mike herbert

Professional Chef Cooks for Books at Annandale School

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 5/17/07) chef herbert

What do you get when you blend a talented parishioner, a dash of choice ingredients and a pinch of aspiring chefs? A creative and fresh way to raise funds for St. Ambrose School in Annandale — and a soupcon of fun.
During the last four winters, Mike Herbert, a professional chef and culinary teacher at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) in Annandale and parishioner of St. Ambrose Parish, has used his cooking background to raise money for the school that, at one time or another, all four of his children attended.
Using his culinary background, which encompasses everything from executive chef to food and beverage director, the Baltimore native charged $100 per person to teach his fellow St. Ambrose parishioners and school parents the ins and outs of Northern Italian, Mediterranean, Chinese and Cajun/Creole cuisine.
“We’re not just learning recipes, we’re learning how to cook,” Herbert said. “They’re learning how to sauté. I teach them how to make stock. I teach them everything from how to bone a chicken to little tips here and there.”
Herbert thought about fund-raising cooking classes while teaching adult education cooking classes for Fairfax and Arlington Counties. When he approached former St. Ambrose Principal Virginia Connell about the fund-raiser, the school “jumped on that right away,” Herbert said.
Herbert’s aspirations of becoming a professional chef didn’t materialize until after he arned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Baltimore in Maryland. When he was 24, he coached an all-women’s football team and boasted about being a great cook even though he’d never cooked a day in his life. When the team challenged him to make dinner, he took it on.
“I got a Chinese cookbook and I made something, followed everything to the letter and said, ‘hey, that was fun,’” Herbert said. “I started cooking more and more. One day I just said ‘you know, I want to do this as a career.’”
Herbert’s culinary formation included a two-year associate of arts degree in culinary from the Baltimore International Culinary Arts Institute, where he met his wife, Trixie. After years working in a variety of food and beverage roles, Herbert is now employed full time at the university in a flexible job that he said is “more conducive to family life.”
“I get a big kick out of teaching,” Herbert said. “It’s very rewarding.”
So rewarding that he expanded his student base from NOVA down the road to his parish.
Trish Konczal, a St. Ambrose parent whose husband is from Louisiana, took the Cajun/Creole cooking class and learned how to make shrimp jambalaya, barbecue shrimp and andouille sausage gumbo, all of which she since has duplicated at home. She appreciated learning how to cook the food that her husband grew up eating.
“It was terrific,” she said. “I can learn how to cook and I can benefit the school that my children go to.”
Konczal said Herbert was very informative in a hands-on manner. He taught the class how to sharpen knives properly, to make chicken stock and to season a cast iron skillet.
“He knew what he was doing,” she said.
Herbert’s contribution to the school was a unique way to blend his time and talent, said Joanne Yates, principal of St. Ambrose School.
“We have volunteer criteria where parents give a certain amount of hours,” she said. “This was his way of giving not only his time, but financially.”
The money raised through the cooking classes goes straight to academic enhancements at the school for things that aren’t on budget line items, Yates said.
She added that the classes also serve as a “great community builder” by bringing together not only parents of St. Ambrose students, but parishioners. Potential students from both communities continuously ask what’s on the menu for the upcoming year’s class.
“We continuously look for ways to be a community and this has been a great way to do that,” Yates said.
Herbert is happy to have helped.
“The school’s been very good to us,” Herbert said. “We appreciate what they’ve done with our kids and it’s just a way of giving back. God’s given me this talent for cooking and I’d just like to share it.”

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.