Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DUMFRIES, Va. (AP) — Jonathan Ferreira is frantic. The 16-year-old Potomac High School junior has just two hours to finish a batch of cupcakes in a Veterans Day theme and was hoping to top them with marshmallow fondant. The problem? The marshmallows are red, white and blue.
"We don't want a reddish, purplish color for our fondant," he says, rapping his knuckles against a metal table with a grimace.
Jonathan is one of approximately 160 students in the culinary arts program at Potomac High School in Dumfries, a class that has exploded in popularity since it began three years ago. The high school has built an industrial-size kitchen with many of the amenities and gadgets you would find in the back of an actual restaurant. Since only two of the 13 high schools in Prince William County offer culinary arts, students from several other high schools bus in to take the classes.
The program is one of several of Prince William County's Career and Technical Education offerings, courses that aim to equip students with skills that will allow them to enter the workforce immediately after high school, whether or not they plan to attend college.
Jonathan, like a handful of other students in the class, wants to work in the restaurant industry as a chef. Others aspire to the nation's top culinary schools — the Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University.
And others nurture dreams that have little to do with food: to be psychologists and pediatricians, to play basketball in college. Last year, the program graduated its first class of seniors and just one of them went to culinary school.
Chef Dorothy Bozza, who teaches culinary arts at Potomac, said she hopes her students will have a leg up if they ever apply for a job in the restaurant industry, even if they're just working part time.
Students learn about food safety and sanitation and take the National Restaurant Association's ServSafe exam. If they pass, they'll get a ServSafe certificate, which Bozza said can make an impression with employers in the restaurant industry. They learn how to be line cooks, expeditors and servers.
"The main objective to our program is to get them into the workforce, to give them workplace readiness skills because they will always have a job," she said. "Even if they want to be a lawyer or a doctor or something else ... they'll be able to work in the food service industry."
One student, Jocelyn Cox, said the classes helped her get a job at a local restaurant, where she works three days a week as a hostess and expeditor. She puts her tips in a savings account for college.
Students also learn about nutrition and how to quickly prepare nutritious meals, an important lesson in an era of increasing concerns about childhood obesity.
But it's also a discreet way to teach subjects typically found in textbooks: Students explore the chemistry involved in baking. They have to learn to read recipes and scale them up, which — as any home cook who's ever prepared meals for a large group knows — can involve complex arithmetic.
It's all done in a setting that is unlike other classes. Students do some book work, but most class time is spent prepping and cooking in the kitchen.
Breanna Neal, 17, was part of a team preparing bacon-topped chocolate cupcakes for the challenge Nov. 6. Asked what her favorite high school class is, Breanna asked: "Can I count this as a class?" She pointed out that she'll carry her newfound skills with her if she ever has a family. "It's a life lesson for the long run."
For Jonathan, it's by far and away his favorite class, and it's motivated him to do well in other subjects. He wants to get good grades so he can eventually get into culinary school. Like other students, Jonathan's interest in the class was sparked by food programs on television, but his enthusiasm for it has grown tremendously. On Nov. 6, his cupcake — a French toast-flavored cake topped with buttercream, sprinkles and coconut — won the class challenge.
"Some people get a thrill from driving too fast," he said. "I get it from cooking."
___
Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
