By Chris Cunningham
Lane Community College alumnus Jake Reed, 32, says he loves his job at Koho Bistro, where he prepares meals with international themes, using local ingredients. The job "isn't just about cooking food, but making memories."
His says the classes he completed in Lane's Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management program, from 2009 to 2013, gave him the foundation he needed to succeed in the restaurant industry, from operating a range of kitchen equipment to menu planning and costing.
Reed began working in the restaurant business in San Diego, CA, where his family had moved after living in Oregon for many years. The work—bussing tables, doing dishes and serving customers—whetted his appetite for the fast-paced, creative ways of the culinary world.
Reed decided to relocate to Oregon, because he and his new wife, whom he had known since high school, became pregnant with their first child. He says they preferred the environment of the Pacific Northwest for raising a child. After they returned to Eugene, he worked for five years as a manager at Target, but says, "I missed working in the kitchen."
He had known of Lane's Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management program, and decided to enroll at the college and pursue in earnest a career for which he had already developed a passion.
Reed couldn't believe his good fortune when the culinary school helped place him as an unpaid intern at the west Eugene gourmet eatery in 2012, an experience that "helped me get my foot in the door, and show them that I was serious" about a career in the kitchen.
After completing his internship at the Koho Bistro, Reed accepted a position there as a dishwasher, further demonstrating his talents and industriousness. In 2014 he became the restaurant's sous chef, a dream come true.
He praises Lane's culinary school for being a rigorous and "challenging program," that gave him the confidence "to use his own voice in the kitchen" in close, hot quarters, under extreme pressure.
Up for the challenge, Reed says, "I couldn't be happier."