A gourmet lunch, recently catered by Redmond High School (RHS) Culinary Arts students, tantalized the taste buds of 40 firefighters from Snohomish County Fire District 26.
The entire class planned and prepared the meal and eight students drove all the way to Gold Bar, on the first Saturday of spring break last month, to serve the firefighters. The spread included herb-crusted, bacon-wrapped pork loin, a baked potato bar, corn-on-the cob, Caesar salad and Black Forest cake.
Obviously pleased, the firefighters gave the teens a signed fire chief’s helmet and asked them to cater their graduation on June 6.
Not every student in the RHS Culinary Arts class wants to become a chef. Some take the semester-long class to earn credit toward graduation and others just see cooking as a good life skill.
Regardless, Heather Chadwick, the new Family and Consumer Science teacher at RHS, tries hard — and apparently, succeeds — to make the class fun, while also providing a glimpse of what it’s like to work in the restaurant business. Students “clock in” with timecards each class session and know they need to jump right in to the day’s tasks, including hands-on food prep at least three times a week. On other days, they study nutrition, review kitchen procedures and present mock cooking shows.
On April 9, the culinary students whipped up Spanish cuisine.
“When we’re not doing an event, we focus on a different country each week — their dining etiquette, the typical spices used in that type of food and so on,” Chadwick explained.
The Spanish feast, to be served buffet-style during the next day’s class, included piquant meatballs, “Patatas Bravas” (potatoes in spicy tomato soup), “Chickpeas and Silverbeet” and rice pudding.
Each student had a job, whether slicing and dicing produce, measuring oils and grains, cooking or cleaning up. The teens hustled and bustled as Frank Sinatra crooned his greatest hits in the background.
Chadwick, who also teaches child psychology at RHS, admitted that the high schoolers would probably choose to listen to hip-hop. But the music’s meant to be relaxing and to reflect what you’d likely hear in an upscale restaurant.
Contrary to the stereotype that high school students live on burgers and fries, the young people in this class clearly have more sophisticated palates.
Seniors Willie Gonia, chopping carrots, and Autumn Thompson, slicing tomatoes, were part of the entourage who took the firefighters’ lunch to Gold Bar and liked having a say in what was prepared. Among their favorite ethnic foods, so far, have been dishes from India and Ireland.
Senior Jason Rodriguez noted, “I made savory crepes with meat for the first time,” as part of this class. “Before, I’d only had crepes with fruit.”
From writing grocery lists to executing a full meal, “even for those who don’t want to go into catering, there’s planning for family dinners like Thanksgiving and Christmas. They learn problem-solving skills,” Chadwick reasoned.
Along with the firefighters’ graduation event in June, the culinary arts students have been asked to cater the CTE (Career and Technical Education) faculty’s dinner in May.
