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Burke Lindquist has been the Culinary Arts teacher on the Hewes Instructional Heart since March 2022. He was recognized with pancreatic most cancers final fall, however is at the moment cancer-free after a number of rounds of chemotherapy remedy and a significant surgical procedure.
Simply two weeks earlier, Lindquist was instructed he had diabetes, and his main care physician wished one other take a look at his pancreas.
The checks had grow to be routine for the Kennedy native and Culinary Arts instructor on the Hewes Instructional Heart. In 2018, he was recognized with pancreatitis and realized that he had a cyst on the identical giant organ that’s positioned behind the abdomen and which produces digestive enzymes and hormones.
So the newest take a look at was particularly necessary.
“It was a Saturday,” Lindquist recalled of getting the notification on his telephone. “I learn the take a look at outcome, and it stated ‘2-centimeter mass.’ I’m like, what does that imply? I instructed my dad, and he stated it’s in all probability nothing.”
Lindquist is pictured together with his college students throughout Hewes’ Senior Recognition Ceremony at Chautauqua Establishment.
Lindquist reached out to a basic surgeon pal and requested in regards to the unusual observe in his take a look at outcomes.
“I requested, ‘What does this imply?’ and he responded, ‘It means you’ve gotten a tumor.”
The pancreatic most cancers prognosis was each devastating and grounding. Only a year-and-a-half earlier, Lindquist misplaced his mother, Laurie, to the identical uncommon illness.
Laurie Lindquist had been the longtime postmaster at Chautauqua Establishment and was often known as the “Mayor of Chautauqua.”
“She was the image of well being; she ran or walked 6 miles a day,” Lindquist stated of his mother. “When she retired due to the most cancers, there was a line to greet her. I used to be standing there together with her the entire time. I used to be so happy with her.”
Lindquist is pictured embracing considered one of his college students throughout Hewes’ Senior Recognition Ceremony in June.
A PASSION IS BORN
Lindquist grew up on a dairy farm in Kennedy. He graduated from Randolph Excessive College in 1996 and studied music at Robert Wesleyan School, the place he additionally met his future spouse, Alicia.
Whereas a freshman in school, he acquired work as a cook dinner on the campus diner. It was there, serving typical bar fare, that his ardour for culinary arts first started simmering.
What would grow to be his eventual profession selection definitely shocked some in Lindquist’s life.
“My mother would have by no means guessed I used to be going to get into cooking,” he stated. “After I was 13, I couldn’t cook dinner macaroni and cheese out of a field.”
After graduating from Robert Wesleyan, Lindquist discovered work as a chef on the Opryland Resort in Nashville. There, he labored with two licensed Grasp Cooks, studying to hone his abilities from professionals on the prime of their area.
He estimated he labored 80 to 90 hours every week in these early days.
The Lindquists, now with two younger youngsters in tow, finally moved again to Western New York. As an government chef, he helped open the Seneca Niagara Resort & On line casino round 2006. He was additionally a part of the opening staff at Seneca Allegany Resort & On line casino.
“I began to understand that this was an business that also valued onerous work,” Lindquist stated of his culinary journey. “I grew up on a dairy farm, so I used to be fairly acquainted with onerous work. I simply moved my method up by eating places simply by sheer work ethic.”
He opened his first restaurant, La Familia, at Chautauqua Establishment. His second enterprise, the Chop Home on Important positioned in downtown Jamestown, opened in December 2019.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Lindquist closed La Familia to focus his efforts on the upscale steakhouse.
KITCHEN TO CLASSROOM
In 2021, Lindquist realized Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES was in want of a Profession & Technical Training teacher for its Culinary Arts program. He felt the time was proper to make a major profession change, noting that his three youngsters grew up with him spending most of his time inside a restaurant.
He had an concept of what being a instructor would entail; his spouse has been a instructor for greater than 20 years.
