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At JWU, the College of Food Innovation & Technology (CFIT) is focused on creating a sustainable, innovative and healthy future for food — so it’s no surprise that our alumni are out there making it happen. 

Nine JWU alumni serve on the culinary board of , a company dedicated to producing high-quality seafood with sustainable, eco-friendly innovation. Forever Oceans has moved fish production further offshore into deep water using a high-tech solution that provides nutrition in a seawater environment. And because they are farmed fish, the company has more control over the quality of the product.

Enter the culinary board members, who are developing recipes with this high-quality fish. Recently, board members who live in the Charlotte area met at Swanson-Girard & Associates, a commercial foodservice equipment company that also houses The LAB, a culinary studio and test kitchen. Using Kahala, an Amberjack fish raised on a commercial scale off the coast of Panama, they are continuing to hone recipes and create videos for Forever Oceans blog, social media and more. 

In addition to JWU alumni on the board, alum Amanda Messick ’10 serves as a customer and integrated marketing specialist with Forever Oceans. She believes adding JWU alumni to the board is a wonderful thing. “We know their background — I have it! I’m proud of my JWU degree. As a company, we’re bringing them on. With our level of training, we have that reputation. It’s awesome to have JWU represented on our board.”

Jamie Bostian ’05, ’07 is the executive chef for The Pines at Davidson, an upscale continuing care retirement community. His time as a Forever Oceans board member has afforded him opportunities to network with other chefs at the top of their game. “It’s so important to get outside of your kitchen, otherwise you’ll get stale,” Bostian says. “I’m working with new products and it’s cutting-edge. I can continue to reinvent myself.”

At The LAB, Bostian created two Kahala recipes (an appetizer and entrée) and says he is thrilled to work on the front line and help bring a product to market. To this day, he says he still relies on his JWU education. “I still have my culinary fundamentals book. I reference it, especially for new staff at The Pines. It helps me train them. At JWU, I took advantage of the extra help the instructors offered before or after classes, like knife skills. As a student, I talked to the older students and the teaching assistants. I took advantage of all the knowledge and experience in that one building!” 

Messick also works in front of and behind the camera, too, and says she also thinks back to JWU often. “I still have all my books and go back to some of the recipes. I also reference my books for techniques.” She laughs and adds, “I remember in my book I had to check off the Tournée cut (a French knife technique). It was hard! We had to do it at least once. I don’t know how many potatoes I went through!” 

As CFIT continues to educate the next generation of food innovators, we’re proud to know our alumni are donating their time and expertise to help nourish the world by revolutionizing seafood for our health and our oceans. 

Forever Oceans Culinary Review Board JWU alumni:

Jamie Bostian ’05, ‘07
Aaron Deal ’05
Richard Gruica ’95 
Bryan Hudson ’05
William Mouchet ’12
Kaitlin Payne ’11 
Robert Reinken ’08
Matthew Vaquez ’05
Jay Ziobrowski ’01

Learn more about CFIT