Preparing dishes pans out

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — Lindsay Steer developed an interest in cooking as a necessity while growing up the youngest of three sisters in Cambridge, Neb.

“My mom just didn’t like to cook very much, and we never ate out as kids,” she said. “She just fixed the same six or eight meals, so I just started to learn to cook so I could have something other than spaghetti and tacos.”

Steer’s interest now has grown into a full-time career as an instructor and kitchen manager at the Central Community College-Hastings campus.

After graduating from Republican Valley High School in 1998, Steer enrolled in the culinary arts program at Central to broaden her skills in the kitchen. A year after graduating from the program, a position became available in the department and she was recruited to fill it.

The job has proved more than fulfilling for the single mother of two, she said.

By day, her duties involve sharing professional cooking techniques with young aspiring food preparers.

By night, her extended learning classes reach out to cooks of all ages and abilities.

The daytime classes enable her to use her expertise in the field and her night courses teach down-to-earth recipes for one to four people.

“During the day, we try to teach them more professional cooking,” she said. “Most of them have some experience in cooking at home, so we try to teach them more professional skills as far as culinary arts.

“Students that come right out of high school, most of them have had great successes in their food classes. But batch cooking, or quantity cooking, is much different. They have to work on keeping the food hot for 40 people instead of four, and that’s much harder to do.”

In contrast with the simpler home-cooked recipes of the evening classes, day class meals are typically more formal and complex, calling for such ingredients as fresh herbs, cheeses and creams.

In both instances, the goal is the same: to make the finished masterpiece as appealing as possible.

“We really try to make it an art form,” she said. “Most people eat with their eyes first, so we make that an important aspect of their learning here.”

Steer’s talents in the kitchen have drawn ample attention locally. Her evening class, “Cooking with Wine and Spirits,” has had a waiting list for six straight semesters.

She can also be seen demonstrating recipes on a local television news segment every month or so.

Though she enjoys the work of TV celebrity chefs such as Giada De Laurentiis, she has no desire to be the next Julia Child and host her own television program. Instead, she is perfectly content splitting her time between her courses at Central and her duties as a mother.

“Working at the college has really allowed me to have a good balance in my life,” she said. “As a single mom, there’s not a whole lot of things I’d rather be doing than what I’m doing right here.”