If you smell a savory aroma inside a local commercial kitchen, you might find that high school students are responsible.
Not only are they feeding others, but they're also feeding their passion for the culinary arts. By 1 p.m., these students know there are 75 confirmed dinner reservations.
On the menu, a flavorful tender beef and pasta dish, salad and dessert. Time ticks by. “We have a little list that we're given when we get here,” says Daytona Breitenestin, 17, a student at Abraham Lincoln High.
“We have a recipe that one group does and then another one [handles a different dish].” We all kind of work with our own stuff. but by the time we get done, we have to have our stuff done and our weight carry, he says.
In small groups, students prep the evening menu.
There’s the boiling pasta that needs to be drained. Some handle the meat, while others prepare the side dishes. Charm Smith, a culinary instructor at Tucker Career and College Center, runs a tight ship.
This kitchen, she says, is an extension of her lab classroom.
“They need to be in the kitchen every day,” Smith says. And for good reasons, as the teacher explains students are required to improve their knife skills; need to learn how to read recipes better; and of course, create dishes.
Three times a week, the teens drive over to Micah House.
They not only meal prep, but take inventory of the pantry which relies on donations.
“I like coming here because it's just another way to help in the community,” says Mackenzie Frush, 17, also an Abraham Lincoln student.
It's [also] just kind of a way to get out of the classroom and not feel like you're at school, she says as she slices apples.
Last fall, Micah House reached out to the career and college center to see if culinary students would be interested in the pilot program.
The initiative launched in January, aiming to give students a hands-on experience, Charm says. To make each lesson realistic, students operate under a deadline.
In two hours, they have to make a snack before the main course, then dinner while also meal prepping for the following day. It’s a big commitment, students say.
But their hands serve as the common ingredient in every meal – because with them, they’re able to make tasty food for the soul.
