The role of a sous-chef is to be the second in command of a kitchen, to take over the responsibility should the head chef be preoccupied or otherwise indisposed.

Maguran Jacobsen is not unfamiliar with having key roles in the kitchen as she held the position of student-elected executive chef for NMU’s 2024 Hospitality Management events.

She also has held various positions around Marquette with NMU Catering and at Barrel + Beam’s Northwoods Test Kitchen, as well as working in the culinary industry from a young age, she said.

Maguran Jacobson said she first took and passed the written portion of her certification at the end of February, during her last semester at NMU.

Maguran Jacobson cooks in Northern Michigan University’s Hospitality Management kitchen, which she has done countless times throughout her years at NMU. (Photo courtesy of Trixie Maguran Jacobson)

She then would spend multiple sessions in the Hospitality Management kitchen practicing for hours, working and rehearsing the unique rules and steps followed by the ACF for her two-hour-long cooking test.

Eventually, the day came for her to take her certifying test, which she did on May 13 just over a week after graduating from NMU, she said.

“They don’t tell you your score, you never know what score you get but you have to be a 75 or above,” she said. “I didn’t pass.”

A few weeks later, Maguran Jacobson traveled to Wisconsin at Madison Area Technical College and retook the test, more worried about her chances than during the first attempt.

“I didn’t think I would make it. They brought my vegetables out, which is supposed to be a thick square, circle or triangle cut. So they pulled out all of my vegetables and showed me the stacks of unevenly cut vegetables,” Maguran Jacobson said. “They really nailed down on everything and then they were, after 30 minutes of reviewing everything, and they were like ‘You passed.'”

Maguran Jacobson said her next step is to move to the West or East Coast, because the food industry is always ahead there and it would be the next steps in her culinary journey.

“The plan is until next May, I am getting my time to rest,” said Maguran Jacobson, “but I’m also pushing for more volunteer and education time. So now that I am a full board member of ACF, I am helping out with all these events, I am mentoring our new student board members, I am trying to work out other dinners at other establishments…. I am just getting that last time in Marquette before I go.”

Antonio Anderson can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. His email address is aanderson@miningjournal.net.