ABOUT US
Experience & Inspiration
Our goals are to provide well-rounded individuals that are prepared to have a positive influence on their families and communities. Many urban students have not graduated from high school; many perform poorly in the basic needed to have a successful career in the industry because they lack fundamental knowledge in Math, English and/or Science. Some are high school dropouts; some left high school to help take care of their family, and many just did not like school, but have a passion for cooking and want a job, need a job. Most jobs in the industry does not require a high school The Academy will specialize in teaching inner city kids and young adults the art of cooking healthy and nutritional foods. This Academy will deal with some of the issues inner city kids face, a after school program, teen parents, incarcerated parents reuniting with family, emancipated teens in transition to young adulthood. The Academy core curriculum is preparing future Chefs and Business Owners, focuses on preparing students for an entry-level position in the industry, or continuing with their post-secondary education, or starting their own business. The Academy will also include a fun after school, and summer camp programs with tours, field trips, and other outside activities, so that the 7, 8, 9…12 year olds that love to cook can learn the basics of kitchen safety and sanitary food preparation.
EXECUTIVE CHEF
Sharon Lee
Chef and Owner, of “The Spot! For Fine Catering Services,” is a graduate of the California Culinary Academy Cordon Bleu program, with a Associate Degree in Occupational Studies. Chef Lee’s passion for cooking began at an early age, as with many great chef’s, in her mother’s kitchen. She continues that passion today working in such world-renowned establishments, as “Restaurant August,” where she expanded her skills in Cajun, Creole, and French cuisine, in no other place than New Orleans, under the tutelage of international award winning Executive Chef, John Besh. Returning home to San Francisco, she help reopened the remodeled “Cliff House,” as a member of their original kitchen staff. Natives of the “Big Easy,” as New Orleans is sometime called love there spicy, highly seasoned foods. While the locals of “Baghdad by the Bay,” as San Francisco is called sometimes, palates are tame more like the French side of New Orleans cuisine, smooth and savory when it comes to good food. Chef Lee has blended both of these culinary styles, spicy, hot with saucy, and savory into The Spot’s unique menu. Currently, she is the Kitchen Manager/Executive Chef at “Mary Elizabeth Inn,” located in San Francisco’s, Nob Hill District,
For four (4) years, Chef Lee passed on her passion for cooking by developing and teaching the Culinary Arts program of John O’Connell Technology High School, in San Francisco’s Mission District. Working with her students Chef Lee, as she was, affectionately known, has taken her catering knowledge into the classroom, while teaching there her students catered over one-hundred (100) events during those four years. Those events included various clients including San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Board of Education, other Schools, non-profit agencies such as the “San Francisco Friends of the Library.” From Christmas Party’s to Business Meeting, the students not only mastered kitchen skills also food safety, sanitation, and preparation, students learned entrepreneurial skills that will prepare them for a job in the Hospitality/Tourism Industry, or becoming entrepreneurs running their own food service businesses. Her program saw several students after graduation from high school continue their culinary education at City College of San Francisco, and the California Culinary Academy.
After having had many conversations with her students and their family members she found that many children, teens, and young adults love to cook and bake; but just needed the opportunity to learn this skill correctly. Chef Lee’s goal is to develop future Chefs of America, by opening the Verline Iris Culinary Academy, in San Francisco, CA. named in honor of her Mother. The School will offer an after school culinary program for kids that love to cook.
BUSINESS MANAGER
Doug Jones
Doug Jones, “The Stop!” Business Manager has over thirty years of business experience will be responsible for managing all aspect of business operations. Mr. Jones began his professional career in Information Technology, after graduating from Grambling University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics; began working for IBM as an associate programmer completing a sixteen-year career as an Advisory System Engineer, Regional and Branch Communication Specialist, for many bay area fortune 500 companies. Given these opportunities, he developed a very keen insight into how successful world-class organizations or run.
This encouraged him to earn an MBA from the University of Phoenix, with an emphasis in Business and Finance. As Deputy Executive Director, for a community base non-profit that distributed recycled computers to under service communities for free generated $500,000 in additional operating funds. As an entrepreneur Mr. Jones founder of “The Shamp Group”, a business-consulting firm developed to provide individualizes business services to small business owners.
My job will be to make sure The Spot! is world-class in everyway from the kitchen to the customer, in all areas of the business.
MISSION STATEMENT
Our mission is to consistently establish an exemplary level of training and education in the fields of Culinary Arts and Hospitality. We strive to enrich and enhance the lives of every young adult we touch.
