A bit of the chef life
'I love for food to look beautiful. To see someone make a creative meal is a thrill.'
Editors's Note: This is one of three Culinary Arts Alumni profiles that appear in the Spring 2018 issue of HCC's Alumni Connection magazine.
By RONNI GORDON
"People eat with their eyes first," says Domingo Diaz Jr., a.k.a., "Chef Dino."
That's why, when you're making applesauce, he tells students, put the peeled apples in lemon juice so they don't turn brown. And that's why, when you're making green beans amandine, blanch the beans first for three to four minutes then immediately transfer them to an ice bath and pat them dry "to preserve their green color and crispy texture."
As he learned as a student in HCC's Culinary Arts program, appearance and taste go hand in hand.
"I love for food to look beautiful," he says.
Diaz '12 passes on those lessons now as an adjunct instructor at the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute, where he is teaching a new monthly series of noncredit gourmet cooking classes for home chefs. The applesauce and green beans were accompaniments to the "succulent pork chop with whipped potatoes" entrée that was the focus of his December class, held on the main HCC campus as the finishing touches were put on the Culinary Arts Institute in downtown Holyoke.
"Italian Classics: Back to Naples," his first class in the new facility, was held on a Friday evening in early February in a new, gleaming, stainless steel, state-of-the-art kitchen.
"The layout gives you the true feeling of a restaurant kitchen," he says.
In each of the gourmet cooking classes, a dozen or so participants prepare a meal consisting of four or five dishes, which they eat at the end of the three-hour class or take home as leftovers.
"To see someone make a creative meal is a thrill," he says. "I compare it to a conductor in an orchestra. I'm orchestrating the process, and they're following my lead."
Teaching for his alma mater is a thrill too.
"It makes me proud because I'm giving back to the college, to the community," he says.
In 2011, Diaz, then 48, enrolled at HCC through a federal grant for displaced workers. (After 17 years, he'd been laid off from his job as a photo-processing specialist at The Republican newspaper.) Though changing careers was difficult, being able to study cooking was a dream.
Born in Cleveland, he grew up in Springfield, savoring the comfort food his mother made - shepherd's pie, mashed potatoes, meatloaf.
"A love of cooking has always been in my life," says Diaz, now 53. "I like fine food, but it's expensive to eat out. I've made it my business to cook the things I like."
The HCC Culinary Arts program added to his toolkit with classes on basic sauces and techniques for basting and grilling, sanitation, safety-and the art of patience.
Since graduation, Diaz has worked as a chef at various restaurants, including the former Carpaccio and Blackjack Steakhouse in Springfield.
For many years, even while a student, Diaz has taught noncredit classes in digital photography, Photoshop, and graphic design to adults and children through HCC's Community Services division.
The gourmet cooking series grew from cooking classes Diaz taught to teens and pre-teens as part of HCC's Summer Youth Programs. The classes focused on different types of ethnic cuisine and stressed basics with an upscale, fine-dining focus.
"The parents were so crazy about the food he was having their kids prepare they asked if we would ever consider running classes like that for adults," says Ken White, dean of Community Services. "We said, yes, if we ever had the opportunity, and the new facility now provides us the perfect opportunity."
Classes have been filling fast.
"The demand was there," says Diaz, "and it seemed that everyone wanted to have a little taste of the chef life, and they now can."
At December's class, Chef Dino gave participants tips they could use at home, like how to cook pork chops so they stay juicy: brine ahead, sear on the stove, finish in the oven.
"All our lives we've cooked the pork chops on the grill," said Nancy Logan, of Westfield, who was there with her husband, Mark. "They were pretty dry. That's what I thought a pork chop was."
Not anymore.
PHOTO by CHRIS YURKO: Dino Diaz '12
