Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 20, 1995 TAG: 9506200085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN HAYWOOD ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LORTON LENGTH: Long
Giving a prison inmate a knife is usually not a good idea, but William E. ``Dad'' Smith does it all the time. He hands them egg beaters, frying pans, measuring cups, eggs, butter and flour, too.
Smith, the White House chef to Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, has transformed a cafeteria-style food preparation course at the District of Columbia's prison in suburban Virginia into a classroom for haute cuisine.
The program gives inmates a marketable trade, a taste of success and the incentive not to return. Between one-third and one-half of the inmates who pull time at Lorton are likely to return. But only one of Smith's alumni is back behind bars; the rest work in restaurants, universities and country clubs.
And his classroom is actually a busy, hands-on laboratory dedicated to gastronomic delights where his pupils readily seek his advice on such dishes as fish, Chicken Marco Polo, rice and strawberry shortcake.
``Hey, Dad, you want us to fillet the fish?'' asked David Covington, aspiring chef and convicted armed robber.
``Not yet, it's too early,'' Smith replied.
Smith is an ex-Navy cooking instructor who will be obeyed. Take food from the kitchen back to a cell, and you're out of his course. He once made an inmate bake a cake six times because he knew the student didn't follow procedures precisely.
``I don't give them any breaks at all. If a guy cannot conform to my standards, I don't need him,'' Smith said. He knows it's his reputation on the line in every dish his students serve.
But those who heed Smith and learn from him have an ally who will vouch for them after they are freed into an often unforgiving job market.
Ex-cons looking for work already have one strike against them, said Lorton prison spokesman Bill Meeks. ``The majority of the time, he is given only one opportunity to prove himself.''
Seifuddin Abdul-Malik, 38, is one of Smith's graduates. Before he became a chef making $30,000 a year at the Georgetown Preparatory School in Rockville, Md., he did a 10-year stretch at Lorton for armed robbery.
``I had no prior work record at all,'' said Abdul-Malik. ``All I knew was crime.''
The school's assistant food and beverage manager, Genevieve Difilippo, said Abdul-Malik can do outstanding work. ``His specialty is Chinese food or Asian cuisine,'' she said.
Many inmates enter Smith's program with a bad attitude. Many quit, but those who stay lose the attitude.
Convicted murderer Edward Frizzell Williams was one of Smith's first students in 1984.
``We stayed with Dad because of what he teaches us - not only the culinary [classes], but he also teaches us about life, how to be responsible men,'' said Williams, who is up for parole in 1997.
``He used to come down here on weekends for no pay to teach us,'' Williams said, adding that Smith has paid for food and books out of his own pocket.
Smith didn't seek the job. He earned twice as much as a country club chef. Now, he said, he prefers it to chatting with Harry Truman in the White House kitchen.
``It's more rewarding, because you can see the fruits of your labor,'' Smith said.
He has about 25 students in each of two classes - one in the morning, the other in the afternoon. He teaches a one-year and a three-year course. There is a two-page waiting list of inmates who want to take the course.
By the end of the three-year program, an inmate has spent 218 hours baking, 300 hours on cake decorating, 708 hours on meat cutting and 318 hours on accounting. They learn French terms for food.
They also learn how to hand a knife to someone: handle first, with the flat part of the blade against your hand. Smith requires inmates to sign out for the knives they use and sign them back in when they are done. The knives are under lock and key when not in use.
Smith says he's not afraid at Lorton. The word is out that any inmate who hurts Smith will be sorry, Smith and Meeks say.
``If I'm here by myself, somebody will come by every 15 minutes or so to check, see if I'm all right,'' Smith said.
The program wouldn't work without donations. The highest annual budget Smith has had is $3,000, compared with the $6,000 it takes for one student to go through a comparable program on the outside. Smith secured the inmates' white chefs' uniforms from Walter Reed Army Hospital. Much of the equipment is donated.
Smith is grooming inmate Daoud Mujahid to take his place. Mujahid watches carefully over the inmates preparing Chicken Marco Polo. Mujahid couldn't boil an egg when a murder conviction sent him to Lorton in 1977.
Smith wants to retire this year and take a long fishing trip with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but he has a list of projects to finish.
The prison kitchen is being renovated. Smith also wants to start a separate cooking program for the district's female inmates. And he wants to start a chef's school on the outside, for unwed mothers, senior citizens and people looking for a new career.
by CNB