Story by Michael Roque | Photo by Tiandra Rathey |
A real chicken sandwich with homemade bread, mixed vegetables and coffee; and for dessert: cookies and cinnamon buns glazed with orange extract and a cream cheese icing. This was the menu for the first teacher lunch last month. Since school began, the culinary arts students have been waiting to prepare food for someone other than themselves.
Robert Cater, the culinary arts teacher, is trying to get his students to be prepared. That’s why they wait until October to begin serving.
“The first nine weeks is training, helping them train for fundraising and be career-ready. The expectation rises as time goes on,” Cater said.
Culinary arts students have been working especially hard and take much confidence in the food that they make.
As Cater said, culinary arts is considered to get harder with time, and most students that just join culinary arts have little experience in cooking. With the preparation in place, they now serve teachers most Thursdays.
“I like the class because we have fun cooking and serving the teachers we enjoy. that makes the teachers happy and that makes us happy,” junior Juan Rodriguez said.
Outside of class, Cater’s cooking club has meetings every Thursday in the culinary arts room, and they are also selling cookies to raise money.
“Everyone needs cooking knowledge no matter what they do in life,” Cater said.