There are four different types of culinary courses you can take: baking and pastry, culinary 1, international cuisine, and advanced culinary. These courses teach kids the pathway to becoming chefs or simply learning how to cook. The hands-on course teaches students food preparation, nutrition, and culinary techniques. Every class makes various recipes each week and works together to create these dishes in their own way.
In this class, they were baking a new recipe to spritz cookies. There are a few steps to making spritz cookies, they were easy and fun to make. Before you start a recipe in each culinary class you must tie your hair back and put on a chef jacket or an apron. This prevents your hair from getting into the food or getting your clothes dirty. You must also wash your hands. Every single person in each group is assigned different tasks. Everyone has their roles in the kitchen where some gather the ingredients, mix the ingredients, clean the dishes, and clean the area you worked on.
“Assigning different roles to each student helps them learn every part that comes with cooking in the real world,” said Xavier Montes,12.
Gathering ingredients what you will need is:
- 1 cup unsalted butter(room temp)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temp
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 and ⅓ cup of all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
Optional: sprinkles, food dye
The very first step of creating this recipe is to set the oven to 350 degrees and line two or three baking pans with a baking sheet.
Begin making the dough. In a large bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar on medium speed for about two minutes or until soft. In this step only one person is doing this which would be the ‘head chef’. The ‘assistant chef’ is the person who gathers the ingredients for the recipe. They then add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat on high speed for one minute. On low speed, the flour and salt are mixed in until completely combined and smooth.
Pressing the dough. The next step is to Scrape some of the dough into a cookie press and put it on a decorative plate to whichever shape you desire for your cookie. The class had a box of cookie press templates to choose from. They each had turns picking different shapes and being creative. Then the students began pressing the cookies out onto the baking sheet about two inches apart from each other. Three groups decided to express themselves on these cookies and added colorful food dye.
“I wanted to add pink food dye and colored sprinkles on top to make it look really cute and girly,” said Arianna Mercado,12.
Putting cookies in the oven. Once the class was done decorating these cookies, they then placed the racks into the oven for seven to nine minutes. Once they were done, they took them out, let them cool down for five minutes, and then devoured them.
“They taste just like the crust to a tart, they are airy and light and have a hint of butter,” Montes.
Eight different groups made this recipe in their unique way. As they got through each step, they found ways to connect and make it a good and lively time. At the end of each recipe, you can take as much as you want for yourself and enjoy it with each other and feel proud because of how good it came out and you just learned a new pastry to make.
While the class was making these cookies, I took the time to interview two students as well as the teacher who made it all happen. They expressed their emotions about this class and how much they have enjoyed it. I wanted to get a perspective on the students’ side as well as Mrs. Sovacool’s so we get an in-depth view of how they feel.
The first student that I interviewed was Arianna Mercado. She is super passionate about being in this class. She claimed that her favorite thing about this class was getting to connect with people and making new friends. She chose this class because she loves to bake and try new recipes. Her least favorite thing to do in the kitchen is washing the dishes and cleaning the area. She recommends this class to others because they get to learn new things.
The second student that I interviewed was Xavier Montes. He is very task-oriented and loves to try new recipes. His favorite thing is getting to eat the food at the end because it is like an accomplishment to him for all the work he and his group do. He claims that being in this class is excellent if you are looking forward to having a career in the food industry and preparing you for cooking once you are on your own. He likes being assigned any role while they are cooking because he just loves to be there and contribute to his team in every aspect.
I then interviewed Kristi Sovacool, a culinary teacher.
She has been a culinary teacher for 16 years and claims that her favorite class to teach is the Baking and Pastry class because she loves the things they make. Her favorite unit she has taught was the ice cream unit because she loves ice cream and they made all sorts of flavors like strawberry and mango with tajin. “I have always dreamed of becoming a teacher and when I found out that I could teach culinary I pursued it and never left since,” K Sovacool said.
“ don’t feel afraid to be interested in things you love, do what makes you happy, and don’t care about what others think,” Montes,12.
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