Pitman High culinary students showcase professional kitchen, cuisine
As the sun set on Pitman High School’s new culinary arts facility Thursday, students passed out trays of bruschetta and bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers, putting their cooking and hosting skills on display.
Turlock Unified School District employees trickled into the open house to sample the dishes and tour the campus’s professional-grade kitchen, where about 140 students take classes.
Teacher Mohini Singh and her students moved into the kitchen, which includes industrial ovens and a walk-in freezer, about two weeks ago after three years of planning. The facility gives students better opportunities to learn how to cook, serve food, host events, order supplies and do kitchen maintenance, Singh said. About half of the students are interested in going into the food business, she said, so the culinary classes are designed to prepare them for the field or daily life.
“I hope that they cook for their families and learn the joy of food,” Singh said. “If anything, they become parents and community members that love cooking.”
Jaiden Reyna, a 17-year-old senior who ran the bacon station, is one of Singh’s students who said going into the restaurant business is his backup plan. Along with his peers, Reyna put the bacon in the oven about two hours before the event and wrapped the strips around jalapenos with cream cheese and dried apricots. In between handing the appetizer platters to servers, Reyna said he enjoys how interactive the lessons are, compared to his other classes.
His sous chef at the station, Jacquie Baker, another 17-year-old senior wearing a white uniform, said she brings the skills and recipes back home. “I made fries at my house and everybody in my family loved them,” she said. “We make a lot of stuff in here that are easy and quick things to do at home.”
Outside the facility, past the table of peach parfaits and cups of tiramisu, Principal Angela Freeman said the previous culinary classroom was a home-style kitchen with conventional ovens. Freeman said the lessons are on a different level from the foods class she took in middle school, which covered baking cookies.
“They are learning about how different flavors go hand in hand with another flavor or with a certain dish, and how to make a main dish and have the appropriate side dishes to go with it,” Freeman said. “They’re learning about tasteful palette, good spices, how to cut and chop and all of those things you learn hands-on in a kitchen.”
District officials are discussing and interested in updating Turlock High School’s cooking classroom, said district spokeswoman Marie Russell. The current kitchen is more than 30 years old, Russell said, but has industrial stoves and ovens. It lacks advanced technology similar to Pitman’s cameras that show live cooking on TV screens, however.
Freeman pointed to the herb garden next to the kitchen, noting how the students are incorporating farm-to-table or farm-to-classroom practices. The culinary students also visit district’s 10-acre farm to see where their cooking ingredients grow, said Laura Brem, the district’s coordinator of applied horticulture and environmental studies. At the farm, Brem said students also learn how growing seasons affect the quality of produce and dishes.
To enroll in the two-period culinary program, Pitman High requires students take a foods class first, which is an introduction to cooking also taught in the new kitchen. Besides recipe research assignments, Singh said she does not assign much homework.
The public can see top student chefs from the program face off April 3 at the Iron Chef Culinary Arts Competition with Turlock High School. The event at the Assyrian-American Civic Club starts at 7 p.m. and costs $20 to attend, with proceeds going to the district’s culinary scholarship program.
