Zoe Levitan, 2025

Spring Break at JWU: Student Experiences

Sunday 

We arrived in Providence on Sunday afternoon and started our week with a walk around the coastal town before heading to Providence for dinner. Dinner was at Mokban Korean Bistro – my first time trying Korean food to kick off a week of culinary exploration. 

Monday 

We were warmly met by Dean Evans, whom we joined for lunch in JWU’s student-run restaurant, where Global a la Carte students served a delicious three course meal of black bean soup, squash stew, and a frozen matcha panna cotta. The students are taught French-style service, and I gained so much respect for the details and precision that go into running a restaurant. 

Stomachs full, we headed over to Chef Stacy Mirebella’s Designing Healthy Desserts class, where the topic of the week was fats. For that week’s experiment, my team took on the (basically impossible) task of making a pie crust using vegetable oil. We also enjoyed watching students make homemade ice cream. That evening, we dined with Dean Evans at Mills Tavern in Providence, which was a real treat.

Tuesday 

We started our day in Chef Kelly Fernandes’ Regenerative Foodways class, where we prepared lunch from scratch alongside students. The dishes were inspired by Latin American cuisine: chicken and rice stuffed in a banana leaf, beef tongue, fish stew, beef empanadas, jicama salad, and my personal favorite — walnut-stuffed peppers. 

In the afternoon, we toured JWU’s Culinary Museum, home to models of historic stoves and kitchens, ancient cookbooks, and even one of the world’s few Mr. Potato Heads

Later, we joined Chef Jeff Alexander’s Artisan Breads class where we worked with the students to make brioche. My team made a lemon curd brioche topped with candied lemon rind which was absolutely delicious. We also learned how to shape baguettes. After that, dinner prepared by the Global a la Carte students featured a bread basket of our very own baguettes!

Wednesday 

In Chef Richard Miscovich’s Ancient Grains & Hearth Breads class, we learned how to shape and score sourdough boules, and also disucssed the science behind maintaining a sourdough starter. 

Later, we hosted a “Demystifying Grad School” session with undergrads and wrapped up with Professor Parisi’s Exploring Cheese class, where we learned how to pair cheese with wines – one of the many highlights of the week.

Thursday 

Our final day began with a New World vs. Old World Wines class with Professor DeMarchena. We used an aroma kit to learn how to identify notes in wines and then applied it to a selection of wines from around the world in a guided wine tasing (at 9am!). We also had the opportunity to explore how wine interacts with different flavors like savory and sweet, the perfect complement to the Exploring Cheese class we took the day prior.

Lunch was a buffet prepared by the Corporate Concepts students. Standout dishes included duck soba noodles and meatballs over creamy polenta. 

We ended the week at JWU’s weekly bake sale, where all the week’s pastries, chocolates, and breads were sold at cost for a final round of treats before heading home. 

 

 

I left JWU inspired — not only in the kitchen, but in the classroom. At the Friedman School, we approach food through a nutrition-centered lens, focused on science, public health, and policy. But through the classes, conversations, and hands-on experiences at JWU, I experienced the 

emotional, cultural, and artistic side of food. The students and chefs weren’t just cooking — they were innovating, storytelling, and reimagining food with deliberation to develop delicious yet meaningful dishes. For people to eat healthier, the food must taste good. Thus, bridging the gap between nutrition and culinary and pastry arts is vital to shaping a more healthful and sustainable food system.