September 1, 2013 was a very busy day at First Gourmet Academy. Chef Scott Boswell together with his Sous Chef Michael Detzel and Anne Fuglei visited our facilities. Scott and his team are looking for graduates from First Gourmet Academy’s Diploma program. They will be hired for a one-year internship program at his restaurants in Louisiana, USA.
Scott is and always will be a chef cooking global cuisines. He travels around the world like a culinary nomad, stepping on the stage of world-renowned kitchens to enhance his own brand of culinary artistry. He started his gustatory studies as a child entering cooking contests and experimenting with recipes. He attended The Culinary Institute of America, graduated with honors, and continued training in various kitchens, including under New Orleans Chef Kevin Graham at the Windsor Court Hotel’s Grill Room. He then embarked on his first culinary tour that led him to the Michelin-starred kitchen of Chef Pascal Morel of L’Abbaye de Ste Croix in Salon de Provence, France. He had a pivotal experience in Florence, Italy while working at Michelin two-starred Enoteca Pinchiorri where he befriended future “Iron Chef Italian” Masahiko Kobe.
He returned to the US and became executive chef and partner at the Rainbow Ranch Lodge in Montana. Not long after, he returned to New Orleans and opened Stella! in the French Quarter in 2001. He was named a StarChefs.com New Orleans Rising Star Chef in 2003.
He continued to make time to learn new skills, techniques and ingredients. In 2003, he traveled to Tokyo at the behest of Chef Kobe to work at his restaurant Massa. The experience was eye-opening, showing him the beauty of simple and pure flavors.
His international stages and culinary enlightenment continued in the kitchens of “Iron Chef French” Hiroyuki Sakai in 2004 and then “Iron Chef Chinese” Chin Kenichi. Within the US borders he’s staged with nearly a dozen of the country’s top chefs, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Masaharu Morimoto, Eric Ziebold, Grant Achatz, Charlie Trotter, Jonathan Benno, Daniel Boulud and Sam Mason.
The chef’s high-volume, casual all-day restaurant Stanley opened unofficially in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and left Stella! in shambles. Stanley’s low price points and American comfort food was met with immediate success, and allowed him the means to resuscitate Stella!. Now with two successful restaurants to his name, he continues his research of cuisine in his kitchens and in kitchens across the globe. He and his restaurants are very successful and several expansion plans are in the pipeline.
It is thanks to this success that Chef Boswell came to First Gourmet Academy in order to find graduates from our Diploma program. Over the coming years, he is actually in need of many more students from First Gourmet Academy.
This top culinary school has teamed up with Career Internship Abroad to assist in this venture. It is a company managed by Atty. Rene Bueno that assists students from First Gourmet Academy as well as other schools in achieving their dream of work and studies abroad.
During the event held last September 1, 2013, the students of First Gourmet Academy presented their passion and talent when it came to cooking. They were asked to cook one dish and have it judged by Chef Boswell and his team. Also, Mats Loo and Thomas Paul from First Gourmet Academy were around to show support to the students.
“Of course we need to be here in order to assist our students on a day like this,” Thomas mentions. “Not only that, both me and Mats are honored to have a celebrity chef like Scott Boswell in our kitchen.”
The event turned out to be a success. Chef Boswell and his teamed where impressed, not only with the facilities and equipment, but also the many years of experience shared by instructors of First Gourmet Academy to students. Also, our students managed to give the visiting team from America a good first impression. We hope that this event will be repeated next year, so that future students of First Gourmet Academy will also be able to work in the US. This is an opportunity for our students and alumni to showcase their talent abroad and to make their culinary dreams come true.
