Thirty minutes before the doors open for lunch, students of Lower Lake High School’s advanced culinary class pick up the pace. At one station Nakayla Lanonte chops tomatoes with a steady ‘thwack-thwack-thwack.’ At another, Nathan Fielden begins to assemble a tray of sandwiches. In the back, a team sets up the dishwashing station. They pause only when instructor Joe Parker barks out instructions.
“It can be chaotic,” Parker said, “but the kids respond well.”
Since the school remodeled in the summer of 2011, adding commercial kitchen equipment, the program has developed a solid reputation. Some 30 students a year enter Lower Lake’s beginning culinary class. Fourteen move on to the advanced program. Up to five in a year have earned places in the Skills USA competition for aspiring young chefs and two or three graduate to Yuba College’s culinary school and make a career of it.
“The renovation — that made the program leap forward,” Parker acknowledge.
The successes result from hard work. Three days a week the advanced students prepare lunch at the Trojan Cafe, working through every station — from cook to server to dishwasher — in a term. They also prepare take away meals for faculty, staff and community. And then there are catering gigs and appearances at events throughout Lake County.
They become very proficient.
“Mostly I don’t eat lunch at the regular [school] cafe,” said student Kenyon Heenan. “I’d rather eat this.”
The menu can range from taco salad and club sandwiches to chicken marsala, but there are limits. While piecing together sandwiches, Fielden admitted he would rather serve his favorites, steak and shrimp.
Unfortunately, he added, “steak is too expensive.”
Each student learns to work with ingredients they might not favor at home. Lanonte, for example, prefers to keep fish and their potent aroma at a distance. Yet she can handle fish recipes in the classroom/kitchen.
“Last week we made parmesan tilapia,” she said. “My mom loved it.”
Lanonte’s critique?
“I didn’t get it,” she explained. “I had taco salad.”
They enter the program for several reasons. A few profess interest in working as a chef or line cook one day. Others hope to pick up on techniques or learn about food. Many are just interested.
“I don’t know,” was Jessica Underwood’s reason for joining the class. “I really like cooking. And I like to eat.”
Students who emerge from the program experience first hand the curious mix of discipline and creativity necessary in a fast paced restaurant kitchen. As time ticks down toward lunch rush, the crew remains busy and calm. They know the goals for the day and need little in the way of nudging from the instructor.
Parker, a former Marine, insists they learn this level of responsibility early on.
“They know there’s school rules and then there’s Parker’s rules,” he said.
It is worth stopping by their table if a crew from the school happens to be at an event you attend this spring.
Dave Faries can be reached at 900-2016
