Cheryl Smith
reporter@greenepublishing.com
The Madison County High School (MCHS) Culinary Arts Classroom was a vision of colored eggs made from sugar that students have been working on. The classes has been cooking up some scrumptious food thanks to a new addition to MCHS, Mona Kelley. She previously taught culinary arts at River Oak Technical College in Suwannee County, where she was teacher of the year before coming to MCHS.
Four different Culinary Arts classes are offered at the high school. Each student begins with Culinary I and progresses through the program. In the Culinary I class, students are working through the text book curriculum and learning basic skills of cooking. They also learn safety skills, how to arrange table settings, and how to plate food before they step in the kitchen.
In the Culinary II class, students continue working in the book, but are given time in the lab with hands on opportunities to begin basic cooking. Basic measurement and understanding the importance of following recipes and directions are taught before progressing to hands on cooking of basic recipes such as baking cookies. Culinary II students have participated in feeding staff and board members by helping set tables and becoming the wait staff.
In the Culinary III and Culinary IV classes, students have finished their book work and are able to learn more advanced lab (cooking) skills. The students in all of the classes are given the task of determining how much food costs to make and how much it should be sold for. For example, they will learn what a slice of pizza costs by itemizing the cost of each ingredient used and dividing it by how many pieces of pizza it is sliced into. The students are learning that food markup is cost of ingredients, divided by how many pieces of pizza, multiplied by .33 (todays industry mark up) to determine what the slice of pizza should be sold for if they were in business and trying to make a profit.
These students have learned how to cater an event by feeding some of the staff from the school board as one of their projects. Students in the Culinary I class helped with setting the tables. Students in the Culinary II class helped with setting tables and were also part of the wait staff. The students from the Culinary IV class prepared honey glazed chicken, fried rice, green beans and home made key lime pie.
This week, students from the Culinary IV class were preparing chicken alfredo from pasta they made from scratch. Orders were taken in advance for teachers and staff that wanted to purchase a meal. The money from selling the meals to staff helps to cover the cost of the food.
The students in all of the culinary classes are getting exposure to a career choice they may not have considered before attending Ms. Kelley's class. “Learning the joy of cooking and baking for many students who have never had this experience before is what makes it all worthwhile,” said Kelley.
She said she does not feel like a teacher, but more like a trainer. She wants to train students to be future chefs and feels that food service offers opportunities for anyone at every level.