When Joana Romero Cupul and Odin Peter-Raboff decided to open a food truck named Dishii in Fairbanks, they signed up for classes at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Culinary and Hospitality Program. They never dreamed they would end up earning some credits for their degree by studying in Florence, Italy.
Thanks to a new partnership, facilitated by Chef Sean Walklin, that is where the couple is right now. A third UAF culinary/hospitality student will soon join them.
They are attending Apicius International School of Hospitality. This is the third semester of their two-year journey toward an associate degree.
Walklin studied there himself for a year and thought he would like to share that whole experience with his own students.
“I was born in Fairbanks and I grew up here,” he said. “Studying abroad was an incredible experience for me.”
Living somewhere else and connecting with Italian cuisine was an experience he cherishes. He remembers creating dishes that reminded him of home — incredible seafood, the best berries.
“It lined up really well with the food I’d grown up eating,” he said.
When Walklin began teaching at UAF and then became the culinary program chair, he kept thinking about that amazing experience and wondered, “What would it be like if all students had an opportunity to go there?
“Over a couple years I set up a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with the school, went there a couple times and lined things up,” he said. “Right when the pandemic started, we hit pause. It was a few years before we could kind of start talking about it again.
“As part of our associates degree, they can do up to a semester of their coursework in Italy,” Walklin said. “Spend a whole semester there to do classes.”
They can also use financial aid, including scholarships, to pay for their time there.
There is great value in learning from other instructors, Walklin said. Students will learn under different chefs and be exposed to different techniques.
“They will live in one of the best cities in the world and meet people from all over the world,” he said. “It’s an immersive cultural experience. There are people there from 40 different countries.”
“Then they get to take all that stuff they observed and incorporate into our program and share with other students that didn’t get to go.”
The lessons they bring back will enrich UAF’s program, he said. There is no reason why UAF’s Culinary program can’t be on the cutting edge of culinary education, he added.
Dining and Cooking