Culinary portfolio
Culinary Arts Student, Great Lakes Culinary Institute at Northwestern Michigan College
Line Cook, Amical, Traverse City, Michigan. Apps station, salads when needed.
Internship
I completed my summer 2026 internship at Amical, a French fine dining restaurant in Traverse City, Michigan. My main station was apps, and I worked salads when needed. Over the summer I was trained on tasks that normally belong to the chef and sous chef and started learning saute.
My first plates at Amical were four dollar happy hour bites. The bacon wrapped date came off the apps station. The duck drumette came off salads. Neither is on the menu anymore. Apps runs the grill, puts the seasonal walleye or halibut in the oven, makes the French onion soup, and plates dishes that come from both saute and apps. Salads makes salads, desserts, and the appetizers that work better from that station.
The tomato toast came off salads. The pork was cooked on saute and plated by me on apps.
These plates came on at the start of September. The tomato tart and the tuna came off salads. The scallop was cooked on saute and plated by me on apps.
The chef or sous chef normally writes the prep list for the morning prep cooks. I was shown how to do it and started writing it myself.
I also learned to process whole halibut into portions and to scrape tuna to reduce waste. Near the end of the summer I began unofficial training on saute, searing scallops and crab cakes.
Competition
In 2025 I competed in the Michigan ProStart Culinary Competition at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Battle Creek. My team placed fifth in the state.
Experience
Traverse City, Michigan. Apps and salads stations.
Calhoun Area Career Center. Assisted with classroom and kitchen management for Michigan Youth Challenge Academy cadets, graded assignments, and gave feedback.
Battle Creek, Michigan. Started as a dishwasher in October 2024 and was promoted to the cold station in April 2025. Salads, appetizers, soups, and desserts.
Battle Creek, Michigan. Grill and fryer.
About
I grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan. My parents were not great cooks, and I was a picky eater because of it. Then my older brother got a job as a cook at an assisted living home and made me a steak. I usually skipped steak because I was used to it overcooked, dry, and chewy. His was the best thing I had eaten up to that point. That was when I got interested in cooking.
I took a job at Culver's to learn speed, basic cooking, and cleanliness. I got close with the managers there and started taking on more responsibility. When I left, I wanted real restaurant experience before culinary school. Chef Steven Deal, my instructor in my high school culinary class, got me a job at Kitchen Proper. I worked my way out of the dish pit and onto the pantry station, garde manger. While I was there, Chef Deal hired me as his assistant for the MYCA afterschool culinary class.
I left Kitchen Proper to move to Traverse City and start at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute. Chef Thomas Kelly, who taught my Professional Cookery class and was head prep cook at Amical, gave me the reference that got me in the door there. Amical is where I did my internship and where I am cooking now.
I like cooking and I like running things. I want to own a catering business, because catering is both.
Education
Great Lakes Culinary Institute at Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, Michigan.
Battle Creek, Michigan. Culinary Arts and Hospitality Program at the Calhoun Area Career Center, instructor Chef Steven Deal.
Contact