“In a method, I’ve been instructing my complete life being in culinary,” he stated. “In eating places, you don’t at all times get these with probably the most expertise. I’ll take a dishwasher in the event that they need to work onerous and we will train them to be a cook dinner.”
Lindquist grew to become an teacher in March 2022.
College students affectionately name him Chef Burke within the classroom, however he’s additionally recognized across the halls at Hewes because the singing chef — a nod to his diploma in music.
These enrolled within the CTE program study important meals service and hospitality business elements. Incoming juniors begin with the fundamentals of security and sanitation earlier than moving into the kitchen. Of their first yr, college students additionally study to grasp easy slicing strategies and primary proteins.
“We get into the speculation first,” Lindquist stated. “We study what’s in an egg. One of many first issues we train is the egg. Then we go into the kitchen.”
He preaches “respect and accountability” and makes it a degree to attach with every pupil.
“I inform my youngsters that 85% of jobs on this life are exhibiting up, being on time or early, staying late when wanted, and dealing onerous,” he stated.
Lindquist admits he struggled emotionally upon studying of his most cancers prognosis final fall. He began chemotherapy remedy the primary week of November, and this winter, he underwent main surgical procedure through which his pancreas, spleen, gall bladder, and duodenum have been eliminated together with parts of his abdomen and intestines.
For the reason that surgical procedure, he’s gone by a number of extra rounds of chemotherapy.
“This has been one of many hardest years of my life, personally,” Lindquist stated.
Perpetually pained by the lack of his mother, Lindquist acknowledged he acquired fortunate. His most cancers was discovered earlier than it unfold, uncommon for these inflicted with the illness.
“This yr has been emotionally robust for me,” Lindquist stated. “I’m scuffling with all of these things. However, God keen, I’m cancer-free proper now. I had my final chemo remedy two weeks in the past, and the scans are fully clear.”
This previous spring, a profit brunch was held to assist the household with medical payments. A handful of Lindquist’s college students even helped cook dinner meals for the fundraiser.
Their assist was particularly touching.
“If it weren’t for my college students, actually, it wouldn’t have made me work as onerous as I did,” he stated.
He additionally acknowledged his fellow lecturers and employees at Hewes. He stated they typically “stepped in and helped me” in moments when he felt exhausted and wanted to take a break.
He praised the likes of Nicole Terry, Jordin Smith, Michelle Sterns, Frances Michalak, Matthew Bendig, Kerry Crist, Brenda Johnson, and Kara Rusco, amongst different instructors and assist employees.
He additionally acknowledged Hewes Principal Paul Mihalko, who he stated has been extraordinarily supportive in his quick instructing profession.
Mihalko alluded to Lindquist’s uncanny means to attach with college students, an attribute evident by the variety of members enrolled in Culinary Arts at Hewes. He stated Lindquist’s wealth of business data and down-to-earth character have bolstered the favored program.
“He’s been an asset. He simply brings this positivity to the middle,” Mihalko stated. “He has helped to actually flip that program round.”
His means to attach with college students was abundantly clear throughout Hewes’ Senior Recognition Ceremony held in June at Chautauqua Establishment. Many sought a hug earlier than strolling the stage.
Lindquist has been studying extra about pancreatic most cancers and the way inherited gene modifications could also be handed from guardian to youngster. He and his mother each underwent genetic testing after they obtained their diagnoses, however nonetheless, he believes pancreatic most cancers typically is “woefully under-studied.”
To assist others, Lindquist is within the technique of beginning a charity that may fund travels across the nation to arrange profit meals for pancreatic most cancers sufferers. He desires to call the charity “Tripple L” in reminiscence of his mother.
“I need to use my skills to assist individuals going by this,” he stated.
Lindquist and his spouse have three youngsters, Megan, Ben, and Zach. He at the moment lives in Kennedy not removed from the place he grew up.
Profession and Technical Training programming usually serves college students of their junior and senior years of highschool, with college students deciding on the choice to attend an E2CCB CTE program of their sophomore yr.
For extra info, go to e2ccb.org.
