Once a month, the culinary room turns into a student-run restaurant called Patriot Cafe, with menus and servers, exclusively for the facility and staff. The tables get filled to the brim with teachers that RSVP beforehand. With only 50 seats and over 90 teachers, and only 30 minutes to pull it off, it can be intense for the students.
“Everyone has their own thing to do, so it feels like a real restaurant, but it can be a little tense,” Alan Salgado,12, said. Salgado is in Advanced Culinary and has worked at 8 Patriot Cafes.
Students handled everything when it comes to Patriot Cafe, cooking, serving staff, running the food and dishwashing after the event. The morning of, the culinary students in the morning classes before lunch start making the food and drinks, prepping ingredients and setting up their stations like they would in a professional kitchen. The food served spans a wide variety, from some months serving Asian cuisine and Italian dishes, to more familiar ones like hamburgers and fries. Once the food is all ready to be severed, the students start falling into their positions. The servers start changing into their uniforms, checking their sections and reviewing the menu, while the chefs are starting to plate the food. As staff eagerly wait outside, students serve the drinks, while the students inside the culinary room put their final touches on their plates, then they are ready to be run out to tables.
Once the staff finishes their meal, they stay seated at the table waiting for dessert, and even after then. Teachers take this time to stay with their co workers and enjoy each other’s company, catching up outside of department meetings and classrooms. The dining room stays lively as conversations stretch past the last bite.
“My class is so tucked away so I enjoy getting to spend time with teachers I never see often,” Johan Mandel, Band and Music Director, said.
Patriot Cafe is not only for sitting and enjoying a meal, but for staff to connect and spend a lunch somewhere else then their classroom or teachers lounge. It gives teachers a break from grading and prep, and a chance to be served by the students they usually teach. As well as the students learning culinary skills that they are able to apply later in life, they’re also learning communication, timing, and teamwork under real pressure.
Many staff come for the food, but they also come for another reason, encouraging their students. Patrick Inouye, U.S history teacher, has been to every patriot cafe that has happened for all 5 years he has been teaching here. For him, it’s less about the menu and more about supporting the program.
“I continue to go because it lets me see my students in different environments, and lets me encourage them somewhere other than the classroom,” Inouye said.
The students also enjoy being able to cook for their teachers, Yareli Martinez, 11, has been doing Patriot Cafe for two years and still enjoys being able to give back to her teachers.
“No one really thinks that the teachers care but many have told me that it means a lot to them and that’s the best part for me,” Martinez said.
When the last desert gets packed up and the last group of teachers leaves, the students start cleaning up. Dishes get washed, tables get sanitized and put away, and the students pack up the leftovers for themselves. All the tables are gone, and all the dishes are put away, and the concrete campana that had shaded the tables is empty underneath.
“Even if you have been before it is still worth it to see them pursuing their passions and being able to flex on my instagram about my students,” Inouey said.
