LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Jitske Miedema was nominated by her superintendent, Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat.

Woodruff Career and Technical Center, formerly Woodruff High School, was built in 1936, and many lifelong Peorians have fond memories of their alma mater. Upon entering the school cafeteria, they are surprised and delighted to find a room resembling an upscale bistro, complete with dimmed lighting, black table cloths and napkins, twinkle lights adorning strategically placed ficus trees, and soft jazz playing in the background. No longer a high school cafeteria, this is the Warrior Way Café, a project of Peoria Public Schools Culinary Arts program, coordinated by Jitske Miedema. 

Universally known as Chef Jitty, she has transformed the WCTC Culinary Arts program in only four years. Each Thursday during the school year, the 43 Culinary Arts students serve over 200 lunches, both dine-in and carry-out. The lunch menus, which are created, prepared, plated and served by students, display a diverse range of culinary skills and cuisines. They include an appetizer, entreé, side dishes, dessert and beverage, and often follow a holiday or international theme. Widely known as the best $5 lunch in town, the Thursday lunch draws professionals from nearby businesses. Many of the other PPS 26 buildings order lunches for their staff as well. The Warrior Way Café introduces the Peoria community to the other outstanding career and technical programs at WCTC and the outstanding career pathway opportunities PPS offers high school students.  

Dedicated and industrious, Chef Jitty manages her classroom and kitchen with a laid-back style that nonetheless conveys to students the exacting and rigorous professional standards of world-class restaurant kitchens and hospitality management. In addition to their work in the Warrior Way Café, her students receive exemplary prepration for the professional world through exposure to high-pressure culinary competitions. For three years, Chef Jitty’s students have competed in the Illinois Restaurant Association’s Annual Pro-Start competition, held at Chicago’s McCormick Place. Chef Jitty and associate Mark Streamer of Sodexo, begin coaching students two-to-three times a week after school nearly four months prior to the competition. 

Students must pass a 15-minute knife skills test, perform two chicken-butchering tests and a salmon filet test, demonstrate proper mise en place, and participate in a station set-up competition. Students must arrive at Pro-Start with a 20-plus page restaurant business plan and present a ten-minute multi-media marketing plan, followed by a 15-minute question and answer session by judges, including five-star restaurant chefs. Students must also participate in a 20-minute critical thinking test, solving typical restaurant problems such as power outages to demonstrate knowledge of health codes and industry standards. 

Finally, teams of students must prepare a three-course meal within one hour using only two stovetop burners and no electric appliances, such as food processors or blenders. During the entire Pro-Start competition, team coaches must remain completely silent and on the sidelines. Chef Jitty’s superb skills as a culinary coach are apparent as WCTC teams have placed in the top ten at ProStart. Chef Jitty’s students also won the 2017 Illinois Central College (ICC) Culinary Arts Chopped competition and competed against professional chefs from Peoria's top restaurants at a Food Fight fund raising event for Neighborhood House, a local social service agency. 

She and her assistant teachers, Cindy Collins and Kevin Roecker, treat students as professional colleagues, and the respect is reciprocated. This respectful and nurturing atmosphere is passed along to younger students each year, when Culinary Arts students are paired with PPS fifth-grade students for the Sodexo Future Chefs competition. When each school’s fifth-grade winner arrives at the final competition, they are paired with a WCTC Culinary Arts mentor student, who works with them to prepare their entry. The fifth-graders, coached by their high school mentor, spend several hours preparing their entry before judging. 

"Graduates of the WCTC Culinary Arts program have continued their education at prestigious post-secondary culinary and hospitality management programs, including Sullivan University’s National Center for Hospitality Studies, many with scholarships,"  Desmoulin-Kherat said. "Others continue their education at ICC and enter the restaurant industry upon high school graduation. All have been guided to a fulfilling and successful career in the industry by LifeChanger Chef Jitty Miedema."