Sequestered away on the bottom floor of the 500s, the classroom originally designated for Culinary Arts has sat unused for many years but now serves a purpose.
Starting this school year, Tracey Naritomi, a teacher from San Ramon Valley, comes to Monte Vista for seventh period in order to teach Culinary Arts. Having taught Culinary for fifteen years and previously teaching at Monte Vista in 2009, Naritomi is well-versed in teaching students how to cook.
On Monday schedule periods, students are given instruction on what they will be doing for the week. In these preparatory classes, students write recipes, listen to lectures, or create a game plan for their block period lab. These labs are each worth 20 points and are based on criteria previously given to students.
In the beginning of the year, students learn the essentials of sanitation, food safety, and how to read a recipe. Once the fundamentals are covered, students jump into baking cookies and muffins each week. Naritomi said that this is partially to help ease students into elements of cooking, including how to measure ingredients.
In a typical school year, Naritomi’s first semester delves into egg cookery, knife skills, and pie crust-making before concluding the year with a massive gingerbread project. However, as the classroom hasn’t been used in years, the class is progressing a bit slower than normal.
“This has been very difficult getting the kitchen up and running,” Naritomi said. “This place was used as a storage facility, [so] it was loaded with stuff from many years.”
Besides clearing out the classroom and preparing it for teaching, technological and mechanical issues also inhibited the first few weeks of the Culinary class. Not all of the ovens are the same temperature, and the TV screens in the class originally wouldn’t turn on. Luckily, almost all of these issues were fixed during the first quarter, and now the cooking can begin. Naritomi said that many of these issues were fixed by students, and she expressed her gratitude for the class and their ability to help get the course up and running.
“I am very impressed with [these students] and their teamwork,” Naritomi said. “They go above and beyond.”
