and restaurants. Educators and employers. Families and communities. That’s the ecosystem. And sometimes the best classroom isn’t a classroom at all.
Charlottesville Is Getting Ready to Put It All Together
Our current GO Cook Charlottesville students are now approaching one of the biggest moments of their seven weeks together. At 5:00 PM on September 29, they’ll put their learning into action during their culmination pop-up, held in partnership with Albemarle CiderWorks at its beautiful cidery, orchard, and tasting room.
The pop-up is where all those individual lessons suddenly have to work together. Students prepare. Communicate. Manage their stations. Adapt. Support one another. Serve guests. Solve problems. Manage the pressure. And cook some pretty great food along the way. This event is always exciting. Sometimes stressful. Usually a little unpredictable. And it is one of the clearest demonstrations we have of why learning by doing matters.
Partners, friends, and community members interested in attending the September 29 pop-up are welcome to reach out to us.
Then, on October 1, we’ll gather again at CitySpace to celebrate this cohort’s graduation.
For us, graduation is always about more than completing seven weeks of training. It is an opportunity for students, families, instructors, partners, sponsors, friends, and community members to look back at how much can change when someone is given an opportunity—and then chooses to do something with it.
Partners, sponsors, friends, and community members who would like to join us for graduation are welcome to reach out as well. And then we get to do one of our favorite things:
Start all over again, this time in Richmond.
GO Cook Richmond, You’re Up!
On October 19, the next GO Cook Richmond cohort begins at Reynolds Community College, in partnership with Reynolds. Enrollment is open now!
If you’ve been thinking about a culinary career, this is your invitation.
If you know someone who loves food but hasn’t figured out how that passion might become a profession, send this to them.
If you’re a parent who sees potential in your son or daughter but knows they need the right environment, structure, and support to bring it out, tell them about GO Cook.
If you’re a teacher, counselor, mentor, workforce professional, employer, or community partner and there is someone in your world who simply needs an opportunity to take that next step, refer them to us. Remember, GO Cook is about far more than learning to cook.
Students develop hands-on culinary skills and professional skills. They work toward industry-recognized certifications. They build relationships with instructors, employers, partners, and other students. They gain exposure to career pathways and become part of a larger hospitality and workforce ecosystem that remains invested in their success.
But there is something else that is harder to put on a program flyer. They get the opportunity to discover what they are capable of. We’ve watched it happen cohort after cohort.
We’ve watched students walk into our kitchen unsure of what comes next and walk out with a certification, an employer connection, a clearer direction, and a community standing behind them.
That doesn’t happen because someone learns one recipe.
It happens through hundreds of small moments of learning, accountability, encouragement, frustration, practice, teamwork, and success. That’s what professional skills development looks like when you put it into practice. And that’s what makes the GO Cook kitchen such a powerful classroom.
Somewhere in Richmond right now is a future cook, teammate, leader, or hospitality professional who may simply need the right opportunity—and the right people around them—to take that first step.
Maybe they’re your students. Your employee. Your mentee. Your friend. Your son or daughter. Or maybe they’re you!
GO Cook Richmond Begins October 19
If you’re ready to build real professional skills, explore a culinary career, and find out what you’re capable of, take the first step.
If you’re a parent, teacher, counselor, mentor, employer, or community partner who knows someone ready for that opportunity, help them take it.
