Citizen Teacher Melissa Patel

Melissa Patel teamed up with her colleagues from the Union Square Hospitality Group to turn New York apprentices into chefs, caterers and event planners in the “Our Restaurant” apprenticeship. Students got behind-the-scenes tours of restaurants around New York City and even learned how to perfect their own recipes. At the mock opening of their tropical themed restaurant called “Paradise”, apprentices took on the roles of hosts, chefs, and servers while they worked the busy crowd of parents, teachers, and Citizen Schools community serving pork tacos, jerk chicken salad, tropical breeze fruit punch and coconut tapioca pudding.