Chef and Johnson and Wales University professor Quientina Stewart sees two ways of making it in the culinary industry: you could seek a formal education, or take a job in a kitchen, hoping you’ll learn the skills you need for a successful career. The former is expensive, and unattainable for many. The latter option is a gamble, dependent on whether the person who hires you is willing and able to mentor you and foster an on-the-job education.

“It kind of drives me a little bit crazy — a lot bit crazy — that you have one or two choices now,” Stewart says. “It’s either you go to college if you want to learn how to cook, or you don’t and you roll the dice.”

In a thesis she wrote several years ago, Stewart came up with an option for those who want something more formal than learning as they go, but is more accessible than college tuition. Her idea was a cooking school geared towards both home cooks and professionals who needed to learn specific skills to advance their careers. The idea ruminated in her mind until the Covid-19 pandemic hit, giving her time to think through what the business might look like. She slowly began taking steps toward that vision.

“To keep my mind from wandering to too many places, I started working on it little by little — a little paint, upgraded some appliances, and I started working with a great marketing manager,” Stewart says. “I never thought I would be at this point, but I actually have a studio in my kitchen.”

The Mise en Place Collective was born. Tickets are on sale now for cooking classes in July, with sessions centered on grilling, brunch, and puff pastry for $30 per class. Professional cooks can also book individual classes for one-on-one instruction on skills they’d like to master, and restaurant owners can book group sessions with the Johnson & Wales professor that are catered to their needs. Stewart teaches regularly in pastry and baking arts, but has experience working and teaching in both sweet and savory cooking.

While she’s currently hosting Mise en Place Collective classes from her home studio, a brick-and-mortar location is the next step. There, the “collective” piece of the business will come into play.

“I really like the idea of a collective of people that have like-minded businesses, like-minded resources — just like-minded in general to work together, because if we learned nothing else in the last few years, it’s that when the rubber meets the road, the little person is going to get pushed out 10 times out of 10,” she says. “So how do we work differently? How do we coexist but still, individually, focus on our own businesses? And to me, that means cross-utilizing as much as possible, and space is the first thing.”

She envisions a place where she can teach her classes that also has room for a commissary kitchen — something baker-focused business Sweet Spot Studio has seen success with — as well as a retail destination for those using the space to sell their goods. In her career so far, Stewart says she has worked a wide range of positions that never seemed to make sense before, from retail and restaurants to education. Now, however, it’s become clear that her resume has been putting mise en place, or everything in its place, for her to make this next career step.

“Your first step is getting things in order, and that’s really what the focus of my business will always be: helping people to get things in order, because once you have a clear space, then you can really take off,” she says. “I tell my students all the time, ‘Clear your mind, clear your space.’ And that really makes all the difference.”

Explore Mise en Place Collective’s first cooking class offerings here.

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