Culinary School Spotlight: Chaniz Curry

July 26, 2023

By Alicia Chu, Bank of America Student Leader

When asked how the Food Bank of DE culinary program has impacted her life, California native Chaniz Curry answered, “Incredibly. I don’t know anything about the east coast. I don’t have family or friends out here besides my classmates.” An avid traveler, Curry has lived in California, Alaska, and New Jersey, and has even driven cross country from Seattle to New Jersey. “I don’t know where anything is. Google is not enough. So it’s been very eye-opening with the different places that we’ve gone to and the opportunities I’ve come across.”

Curry is one of nine students currently enrolled in the Food Bank of Delaware’s 2023 summer Culinary School. The Food Bank of Delaware’s Culinary Schools – one in Milford and one in Newark – offer a 14-week daytime culinary training program. Student tuition and supplies are paid through grants and generous donations. The training includes 12 weeks of on-site classroom and kitchen instruction, including the opportunity to complete ServSafe ® certification. The final two weeks are dedicated to a two-week paid internship, usually leading to employment in the culinary industry.

For the Culinary School’s midterm, the class was given a challenge: cook a dish with scrapple as the main ingredient. Curry whipped up homemade scrapple ravioli two ways: a fried scrapple ravioli and another ravioli paired with a brown butter sauce. Her innovation and skill won her first prize in the challenge!

What is your signature dish? “I don’t know it’s kind of challenging because I could really make anything, you pass me a recipe and I could make it,” she exclaims, “But one of my favorite things to make now I think is ravioli. You can make it in so many different ways and it is delicious.”

In the future, Curry plans to continue going to school. “I recently got my GED and signed up for college to get my bachelor’s of communications, and I will continue cooking.”