Smells of grilled cheese and fresh bakes fill Ms. Anderson’s room as students learn to cook under the direction of Junie Scott (12) and Joseph Stewart (12). The pair of students devised the idea of a cooking class when prompted to create a project for the Distributive Education Clubs of America, DECA, that would help grow their marketing skills. 

“I originally came up with the idea for the [cooking] lessons at the beginning of the year when we were assigned our category of Hospitality and Tourism [for a DECA project,]” Scott said. “We had everything confirmed with the administration before we marketed the class, and then we made posters and put them up on our social media and around the school. We also planned out meals that were simple to make but delicious by running surveys in our second-period marketing class.”

Once they began preparing the class, Scott and Stewart thought a four-day class for four food courses would be overwhelming. The pair thought up an introductory class, allowing students to get to know each other and acclimate.

“We decided to have five days because it allowed more people to come to the class and be able to participate,” Stewart said. “We always planned to do four meals, but the fifth day seemed like a good idea to ensure no one was overwhelmed. The first day was just a check-in day to get acclimated.”

At the start of each class, students would check in with Scott or Stewart and wait for instructions about the course. The students got divided into sections and were sent off to the stoves to get cooking for the day. 

“We start off by pairing [the students] up randomly so that not all the same grade is together; we wanted to try to mix people up,” Stewart said. “Then, we would assign each group a task based on the food that day. For Monday’s breakfast class, one group was on eggs, one on bacon, another on pancakes and one was on plating because cooking is not the only important part; your food has to look and taste good.”

Though the class was meant to fulfill project requirements, there were many more positive outcomes. Students in the cooking class were taught new skills, allowed to ask questions and freely socialize with students in other grades they may not have ever met. 

“We would love to keep this as a club in the spring, but that depends on student interest,” Stewart said. “For now, it is strictly a class for our project, but it would be fun to extend the classes in 2023. The class has been going really well, and the food has tasted really good!”