Culinary Essentials provides students with knowledge and skills related to commercial and institutional food service establishments. Course topics throughout the year include sanitation and safety procedures, nutrition and dietary guidelines, food preparation, quantity food production, meal planning and preparation.

“I enjoy that when that when they leave here, they will know how to feed themselves and how to hopefully live a healthier lifestyle. It’s just a good, valuable life skill. They will have lots of things in their tool belts to be able to help them,” Family & Consumer Science teacher Kim Powell said. “The budgeting is a really big part of the class too, understanding how much a meal costs. The safety and sanitation, that’s probably my next biggest thing that I stress with the students.”

Students choose to take this course for a variety of reasons.

“[I chose to take this class] because it’s an easy A and I don’t have to pay for lunch and we get to eat good food everyday,” junior Molly Stahl said.

Stahl enjoys making and eating a variety of new dishes.

“My favorite thing [that we have made was] when we made the Orange Julius that was like a smoothie, that was really good,” Stahl said.

By the end of the year, students will have the opportunity to earn their Food Handlers Certification through ServSafe.